The collaboration between The Reject Shop (TRS) and Auror came about after TRS was considering a solution to some critical crime challenges impacting the safety and profitability of their stores.
The primary objective was to reduce shrinkage, safeguard staff and customers, and improve police engagement with incidents. TRS also sought to empower its Loss Prevention (LP) team to proactively tackle retail crime, specifically focusing on the repeat offenders that were causing the most harm to the business.
Before implementing Auror, TRS’ LP team was managing incidents on an ad hoc basis, with limited visibility of offenders and minimal response from external stakeholders like police. The process was manual, and tracking the effectiveness of loss prevention efforts was difficult. As a result, TRS found it challenging to respond swiftly and effectively to retail crime, leaving gaps in its loss prevention strategy.
TRS uses two solutions on the Auror platform: Intel and Investigate. These tools have proven to be instrumental in enabling the LP team to track incidents, identify offenders and patterns, and gather actionable insights to act more decisively almost immediately after going live on the platform.
The implementation of Auror was thoughtgully planned and managed through a phased nationwide rollout, with a focus on ensuring high engagement from the outset.
The platform was introduced State-by-State, which allowed TRS to monitor the process and ensure that engagement levels were on track. By adopting this measured approach, TRS was able to manage the volume of reports effectively and adjust training or resources as needed, before expanding to the next phase.
The TRS LP team and Auror further ensured the rollout was successful by responding to every report submitted on Auror, and sharing early wins. As a result store teams are highly engaged and enthusiastic about Auror reporting.
The results: The primary measure of success is to continue to reduce shrinkage across TRS stores. In addition, TRS tracks the number of repeat offenders who have been charged, banned, or issued bail conditions, as well as the engagement levels of the LP team.
They have seen substantial improvements, especially in the LP team successfully identifying and taking action against multiple recidivist offenders. These individuals have been banned from TRS stores, charged, and in some cases, have faced bail conditions, which has had a direct impact on the safety and security of the TRS team and customers.
This proactive approach resulted in rapid buy-in, with 80% of stores adopting the new loss prevention strategies within the first 60 days.
Report volumes exceeded expected targets, and the reporting quality is some of the highest seen on Auror. This confirms that teams are actively engaging with the platform and using the data-driven insights to drive meaningful action. This heightened level of engagement has translated into more effective risk management and a greater ability to combat retail crime, even from the early days of going live.
TRS have reshaped their approach to loss prevention, are trialling new initiatives and have hired dedicated team members to execute on their strategy – all based off data in Auror.
TRS and Auror are excited to see where this collaboration takes them in the future, especially as TRS refines and expands its LP strategies. This collaboration has highlighted the importance of a data-driven, proactive approach to addressing retail crime and violence, and has shown the importance of working together to ensure the safety of teams and customers.