LOSS PREVENTION CALCULATOR HELPS RETAILERS KNOW THEIR RETURN ON INVESTMENT!
ML Blog 08
Loss Prevention Calculator-3
Loss Prevention ROI Calculator-3
Ever wonder how much your store’s action plan or programs are really saving you? There are MANY plans that look great on paper, but it’s hard to determine exactly how much influence these plans have on the raw numbers. We can guess, but how much is a guess really worth when it has to do with your profit? In Loss Prevention, it’s difficult to weigh the return on investment against how many people steal or commit various types of fraud. Dollar amounts in theft have always been hard to configure. That has always been a struggle for Loss Prevention Managers to clearly present exact numbers to our stores. We see the thefts, we know it’s such a common occurrence, and we estimate the amount of loss based on that all together as a whole. However, even when adding together apprehensions and known theft packages found, there are still a ton of people getting away with merchandise that we didn’t see and can’t accurately quantify. It’s hard putting a number together, especially when we did not have a Loss Prevention ROI Calculator in the past to help us with calculating our return on investment. We would place an order for merchandise protection devices to help prevent losses, but even with that it’s still difficult to measure the true bottom line. It’s difficult to explain to your store team that I need to order 500.00 worth of merchandise protection devices when the budget may be jam packed with equally important expenditures this month. The team will want to know how going over budget will benefit the store, this month and annually. How can we measure how to gain profit by ordering the necessary loss prevention tools? With the Loss Prevention Calculator, you can actually calculate your return on investment easily without fluff.
As a Loss Prevention Manager, I get a lot of push back from store managers on how much I should spend on my Loss Prevention supplies. With the P&Ls coming out each month showing the expenses for the entire store, the budget is usually tight for the Loss Prevention department. I always get the question “What’s the return on investment if I say yes to this?!” In the past, I would go over what is going on in that department, things I’m noticing, and tell them why I believed we need it. It was through discussions we would come up with our action plans, rather than having a Loss Prevention ROI Calculator help us truly know. It would include a lot of great activity and information from what I’ve seen, but dollars we would get back were difficult for me calculate with a great degree of accuracy. In the past, I didn’t have a Loss Prevention Calculator to aid me in this process, but we certainly wish we did. I had no idea this was a free device readily available for retailers to utilize. This would have been extremely helping when trying to show what we need to get in order to reduce shrink in our store. My store manager liked how user friendly it is and helps you see clearer when determining the ROI for what you want to implement in your store. There is no more “I think this will help us”, but now “This is the amount of dollars we will get back from this sub department”. No more throwing numbers out that we hope are close based on observations and loose estimates. You will be able to figure out how long until that investment turns into straight profit, which is exactly what programs in our stores are supposed to accomplish.
Don’t wait like my store did before utilizing the Loss Prevention Calculator. No more scratching your head, while making a decision if the plan is worth the investment. Make life easier with this incredible Loss Prevention ROI Calculator, which is available to retailers now.
Need information on the Loss Prevention Calculator? Give us a call at 1.770.426.0547 now.
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Ever wonder how much your store’s action plan or programs are really saving you? There are MANY plans that look great on paper, but it’s hard to determine exactly how much influence these plans have on the raw numbers. We can guess, but how much is a guess really worth when it has to do with your profit? In Loss Prevention, it’s difficult to weigh the return on investment against how many people steal or commit various types of fraud. Dollar amounts in theft have always been hard to configure. That has always been a struggle for Loss Prevention Managers to clearly present exact numbers to our stores. We see the thefts, we know it’s such a common occurrence, and we estimate the amount of loss based on that all together as a whole. However, even when adding together apprehensions and known theft packages found, there are still a ton of people getting away with merchandise that we didn’t see and can’t accurately quantify. It’s hard putting a number together, especially when we did not have a Loss Prevention ROI Calculator in the past to help us with calculating our return on investment. We would place an order for merchandise protection devices to help prevent losses, but even with that it’s still difficult to measure the true bottom line. It’s difficult to explain to your store team that I need to order 500.00 worth of merchandise protection devices when the budget may be jam packed with equally important expenditures this month. The team will want to know how going over budget will benefit the store, this month and annually. How can we measure how to gain profit by ordering the necessary loss prevention tools? With the Loss Prevention Calculator, you can actually calculate your return on investment easily without fluff.
