To Count or Not to Count: Understanding the Impact of Inventory Accuracy on Retail Sales and Loss

With a grounding in law enforcement, and extensive experience in a corporate setting as a Security & Asset Protection practitioner in multiple industry sectors, I have had the honour of working for and consulting to leading global brands to design & implement best in class processes, systems and solutions. Having also established a number of start-up enterprises during my career, I have been responsible for assembling & developing talented teams, market penetration and business development in various market sectors. Currently responsible for UK and Europe, my role with Datascan is to enable leading retailers to deploy scalable, cost effective inventory counting solutions that provide real-time data insight across geographically dispersed store portfolio’s. Datascan is the global market leader in terms of Opex “self-scan” inventory counting solutions. The company owns and operates a fleet of over 120 000 scanners that are distributed to clients via Distribution Centers in North America, Europe & Shanghai. The Datascan solution enables retailers to leverage their most valuable assets; namely your staff and your inventory data – both of which hold valuable insight that is often untapped or ignored when the inventory counting process is outsourced. If improving Inventory Record Accuracy to support omni-channel initiatives, improving efficiencies, reducing cost and driving continual improvement is important to you, contact me at david.erasmus@datascan.com

Professor Beck is one of the world’s pre-eminent specialists in the field of retail loss prevention. Advising retailers across the globe, his cutting-edge research regularly provides the retail industry with powerful new insights into how it can better understand, manage and control the significant losses it experiences. By developing critical new thinking, together with innovative management tools and techniques, Professor Beck has radically redefined how companies can grow their profits through selling more and losing less. He is currently the academic advisor to the ECR Community Retail Loss Group and regularly undertakes a range of studies on their behalf to improve awareness and understanding of the problems of loss throughout retail supply chains. Supported by the Retail Industry Leaders Association and the ECR Group, he developed the concept of Total Retail Loss, focussed upon enabling businesses to better understand the overall impact losses can have upon their organisations. He recently completed ground-breaking studies measuring the impact and control of losses associated with self-scan checkouts, the use of Video Technologies in retailing, the scale and extent of trolley push-out thefts, and the potential role of RFID technologies in retailing. Now an Emeritus Professor at the University of Leicester in the UK, where he was one of the founders of the School of Criminology in 1989 and Head of Department, he regularly organises and speaks at conferences and workshops around the world.

Accomplished and Visionary Business leader with extensive operational experience in managing Hardware, Software, Consulting services and System integration businesses. A believer in developing Market lead business strategies and aligning resources to collaborate and execute most effectively as a team.