High-End Men’s Clothing Retailer Consolidates Loss Prevention Analytics with Agilence, Savings Hours of Manual Work

About

This high-end Canadian menswear retailer offers a range of high-quality clothing, accessories, and footwear. The brand focuses on providing well-made, stylish options for men, with a mix of international labels and custom tailoring services. Known for its attention to detail and customer-focused approach, the company has built a reputation for helping men find both professional and casual wear that suits their individual style. It operates over 15 stores across Canada, in major cities like Toronto, Vancouver, and Montreal, as well as having a strong e-commerce presence. 

The Challenge

Prior to their adoption of Agilence, the Loss Prevention team relied heavily on manual transaction reviews, spending multiple hours each day reviewing transactions, particularly returns. The process was inefficient and made it difficult to conduct more in-depth investigations. These manual transaction reviews, mixed with the company’s complex sales and returns structure created unexpected opportunities for fraud. 

One of the most persistent and difficult-to-track challenges was commission manipulation, where employees would assign themselves credit for sales they hadn’t made, either by switching advisor names or taking advantage of deferred sales functionality. Using deferred sales, transactions could remain open for weeks or even months, making it difficult to determine who had actually completed the sale and leaving room for abuse. Loyalty program misuse also presented a risk, with limited visibility into how points were being earned or redeemed. Meanwhile, markdown discrepancies required constant oversight, but without centralized data, the team struggled to connect the dots. As a result, fraudulent or suspicious behaviors often went unnoticed until long after the fact. 

Despite having access to reporting tools, the LP team still had to cross-reference multiple systems to validate data, leading to gaps in tracking refund fraud and sales anomalies. The team needed a system that could consolidate this data and provide a unified view of the entire organization, allowing them to identify trends, detect anomalies, and make informed decisions. 

The Solution

To solve these challenges, the company turned to Agilence. They needed a platform that could bring all their data into one place and eliminate the gaps caused by disconnected systems. With Agilence, the LP team could finally consolidate data from multiple sources, giving them a full view of the organization in one place. Instead of chasing data, the team could now focus on identifying patterns and building reports to track specific behaviors. Additionally, by combining previously siloed data into one platform, the loss prevention team was able to identify and begin correcting previously unknown issues including unauthorized markdowns, promotional abuse, and pricing mistakes. 

Another impactful benefit of bringing on Agilence was the ability to automate the daily transaction reviews, which had previously consumed many hours of the team’s time. Agilence’s alert system was set up to automatically detect and alert on high-risk activities, such as refund discrepancies, markdown errors, and commission manipulation. The team also set up alerts to track deferred sales, preventing employees from leaving transactions open indefinitely to game the commission system.  

As Agilence became an essential tool in loss prevention, its benefits started expanding beyond the department. Other departments, including eCommerce and inventory management, saw the value of the insights it provided and began exploring how to use the platform to support their own goals. By offering a unified view of transactions and trends, Agilence helped drive efficiency and visibility across the organization.

The Results

With Agilence in place, the LP team has completely transformed its approach to loss prevention. What was once a slow, manual process became an efficient, automated system that allowed them to focus on higher-value investigations. "Our focus when we went into Agilence was really to improve the efficiency and productivity of the team. Our [prior] process was very tedious and time-consuming, [and] our main goal was to at least reduce the time it took team members to complete a transaction review by at least 10 hours a week," said the Director of Loss Prevention. “We’ve well surpassed that goal and are now able to focus on investigations rather than reviewing individual transactions.” 

One of the biggest wins for the LP team has been the consolidation of data across multiple sources, eliminating the need to cross-reference systems and manually validate reports. Before Agilence, identifying refund discrepancies, commission manipulation, and deferred sales required pulling data from multiple platforms. Now, Agilence provides a single, centralized view of transactional activity, allowing the team to quickly identify inconsistencies and investigate potential fraud with confidence. 

Markdown fraud and promotional abuse, particularly in the outlet division, have also been significantly reduced. Previously, markdowns and promotional pricing errors were difficult to track and often required the LP team to sift through hundreds of transactions after the fact. Agilence’s automated alerts now allow them to proactively monitor markdowns as they happen, flagging unauthorized discounts or pricing mistakes immediately. This has not only reduced financial losses but has also ensured that store teams remain compliant with pricing policies. 

Commission manipulation has also been addressed in a more targeted way. With Agilence, the LP team can now track instances where sales advisors attempt to claim credit for transactions they didn’t complete or where deferred sales are being misused to artificially boost commissions. By closely monitoring these transactions, the company has strengthened the integrity of its commission-based sales model while reinforcing accountability among store teams. 

Looking ahead, the company is focused on expanding Agilence’s impact beyond the LP department. The goal is to integrate additional data streams and extend its use across sales, eCommerce, and inventory management to create a more connected and efficient retail ecosystem. "Right now, we’re looking at areas like loyalty abuse and online returns - patterns and trends we hadn’t been able to track as easily before. Our biggest goal is getting all the data flowing into Agilence so we can use it across more departments," said the Director of Loss Prevention. By refining their approach and increasing visibility into every aspect of the business using Agilence, the retailer is positioning itself to proactively prevent losses, optimize operations, and drive long-term success.