As a Loss Prevention Manager, I get a lot of push back from store managers on how much I should spend on my Loss Prevention supplies. With the P&Ls coming out each month showing the expenses for the entire store, the budget is usually tight for the Loss Prevention department. I always get the question “What’s the return on investment if I say yes to this?!” In the past, I would go over what is going on in that department, things I’m noticing, and tell them why I believed we need it. It was through discussions we would come up with our action plans, rather than having a Loss Prevention ROI Calculator help us truly know. It would include a lot of great activity and information from what I’ve seen, but dollars we would get back were difficult for me calculate with a great degree of accuracy. In the past, I didn’t have a Loss Prevention Calculator to aid me in this process, but we certainly wish we did. I had no idea this was a free device readily available for retailers to utilize. This would have been extremely helping when trying to show what we need to get in order to reduce shrink in our store. My store manager liked how user friendly it is and helps you see clearer when determining the ROI for what you want to implement in your store. There is no more “I think this will help us”, but now “This is the amount of dollars we will get back from this sub department”. No more throwing numbers out that we hope are close based on observations and loose estimates. You will be able to figure out how long until that investment turns into straight profit, which is exactly what programs in our stores are supposed to accomplish.
Don’t wait like my store did before utilizing the Loss Prevention Calculator. No more scratching your head, while making a decision if the plan is worth the investment. Make life easier with this incredible Loss Prevention ROI Calculator, which is available to retailers now.
Need information on the Loss Prevention Calculator? Give us a call at 1.770.426.0547 now. .
10 OF THE BEST USES FOR ALPHA SPIDER WRAPS
When it comes to the cream of the crop of security devices aimed to Prevent Shoplifting, the Alpha Spider Wrap is the top dog in my book. Generally reserved for the most expensive items in your store, the flexibility and ease of use make this my go-to tag for high ticket items. I’ve put some thought into some of the best uses for these tags and I thought I’d share them with you today. Here is what I think gets you the best ROI when using this style of tag.
Televisions
This is a no-brainer. This is a category that you need to get in front of your customers in an open sell environment, but you don’t want them walking out the door. An Alpha Spider Wrap on your boxed product can and will discourage and nearly prevent this from happening.
Speakers
From high end wired speakers to the newest portable Bluetooth speaker, these are hot right now. We need to capture these sales, while striving to Prevent Shoplifting can pose a bit of a merchandising issue. Use this style tag here and don’t fret about an open-sell concept.
Laptops
I know some of you just cringed a bit, since we probably always secure these under lock and key (and that’s alright!). However, there are some very inexpensive lines out there, and if you’re selling in bulk, it’s best to get them easily in the hands of your customers. The trusty Alpha Spider Wrap let you do just that.
Streaming devices
I love my steaming device. Problem is, so do the thieves. There’s a huge re-sell market for these, which makes them an incredibly hot target for your not-so-honest customers. Since most of them come in a box, or other square packaging, they are perfect candidates for an Alpha Spider Wrap.
Electric Toothbrushes
Let your customer’s clean their teeth, not clean you out! Like several other items on my list, there exists a large market to resell these items, which make them a constant target for thieves. Honestly, have you looked at some of the prices in this category? It’s like a mini-dentist bill! With prices that can easily soar into the several-hundreds, it’s easy to see why you have to Prevent Shoplifting. While these are a good candidate for a glass case, we all know that items sell much better when our customers can grab em’ and go without having to find an employee for help.
There are dozens and dozens more items that an Alpha Spider Wrap would pair perfectly with; and I can probably make a list of 100 (maybe I’ll do that one day). I make these lists to bring awareness to products that are often overlooked in our physical security strategies. I hope this helps to bring some of that awareness to you and your team, but also gets you thinking about the specific losses you incur in your own store. What other items can you better secure?
Get more information on Alpha Spider Wrap, contact us or call 1.770.426.0547 today.
