Reposs - PinPoint Technology

Retail fraud continues to rise across the UK, representing a major hindrance to many businesses' bottom line. Due to this rise, retailers have identified fraud as a major issue to prioritise, in order to protect profitability. There are a number of ways in which retailers are tackling this issue, from CCTV to increased supervision of staff within stores.

According to police taskforce ‘Action Fraud’, employee theft cost businesses £88 million in 2017-18. Smaller businesses aren’t immune either, with newsagents, corner shops and charity shops all being past targets of employee fraud.

In this blog, we talk you through Reposs’ Pinpoint technology, that works together with our EPoS system to monitor till roll data and identifies any suspicious activity or abnormal till use that could be costing your business money.

What is Reposs PinPoint Technology?

Reposs’ PinPoint technology grants shop owners control over their tills, allowing them to conduct audits at any given time, assessing important information such as product changes, cash lifts and voids/refunds.

Pinpoint will automatically identify anomalies on your Reposs EPoS system, allowing you to identify as and when they happen so you know exactly when and what you're looking for on your EPoS system and CCTV.

What if I have CCTV?

With retail fraud in the UK rising, businesses are under increasing pressure to reduce their exposure to fraud. One way of doing this is by installing a CCTV security solution.

However, unless you know a specific time and date of an incident, you need to watch hours of footage to identify an issue. This makes CCTV a time consuming and inefficient method of protection against staff fraud.

Due to your staff's understanding of your store's CCTV system, it's extremely difficult to catch them in the act of committing fraud. They will often hide themselves from view, with their knowledge of blind spots, making it difficult to point the blame at them. 

What about my current EPoS system?

It’s true that your current EPoS system will help you identify whether you have stock or cash missing but ascertaining when it happened is time consuming, similar to that of CCTV.

You would need to employ a mixture of both your EPoS system and CCTV surveillance system to pinpoint fraud taking place at the till.

In addition, some EPoS systems may not provide you with the stock or cash information that you need, making it even harder to uncover employee fraud.

Uncover employee fraud with PinPoint

Research from the Center for Retail Research suggests that theft from staff members accounts for almost 22.1% of UK business shrinkage, the equivalent of £1.3bn. This accounts for one of the largest sources of retail crime costs against UK businesses. 

Staff fraud is so much higher due to the unique nature of the fraud. Employees are in a unique position to benefit from businesses' internal CCTV camera positions, till procedures, and payment procedures - they may even be entrusted to "bank" the money for the business. With this insider information and trust, your staff are able to navigate your established safety procedures. 

If CCTV surveillance and your EPOS system aren't enough on their own to catch employee fraud, what can be done to prevent it?

Reposs PinPoint Technology

Reposs PinPoint automatically monitors your till roll data and identifies any suspicious activity or abnormal till use that could be costing your business money, eliminating the need to review hours of CCTV footage. Get the exact times of unusual transactions and receive automated intuitive email alerts from your till, notifying you of any fraudulent behaviour.

Reposs’ EPoS PinPoint technology can help your business identify employee fraud in the form of altered product prices, voids/refunds, no sales (despite the till being opened), cash lifts, and product changes.

Prices

Employees may attempt to conduct fraud through the alteration of product prices for their own benefit or to benefit accomplices outside of their workplace.

For example, with access to the EPOS system, an employee could change the price of an expensive item to that of an inexpensive item, thus' giving themselves a hefty discount. 

With PinPoint, you can find out when items are sold for less than their average selling price or RRP and be presented with incontrovertible, time stamped proof that you can then present the employee with.

Voids/Refunds

Refund fraud is perhaps one of the most commonly encountered forms of fraud in the retail environment. However, despite often only being associated with customers, it's true that refund fraud can, and is, routinely exploited by employees as well. 

Refund fraud may present itself in a number of different forms. However, the most common forms are: returning already stolen goods for cash or obtaining or falsifying another customer's receipt, and attempting to return the same item not bought by them for profit.

PinPoint keeps track of precisely how many refunds take place, when they happen and the value of the refund in question. This data allows a shop owner to review monthly refunds and perhaps identify a fraud pattern if a particular individual flags up a suspicious amount of times.

Some things to look out for:

- An increase in returns or void transactions, particularly with from one employee

- Refunds for expensive items, or an increase in returns for a particular item

- A reduction in the stock of an item, without the appropriate sales data being recorded to track the sale.

No Sales

Employees often have access to a manual override which will open the till despite a sale not being conducted. If the correct warnings and notices are not in place, it allows an employee to open the till and perhaps withdraw money, without a superior ever being notified.

With PinPoint, the EPoS system will alert a designated individual when the till is being opened without a sale, indicating a potential fraud taking place.

Product Changes

Within the EPoS system, an employee may be able to alter the price of products as they are processed through the till. This would allow an employee to reduce the price of a product for either themselves or a friend.

In order to prevent fraud in this manner, PinPoint will notify the shop-owner or supervisor when an item changes price or stock is adjusted.

Prevent Fraud In Your Shop

Prevent fraud in your shop by adopting our PinPoint technology which automatically monitors your till roll data and identifies any suspicious activity or abnormal till use that could be costing your business money.

For any retailer that employs staff and wants to keep control of their business, PinPoint is the solution.

If you want to learn more about how PinPoint can transform your business, call 01732 762200 or email info@reposs.com. Alternatively, fill out our contact form.