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By Matt Pillar, Editor In Chief

The National Shrink Database is poised to help retailers determine which LP solution investments will have the most impact on reducing shrink.

Loss prevention solution providers LP Innovations and CAP Index have created a free tool called The National Shrink Database (NSD), and it has the potential to deliver big value to retail professionals concerned about loss prevention.

The NSD is populated by a rapidly-growing, nationwide group of retailers representing more than 30,431 stores. These retailers commit to sharing their store-specific shrink figures and profiles of their individual store security footprints on a regular basis. An analytics tool processes this information and produces benchmark reports that assess segment- and geography-specific efficacy of eighteen standard security measures.

I just accessed the database and saw up-to-the-minute stats on three of these eighteen standard security measures. The report indicates that 74% of retailers are using alarm systems, 54.6% are using EAS (electronic article surveillance), and 37.9% are using CCTV (close circuit television). Then I drilled down into a specific retail segment, where at 5.46% of sales shrink is more than twice the industry average of 2.15%. There, I saw that only 13% are using CCTV systems, 38% are using alarms, and zero participating jewelers are using EAS. This is just the surface level of analysis the NSD enables.

As a member of the NSD, you'll have access to a complete profile of security measures deployed by the best, average, and worst performing stores — specific to your segment if you wish — at the national, regional, and local levels. A clean graphical user interface allows you to drill down on data at the zip-code and 1-mile radius levels. This data can help you compare the performance of your stores to that of your peers, analyze the security factors that lead to success or failure in your segment and region, and in turn help develop best practices for your store security footprints. It can also aid you in the improvement of budgeting and resource allocation for new store openings and relocations.

CAP Index and LP Innovations invested the energy and capital in the development of the NSD to facilitate information sharing and benchmarking, while assuring the confidentiality of sensitive information. Users have no means of identifying member-specific data, as reporting specificity is limited to your stores, or aggregate information on your segments and geographies. The NSD is currently accepting new members, and membership costs nothing but your data. If you'd like access to the data but would rather not contribute your own, you can opt to pay a per-seat licensing fee for usage of the database.

Get in touch with Dave Johnston at LP Innovations (djohnston@lpinnovations.com) or visit www.nationalshrinkdatabase.com if you'd like more information on the NSD.