Establishing a retail loss prevention program for a new business is difficult, but what if you had to hit the ground running with a program to protect more than 240 stores across the country?

Tracey French, corporate LP manager for Columbus, Ohio-based The Limited, faced just that situation when Sun Capital Partners purchased the chain of upscale women’s apparel stores from Limited Brands last summer.

A certified forensic interviewer and retail veteran, French joined Limited Brands in 2003. Following the sale, his immediate challenge became continuing the type and quality of LP functionality at what is now a much smaller organization.

“The first step I took was to develop a road map that detailed goals, how we would measure our progress, define our principles and set clear priorities,” French says. He then identified staff members who would have a direct stake in the shrink and safety results. “We worked to develop these internal relationships into loss prevention standard bearers, folks who would continue the message in the course of their function,” he says.

Next on French’s list was identifying all functions of the new LP department. “As a brand, we are constantly focused on elevating the customer experience, and everything that LP does is required to support that.” The process included extensive benchmarking with Limited Brands, with which The Limited retains a strong relationship, as well as with other Sun Capital companies.

When it came time to select a service provider, “the big issue was not only how could we replicate the service we had received under the previous ownership but how could we utilize the relationship with the service providers to elevate the brand,” French says.

Range of services
The Limited chose LP Innovations (LPI) as its field service provider, primarily due to the range of services LPI could provide and that “we believed that they could meet our needs, not only functionally but culturally.”

Headquartered in Milford, Mass., LP Innovations is the only nationwide single-source provider of loss prevention solutions, according to president and CEO Steven May. Programs include employee theft investigation, best practice auditing, compliance auditing, in-store trainee education, exception-based reporting and analysis as well as targeted programs designed for specific stores that have a serious shrinkage problem.

For The Limited, LPI conducted best-practice audits “with an eye toward coaching and education so that deficiencies were identified but in a manner that showed the stores what they needed to do to comply and why those compliance issues were important,” May says. Also covered were refund fraud and shoplifting, and a fully implemented program was in place within 45 days.

Before the spin-off, store personnel were accustomed to a close relationship with Limited Brands LP associates. To aid the transition, French created a grid showing the LP features and services Limited Brands offered and another to illustrate what The Limited would receive from LPI.

He used the latter grid to demonstrate to field personnel that all key functions would still be covered and emphasize how LPI would fit in. “We were able to create an alignment where each district had one ‘go to’ LP person,” he says. “This has helped develop stronger business relationships.”

The most important function LPI provides to The Limited “is a partnership with the field team,” he says. “We have shrink prevention awareness messaging through LPI and they do our exception-based reporting.”

The transition “was a pretty intensive process,” French says. LPI brought in its team and the LP department at The Limited went over its processes, company culture, how associates are taught, current promotions and how the company conducts business.

The No. 2 person in The Limited’s LP department is a divisional client services manager from LPI, who also acts as a contact for the vendor. He delivers investigations feedback from French to LPI and handles communications about daily incidents and trends.

The Limited continues to use Irvine, Calif.-based The Retail Equation for refund management following the split from Limited Brands. The Verify-1 refund management solution has lowered the company’s return rate by 13 percent, French says.

New projects, pilots
The Limited is piloting a return rewards program that uses a smart coupon issued after a return is completed to offer a 15 percent discount within a set period, encouraging the customer to stay in the store and spend money. French views the return rewards program as a chance to elevate the customer experience and drive top-line sales by providing an incentive to turn returns into exchanges.

One of the most difficult issues for The Limited has been subject matter expertise. French decided to use vendors like iJET for travel intelligence and International SOS for overseas assistance. This expert assistance is vital since the company owns the merchandise design process, from sketchbook to sales floor, and corporate personnel frequently travel overseas.

The Limited recently contracted with LP Innovations to handle LP operations for its design studio in New York City. Up-and-coming projects include experimenting with CCTV-based traffic and performance analytics which will provide more camera coverage for LP. French’s department is also participating in the design and rollout of a new POS system that will provide better security for transactions and is researching source tagging for EAS.

“It’s an exciting time to be with the brand,” he says. “One of our primary questions is, ‘How can we squeeze all the functionality possible out of our capital investments?’”