Since the start of retail, a well versed maxim has been that: ‘good shrink results follow good store managers’. And while some ECR research concludes that the complexities of today’s retail supply chain demand that all stakeholders must be part of the shrink solution, the importance of the store manager and their staff in reducing retail loss remains significant.
To understand the impact staff can have, this ECR research looked to understand the extent to which variations in levels of staff engagement could explain differences in rates of retail loss (waste, out of stocks, unknown shrink and cash loss) and unsurprisingly, the report illustrated strong correlations and some evidence of causality.
The report highlighted the importance of store managers, not least because they play a key role in setting the culture, the standards and provide the store leadership that can really make a difference to levels of staff engagement.