Make Data-Driven Decisions For Your Organization

Start a project with our team and apply real science to your asset protection program, technology, and business.

Research Process

Our research follows a process we call the Innovation Chain.

Projects can come to the LPRC at any stage in this chain, and we help take it to the finish line.

Ideate

We start by discussing your organization’s needs, either remotely or through a visit to our NextRetail Research Center. As we brainstorm, a clear direction emerges on how to carry out our research to reach your goals. This step is where we determine what data would help solve the problem at hand.

Simulate

We take this idea and begin implementing the research method necessary. If offender interviews are needed, we bring the technique/technology being studied to our Simulation Lab, where we can rapidly prototype the solution in a controlled virtual/augmented reality environment. This quickly gives us initial data to use moving forward.

Test

We then utilize our Research Lab, which acts as our physical mock store with over 100 solutions, to further test the technique implementation/technology.

Deploy

As we complete our test stage, we apply the technique/technology to an actual retail environment by means of our StoreLabs. These locations make it easy to test how real life scenarios are affected.

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Measure

After our tests, we measure our results and assemble our findings into a report. This report will compile the previous steps — the data we collected, how we analyzed it, and our suggestions moving forward for your organization. You are now ready to make a better informed decision to help prevent theft, fraud, and violence in your organization.

Types of Research

Offender Interviews Randomized Controlled Trials Benchmarking Surveys Quantitative Data Collection

We go hands on with offenders of all experience levels, bringing them on-site in our Simulation Lab, Research Lab, or in a live Store Lab for pointed interviews. The topic of these interviews range from gathering feedback and opinions on a new anti-theft solution to shadowing offenders as they guide us through a specific store to reveal their thought processes. Offenders, above all else, are complex decision-makers, and the knowledge gained from better understanding what drives those decisions is power.

Randomized controlled trials are often referred to as the “gold standard” of research designs. Subjects for experiments are randomly chosen from a population, and randomly assigned into one of two groups, one of which receives a “treatment”, such as a new technology or implementation of a new technique. By randomly choosing which subjects receive the treatment, this allows researchers to statistically control for any possible “confounding factors,” or systematic disparity between these two groups other than the treatment, that may explain differences in outcome between those two groups. Using these designs, researchers are able to assess whether a technology or technique will be successful with high levels of confidence.

One unique opportunity that the LPRC offers its members is a chance to benchmark with their peers in the industry, both through conversation and more formally in survey format. Interested in what others are trying in order to protect a certain product? Wondering if stores with in-aisle ePVMs experience lower shrink? Each year we conduct several dozen surveys answering questions just like these, and those questions come straight from our members.

Unsure of how to best utilize the data that your organization is collecting? We’re here to help. Our Data Analytics Working Group is designed to equip LP professionals with the tools and feedback that they need to tackle their data in a sound and productive manner. Furthermore, as researchers, the more data the better. Each year we initiate large scale data collections where we compile information from several retailers and comb through them for statistically significant relationships and budding potential research initiatives.

Start A Project

Let us conduct a study that will allow your organization to make data-driven decisions.

View Our Research Agenda (Coming Soon)

Learn about the ongoing projects we have this year.

View Agenda (Coming Soon)