PARIS, FEBRUARY 2018

A snowy Paris greeted the delegates for the February team meeting hosted by SES Imagotag. The agenda included store visits, academic research updates and real world retailer case studies.

Opening the event on Wednesday, the ECR Chair, John Fonteijn, shared an overview of ECR and the 2018 work plan. Emilie from the Institut of Commerce (ECR France) provided an overview of French Retail and a sneak preview of a breakthrough study on OOS. Guillaume then welcomed the group to his company, SES Imagotag, and then the store tours to Darty, Bio, Monoprix, Intermarche, Cora Drive and Monoprix. The day ended with a preview of new research from Prof Adrian Beck on RFID, and the lessons from ten retail case study companies who had rolled out the technology.

The second day started with a presentation of the Available to Purchase study from Tom Gruen and Dan Corsten, that included a discussion on root causes. Following this presentation was early results from a study of eight retailers on Inventory Record Accuracy, the group then on round tables discussed the findings. The next session had an omni-channel theme, with Sally-Ann and Lisa first sharing their research findings to date, including a first draft of a model that begins to break down the true cost of a return. Keith and Orlaith from the Gap, then shared their approach to Digital Loss Prevention and Returns management.

Closing the day was first a session on “what’s hot” where the retailers were tasked with listing their burning hot issues, the ones that keep them awake at night. This was followed by the launch of the ECR Retail Loss Innovation Challenge, a four month search to find the very best new tech ideas that could retailers tackle, in new ways, the burning hot problems they face when managing retail loss. 

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