Combating retail stock loss is a management process rather than a technological panacea claims The Retail Tagging Organisation (RTO) – one of the country's leading independent shop theft reduction companies.
RTO managing director Ronnie O'Callaghan told SMT that retailers must understand their stock loss patterns in order to address them strategically rather than placing too much faith in technological wizardry which may not be relevant to their stock theft problem.

"To solve a problem one must first understand it," said O'Callaghan. "Too many retailers don't know how or whereabouts in the supply chain their stock loss is occurring, and what items are vulnerable to organised gangs or opportunist thieves."

O'Callaghan continued: "At the end of the day technology is only as good as those who apply it. If retailers don't properly understand their stock loss problem, they're in real danger of spending more on the supposed solution than they're losing in the first place. It's not wise to place unwarranted faith in random technological solutions."