Paul Chapman, Senior Fellow, Saïd Business School, University of Oxford, Vice President, Association for Project Management

The ECR Retail Loss Group is the preeminent research-into-action group in the retail sector internationally, and it has been my professional pleasure to be associated with it since the year 2000. The group has been unflinching in its driving purpose of reducing retail loss, which is a mission that has united shoppers, retailers, manufactures and service providers. The group is served well by its international composition with contributing members from across Europe and also beyond which also means it looks independently and objectively at retail loss challenges and solutions for the greater good of the retail sector. The generosity of the group’s members in sharing their experience and practitioner insights is matched by their commitment to evidence led research to look beyond the gloss and hype to establish what solutions work in practice. This means the ECR Retail Loss Group is uniquely placed to track changes in retail practice, such as the move to on-line and adoption of new in-store technologies, to respond to emerging loss threats and to act to pilot, research and support the rollout of new loss prevention approaches and technologies.