We increasingly hear our clients having issues related to theft and fraud. According to an article published by Jönköpings Posten (read more here), criminal networks have strategically managed to place people “inside” e-commerce warehouses. Unfortunately, this opens up a multitude of opportunities for those with criminal intentions.
It is only when you start checking the inventory of, say padel rackets or branded clothing, that you realise that something is amiss. And by then, it’s already too late. The damage has already been done, and despite any suspicions, you need a great deal of evidence before plucking up the courage to accuse someone. Even more so if part of your staff is agency staff and you have even less control of who is on the floor on a daily basis. Meanwhile, these write-offs can reach extreme numbers before the issue is resolved.
This type of situation is perfect when you need to illustrate the answer to questions like: “But why would we need all this data?”.
By keeping your master data updated and fresh, you can check the weight of every outgoing package and ensure that the weight matches the target value of the outgoing items’ data.
This data can in turn prevent theft by immediately flagging when, for instance, a pair of gloves, goes through DWS and the value says three and a half kilos, which lets you know something is wrong and the package is rejected to be checked again.
For increased control, we are able to photograph each order, both before and after being sealed, to further help your customer service become more efficient as well as more professional.
You would think that controlled WMS scans should be enough, but there is nothing that currently prevents someone from scanning A but picking B, plus four items of C.
By checking the package weight as a final check before shipping, is by far the most effective way to ensure that everything is in order.
Absolutely. But instead of getting “creative” on a shelf up on the mezzanine in a dark corner of the building, you now have to:
Climb/Open a cage
Open up the package again, preferably without leaving any trace.
Fill the package with more stuff (there should be no air if the right packaging was used).
Seal and place the package back in the cage.
If you manage to do all this without being detected, I’ll be the first to applaud.
