French Connection has announced the successful roll out of a new fraud monitoring managed service to its stores on both sides of the Atlantic.
The High Street fashion retailer completed the deployment of a new loss alert Service to FCUK - its UK-branded stores - last summer, paving the way for an extension of the technology to cover its US stores too.
The new service uses analytics from SeeWhy Software, integrated with the Retail-J electronic point-of-sale (EPOS) system from Sanderson RBS to analyse expected transactions for each store, cash register and cashier, based on prior and real-time data.
The analytics are used to trigger instant alerts to regional and store-level managers when fraud or abnormal activities are detected, enabling managers to pinpoint the cause of the alert and address issues as they occur and before substantial loss.
French Connection was able to take advantage of the fact that it has been a long-term user of Sanderson RBS' EPOS systems to introduce the fraud alerting functionality without having to carry out further analysis based on historical events.
The EPOS provider hosts all of the hardware and software for the retailer's loss alert system and generates all of the template-driven alerts for a monthly fee.
As a result, French Connection has improved its fraud detection capabilities, avoided costly upfront software fees, and avoided impacting its IT department. The system also enables the retailer to create operational procedures that can be enforced through the use of the system.
"Adding the SeeWhy-powered Loss Alert Service to Retail-J puts a powerful fraud prevention tool in our hands," said Doug Gardner, French Connection's IT manager. "In a short time, we've seen a great reduction in no-sale' and void' transactions key indicators of potential fraud and have been able to implement and enforce other store policies by having better visibility into our transactions and the habits of our cashiers."
