Who Is SIRAS

SIRAS, established in 1999 and based in Redmond, WA, is a subsidiary of Nintendo of America Inc. When industry return rates were at a significantly high rate in the early 1990s, the company began its research to develop systematic methods that could effectively regulate returns, and also provide retailers with complementary, easy to use, gate-keeping tools at the store level. The result was a patented business methodology: Point of Sale Electronic Registration. It was so successful that SIRAS was founded to commercially develop the process, and to make it available to major retailers and manufacturers to use across multiple product lines. It is SIRAS’ goal to continue to build on this standard for the benefit of retailers, manufacturers, and consumers.

What Is Electronic Registration

According to industry statistics, product returns cost retailers and manufacturers billions of dollars every year. SIRAS is the first point-of-sale serial number registration program that directly addresses this costly problem, and it is quickly becoming an industry standard. SIRAS’ patented electronic registration system is designed to provide retailers with a method for tracking merchandise to the unique item level, for the primary purpose of streamlining/reducing customer returns, preventing internal/external shrinkage, and validating a product’s warranty entitlement.

SIRAS employs the combination of a product’s UPC number and serial number to establish a product’s unique fingerprint. Because SIRAS’ database only identifies the product, not the customer, it provides the full anonymity that privacy advocates have been insisting upon.

Retailers and manufacturers use Electronic Registration to work together to gain control of escalating returns costs, reclaim lost revenues, and streamline the returns process.

Electronic Registration is used for:

- Reducing returns and increasing net sales/profits
- Applying a return policy equitably – consistent messages
- Assisting customers with lost receipts
- Reducing in-store training
- Facilitating specific return policies to prevent “free rentals”
- Identifying missing accessories
- Avoiding product substitution – “brick in box returns’
- Streamlining the returns reconciliation process
- Automating activation of certain subscription-type products
- Monitoring warranty entitlement
- Curtailing external/internal shrinkage
- Identifying/avoiding “sweetheart returns”
- Identifying returns where rebates/coupons have been redeemed
- Identifying and reducing “return/re-buy” incidents
- Aiding law enforcement investigations
- Facilitating meaningful dialogue between buyers and suppliers via detailed reporting
- Improving responsiveness/service to your customer

Click here for fact sheet about SIRAS Electronic Registration