The risks of retail loss, colleague and shopper safety, break ins, burglaries, etc are not evenly spread, some retail and distribution locations are simply "hotter" than others. In this session, Adrian and Walter shared the framework that retailers can start to think about when designing risk models. This was followed by a presentation of how risk models are being used in a real world environment, Meijer Stores, to determine the allocation of people, opening times and range choices.

The open discussion covered the extent to which retailers are using [or not] risk models, a debate on whether to build a model internally or leverage a third party, or both. The debate also covered the detail on the methodology choices, the cultural aspects on how to move past emotion and gut to data, and then the statistical reliability of the models themselves, and how they can remain robust.

This session was one of the monthly retailer, producer and academic only working group discussions. If you would like a recording of this session, apply below. If you would like to join a future session click here to read more about the next session, and the launch of a new study on RFID.