Key takeaways from Auror Connect ‘23

Auror Connect is the virtual event that brings together our brilliant global community, so they can discover, be empowered, and connect with the best AP/LP teams around the world.

Between fireside chats with leading AP/LP practitioners, product updates, and Supreme Hero Awards, there was a lot to unpack, learn, and applaud at Auror Connect ‘23.

Here are some of the key learnings from this year’s event.

‍Visibility and early prevention changes the game

‍When one of the speakers found out that in their organization just 10% of people offending are responsible for 94% of loss at stores, they were floored. They had been using Auror’s Retail Crime Intelligence platform for over two years and had collected information on over 1 million events during that time.

That data revealed the true extent of the crimes taking place, which was something they were never able to see before. Not only has this allowed them to direct concerted efforts and resources towards targeting that 10% with exceptional results, but it’s paved the way to have better conversations about the impact of retail crime with leadership across the company.

“No customer benefits from a broad-brush approach to loss prevention,” they told the audience. “When you are surgical about it and approach it in the right way, you…do it in the best way where the customer doesn’t notice it, but your thief is terrified of it.”

Another speaker’s organization had been using Auror for less than a year and so far it has been “nothing but successful.”

As a result of the data gathered in the platform so far, they have seen that 10% of people who offend are responsible for 75% of the organization’s loss. This has led to better conversations with leadership, better conversations with procurement around packaging and merchandising protection, and a dedicated team focused on that 10% of people offending — something they never had before because they didn’t know it was a problem.

This organization is also Auror’s first North American retail partner to start using Automatic License Plate Recognition (ALPR). While it’s early days yet, there have already been cases where ALPR has helped to improve safety for teams through timely alerts and intel.

‍The future of Auror’s platform is being shaped by AI and intelligent networks‍

None of these insights would be possible without the work of Auror’s talented Product team in developing, and continuing to innovate, the Auror platform. Vice President of Product Tanya Johnson briefed the audience on some innovations and future plans aimed at reducing crime, harm, and loss even faster.

These innovations focused on connecting the dots and there were some incredible findings:

Suggested merges of people profiles from comments

‍In the last six months, over 8500 comments were identified as suggested merges and 75% of those were accepted by users reviewing the suggestions. Through merging profiles of people, links were made between 50,000 events worth almost $17M.

‍Algorithm-suggested merges of profiles

‍In the same amount of time, the system generated over 17,000 merge suggestions, merging profiles linked to more than 30,000 events with a total of $8M.

At the time of Auror Connect, the Product team was set to launch beta testing of linking incidents using images. Like with the other types of suggested merges, results will be surfaced for the right users to review and accept, or decline. They can view and compare images, as well as details such as age, appearance, gender, height, where they are active, known accomplices, and products they are known to target.

Next steps will involve continuing to add more layers on to the machine learning capabilities. This will include more descriptions like clothing, modus operandi, behavior, and more. Eventually, the plan is to shift to neural networks — where computers are taught to process data like the human brain — to transform the data and uncover more connections.

Keeping Connected

Auror Connect is exclusively organized and held for our global community. If you’re interested in joining the movement against retail crime, don’t hesitate to get in touch. And stay updated on the latest news and insights across Retail Crime Intelligence by subscribing to The Intel newsletter.