Finance is the backbone of Retail Operations and it requires unparalleled attention and scrutiny: from company-level performance metrics and controls to efficient operating model and business processes.
We are deeply conscious of this fact, therefore we offer a wide range of solutions that enable Client’s Finance and Risk functions to ensure corporate performance monitoring and cost-efficient operational.
Fraud in the retail industry generates losses from 1.47% up to 1.58% of companies’ revenues
One of our core strengths is store and finance Fraud Prevention. Indeed, we believe that Fraud Detection is a critical issue and the first step for companies in the retail Industry determined to prevent losses and preserve customer trust. Thus, at Valuement we know that establishing strategies for fraud detection and prevention is crucial. Our track record is what proves the excellence of our Fraud Protection knowledge, Fraud Prevention Solutions, and Fraud Management Services.
Unfortunately, fraud can originate from many different sources: customers or people masquerading as customers, store associates, or external criminals. Nowadays, the most prominent recent frauds have involved fake suppliers, false banking information, and fraudulent merchandise returns.
So, we can see how to finance fraud prevention for retailers is assuming more importance every day, as technology keeps evolving and changing. These particular cases are very much linked to themes like Online Retail Fraud Prevention and Ecommerce Fraud Prevention; in the wide realm of Retail Fraud Prevention Strategy.
Nonetheless, even if times are changing companies in the retail industry can’t forget to keep themselves protected from Financial fraud Cases and to keep aiming for sensible development of fraud prevention strategy in retail lending.
There are some key actions companies can do to continually improve their level of security.
Analyzing transactions and activities such as purchasing, accounts payable, POS, sales projections, warehouse movements, employee shift records, returns, store-level video and audio recordings, and other data can help companies to identify fraudulent activity and develop new and more appropriate priorities for case management and investigation.
Other great aspects to work on, to trigger the steepest growth is Channel Financing, Supply Chain Finance, working capital optimization, and Dynamic Discounting.
Supply Chain Finance (SCF) can be described as the bundle of solutions that allows a company to finance its own Working Capital (credits, debts, reserves) by leveraging its role in the supply chain and on its relationships with the chain’s stakeholders.
As global supply chains stretch across the globe with multinational buyers on one side and a diverse group of suppliers in numerous countries on the other, we know that corporations are under pressure to unlock the working capital trapped in their supply chains. This is why we give so much importance to Supply chain finance, also known as supplier finance or reverse factoring. This face of finance is represented by a set of solutions that optimize cash flow. They do so by allowing businesses to lengthen their payment terms to their suppliers while providing the option for their large and SME suppliers to get paid early.
This results in a win-win situation for the buyer and supplier. The buyer optimizes working capital, and the supplier generates additional operating cash flow, thus minimizing risk across the supply chain.
Dynamic Discount is precisely the technology that enables this win-win approach. Indeed, we can define dynamic discounting benefits all those benefits derived from the possibility to do an advanced payment to the supplier in exchange for a discount on the invoice. More days of advance, more discount on the invoice.
Another fundamental aspect of business where financing has a major impact is Procurement.
Procurement generally involves making buying decisions under conditions of scarcity. If sound data is available, it is good practice to make use of economic analysis methods such as cost-benefit analysis or cost-utility analysis.
Procurement is used to ensure the buyer receives goods, services, or works at the best possible price when aspects such as quality, quantity, time, and location are compared. So, we can see how finance plays a critical role in its management. And how it is time to integrate finance and procurement to attain real long-term competitive advantages.
Procurement involves different strategies and tools that must be understood deeply. For instance, Procure-to-pay is a term used in the software industry to designate a specific subdivision of the procurement process that deals with p2p cycles and the p2p process. A fine-tuned procure to pay strategy is fundamental to enables the integration of the purchasing department with the accounts payable (AP) department.
Some of the largest players of the software industry nowadays agree on a common definition of procure-to-pay, linking the procurement process and financial department.
The steps of the procure to pay lifecycle usually includes:
Unlike source-to-pay systems, Procure to Pay solutions do not include the function of sourcing nor notions of production planning and forecasting since these aspects relate to Supply Chain Management.
