Retailers Address Asset Protection Challenges of Mobile POS Technology with Risk Assessment Matrix

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John Aloysius and Viswanath Venkatesh

The Retail Industry Leaders Association, in partnership with the University of Arkansas Sam M. Walton College of Business and with support from Checkpoint Systems and Ernst & Young, released a study that identifies the asset protection challenges presented by emerging mobile point of sale technologies and establishes a risk assessment matrix to help retailers adapt current practices to meet future needs. 

The study identifies the challenges that emerging mobile point of sale systems present at each stage of the retail transaction: scanning, payment and validation; from five perspectives: technology, employee, retailers/store, product and customer. The study found that like the systems themselves, solutions to the asset protection challenges posed by mobile point of sale will be highly individualized and tailored to each retail business. As a result, the risk assessment matrix provides retailers with a framework through which to approach solutions uniquely suited to their business and customers.

"The exploding use of mobile technology presents retailers with many challenges and opportunities. This study was designed to help asset protection professionals stay ahead of the curve by helping them identify threats unique to their business and to develop tailored strategies to address them now," said Lisa LaBruno Esq., senior vice president, retail operations, for the Retail Industry Leaders Association.

"The study was an opportunity to examine an emerging issue impacting the retail industry and to better understand how we can focus our innovation efforts to respond to these challenges," Farrokh Abadi, president and chief operating officer, Merchandise Availability Solutions, Checkpoint Systems, said. "It is exciting for Checkpoint to be a part of this process and provide retailers who are embracing innovation the information necessary to develop asset protection strategies that help them sell more and lose less."

"Innovation is constantly reshaping the retail industry and it is important to provide businesses with the information they need to address the challenges associated with it," said Dan Valerio, Ernst & Young's Americas director of the Retail Sector. "The matrix developed from this study provides our clients and other retailers with the foundation necessary to assess their individual risks and develop informed asset protection strategies to address them as they continue to embrace innovation."

The study, commissioned by RILA's Asset Protection Leaders Council was conducted by Walton College researchers John Aloysius and Viswanath Venkatesh.  Aloysius is a faculty member of the College of Business' Supply Chain Department and Venkatesh is a Distinguished Professor and George and Boyce Billingsley Chair in Information Systems, also in the College of Business.

The Retail Industry Leaders Association is the trade association of the world's largest and most innovative retail companies. Members include more than 200 retailers, product manufacturers, and service suppliers, which together account for more than $1.5 trillion in annual sales, millions of American jobs and more than 100,000 stores, manufacturing facilities and distribution centers domestically and abroad.