Global Retail Crime Summit ANZ: Connect, discover, and learn

Auror’s Global Retail Crime Summit (GRCS) events in Australia and New Zealand saw Asset Protection/Loss Prevention (AP/LP) practitioners across the region gather to connect and learn with each other. It was the perfect opportunity to also celebrate wins through the Regional Supreme Hero Awards, which recognize the exceptional achievements made by each of our communities around the world.

These were the first in-person Auror events held for our community since the start of the global pandemic, making it a special experience for everyone involved.

Here were some of the key highlights and takeaways from 2022’s GRCS events.

Auror product updates

The events opened with product updates and insight from Auror Chief Strategy Officer Tom Batterbury. He shared some incredible statistics around the platform’s growth over the last two years, including how more than 48,000 retail stores use Auror as of October 2022. Back in October 2020, this number was just over 5,200!

He shared Auror’s aspirations and what underpins our approach to developing our product, where our ideas for innovation come from, and the streams our product team works in to best reach our goal of being the solution to crime for retailers.

Did you know we’ve had over 3,000 ideas logged in our product board over the past three years? That’s an average of 85 suggestions a month – enough to keep our product team on its toes!

An important and exciting aspect of our product journey is our Retail Crime Intelligence Hub – our connected ecosystem and our mission to be the hub for all crime intel. We believe it’ll change the way AP/LP leaders and practitioners work, improving efficiency and effectiveness, and helping to reduce more crime and loss than ever before.

Sharing knowledge and learnings from Auror partners

One of the greatest things about bringing our community together is the opportunity to connect with and learn from each other. A few of our partners spoke at the events about how they’re addressing new and emerging challenges in AP/LP. Here are summaries of just a selection of those conversations.

Officeworks on buy-in, engagement, and upskilling

Officeworks is an Australian office supplies brand that has a small, dedicated store-based loss prevention team. Their Regional Loss Prevention Manager Andrew Wolf shared how the team stays motivated to report and engage by sharing their successes to the company’s wider LP team. They have started exploring a champion program with Auror, where together we recognize individuals and stores that go above and beyond to create real impact in crime prevention.

Andrew told the audience how powerful notifications can be for prevention and awareness, and how Officeworks is exploring customized notifications for each team member for the future.

Being an LP influencer with Debbie Perano from Bunnings

Debbie’s lightning talk at the GRCS Australia event was all about driving engagement and getting buy-in to LP from all corners of the business. Bunnings is an Australian hardware chain and one of the region’s largest retailers.

She talked about the importance of actively engaging your frontline LP teams that are based in stores. Not only that, why they need to be given the right tools to identify potential loss events and the actions they can take to stop them from happening.

As an example of how her team has gained buy-in and engagement, Debbie shared their “Be the Best Witness” campaign, which aims to share the great work of frontline teams in preventing crimes.

“Adapt, survive, and thrive” panel at GRCS NZ

This panel featured speakers from New Zealand retailers and Police, and looked at how they are adapting and thriving in the face of industry challenges. These challenges include increasing retail crime, a tight labor market, cost pressures, and opportunities presented from new technology in the LP space.

The key takeaway from this panel discussion was that everyone across the retail industry was experiencing similar challenges. How do we move forward and address them? By talking about them, working together, and exploring different technology solutions.

Celebrating the wins

After a few years of not being able to celebrate in-person for the work our community does, announcing 2022’s Supreme Hero Awards was a highly anticipated part of the events. 

Auror Chief Customer Officer Rhod Thomas says it’s incredibly important to take the time to celebrate our community.

“A lot of our retailers have got some of the hardest jobs. [Loss prevention] is often an under-looked part of the retail industry and it has such a big impact on safety, as well as helping to protect profits and assets for retailers.”

Here are 2022’s winners:

Retail Newcomer of the Year

Australia: Drakes Supermarket | New Zealand: Kmart

Supreme Retailer of the Year

Australia: Bunnings | New Zealand: The Warehouse Group

Loss Prevention Hero of the Year

Australia: Danny El Helou, Woolworths | New Zealand: Mike Hulme, The Warehouse Group

Auror Champion:

Australia: Paul Grosvenor, Big W | New Zealand: Pania Tapara, Farmers 

Impact in Loss Prevention:

Australia: Kerryn Russel, Kmart | New Zealand: Emma Magee, Kmart

Congratulations to all our Supreme Heroes this year, but most of all a huge thank you to every member of our community for the work you do.

That wraps up our summary of 2022’s GRCS events in Australia and New Zealand. Join our community if you would like to be a part of our next events – we would love to see you!