The Retail Equation Unveils Verify-3 Return Authorization

Incorporates Geographic Risk Index (GRID) to Provide a Better Customer Experience; Faster, Sharper Impact on Return Rate and Shrink

The Retail Equation, the industry leader in retail transaction optimization solutions, recently announced the launch of Verify-3 Return Authorization, which enhances a retailer’s ability to provide fair and friendly customer service, while protecting against the risk of fraud and shrink at the point-of-return. The new version expands upon The Retail Equation’s Verify-2 with the addition of the patent-pending Geographic Risk Index (GRID), incorporating geography-based, retail industry analytics and risk metrics into the Verify return authorization solution. This unique set of scores is added into the existing consumer behavior-based predictive models of Verify in order to improve the customer’s overall in-store experience.

“We developed the Geographic Risk Index to allow the broad scope of our retail knowledge to help each of our clients,” said Mark Hammond, CEO of The Retail Equation. “With Verify-3, we have enhanced the previous solution and created an effective and easy means of validating the integrity of every return with improved precision and objective, verifiable data. This is especially important as merchandise returns now total more than $264 billion in lost sales for U.S. retailers”

To create the GRID score, The Retail Equation developed a proprietary database of ZIP code-level purchase, return and shrink statistics to allow its retail clients to more effectively leverage its collective expertise of benchmarks and trends.  This helps to calculate the likelihood of fraud and profitability within 10 miles of a given store. The creation of the innovative GRID score is similar to crime forecasting scores and assists retailers in distinguishing consumer behavior more quickly, optimizing net sales and reducing return rates and shrink, while more rapidly increasing return on investment.

About The Retail Equation
The Retail Equation, headquartered in Irvine, Calif., optimizes retailers’ revenue and margin by shaping behavior in every customer transaction. The company’s solutions use predictive analytics to turn each individual shopper visit into a more profitable experience. This yields immediate financial payback, increasing store comps by as much as two percent, with significant return on investment. The Software-as-a-Service applications operate in more than 27,000 stores in North America, supporting a diverse retail base of specialty apparel, footwear, hard goods, department, big box, auto parts and more. For more information, visit www.theretailequation.com.