When it comes to the cream of the crop of security devices aimed to Prevent Shoplifting, the Alpha Spider Wrap is the top dog in my book. Generally reserved for the most expensive items in your store, the flexibility and ease of use make this my go-to tag for high ticket items. I’ve put some thought into some of the best uses for these tags and I thought I’d share them with you today. Here is what I think gets you the best ROI when using this style of tag.
Televisions
This is a no-brainer. This is a category that you need to get in front of your customers in an open sell environment, but you don’t want them walking out the door. An Alpha Spider Wrap on your boxed product can and will discourage and nearly prevent this from happening.
Speakers
From high end wired speakers to the newest portable Bluetooth speaker, these are hot right now. We need to capture these sales, while striving to Prevent Shoplifting can pose a bit of a merchandising issue. Use this style tag here and don’t fret about an open-sell concept.
Laptops
I know some of you just cringed a bit, since we probably always secure these under lock and key (and that’s alright!). However, there are some very inexpensive lines out there, and if you’re selling in bulk, it’s best to get them easily in the hands of your customers. The trusty Alpha Spider Wrap let you do just that.
Streaming devices
I love my steaming device. Problem is, so do the thieves. There’s a huge re-sell market for these, which makes them an incredibly hot target for your not-so-honest customers. Since most of them come in a box, or other square packaging, they are perfect candidates for an Alpha Spider Wrap.
Electric Toothbrushes
Let your customer’s clean their teeth, not clean you out! Like several other items on my list, there exists a large market to resell these items, which make them a constant target for thieves. Honestly, have you looked at some of the prices in this category? It’s like a mini-dentist bill! With prices that can easily soar into the several-hundreds, it’s easy to see why you have to Prevent Shoplifting. While these are a good candidate for a glass case, we all know that items sell much better when our customers can grab em’ and go without having to find an employee for help.
There are dozens and dozens more items that an Alpha Spider Wrap would pair perfectly with; and I can probably make a list of 100 (maybe I’ll do that one day). I make these lists to bring awareness to products that are often overlooked in our physical security strategies. I hope this helps to bring some of that awareness to you and your team, but also gets you thinking about the specific losses you incur in your own store. What other items can you better secure?
Get more information on Alpha Spider Wrap, contact us or call 1.770.426.0547 today.
Retail Theft Prevention-3 WC Blog 363
Checkpoint Security System-3
Being Cheap In The Short Term Can Hurt Retail Theft Prevention In The Long Term
Over the past 6 months one of the two vehicles my wife and I own had started making some very disturbing noises. It was purchased as a used vehicle but because the price seemed right at the time I did not take time to look at vehicle reviews or do any research on this particular make and model. I did not bother with an extended warranty either which would have cost me an additional $2,000. As the problems persisted and got worse, I went online and started to look at reputable websites and consumer reviews. Low and behold, many other owners reported similar problems with the transmissions on this year and model of car. Stupid me, I should have done the research in advance, even when the deal seemed good to me. How many times do retailers make similar short sighted decisions? The cheap way may seem to be the most cost effective, but is that necessarily true? Does it make sense when operating a store to try to save money by not spending any on retail theft prevention measures? How many times do stores reduce payroll in an effort to save money? How much research is done prior to making these types of decisions? What may seem like a great way to reduce expenditures may actually cost money in the future.
Retail theft prevention comes in many forms, from installing closed circuit television (CCTV), installing a Checkpoint security system with electronic article surveillance technology and even staffing a store with enough people to provide ample customer service. It also includes the proper training of staff on how to detect and deter shoplifting while still promoting customer service. Sometimes theft prevention includes hiring professional Retail Loss Prevention Associates who can conduct receipt checks at doors or catch and prosecute shoplifters. Different strategies require different levels of investment and levels of commitment. The amount to invest in retail theft prevention is an individual choice and has to be balanced with the annual sales for the store and how much merchandise shortage will be an “acceptable” level of loss. Bear in mind that merchandise shortage includes shoplifting, dishonest employee activity, vendor shortage and administrative shortage with shoplifting and employee theft accounting for about 80% of all losses.
So what happens when a store owner decides on a means of merchandise protection? What kind of assumptions come into play in the decision? Obviously cost is the first thing that is going to be considered. What will it cost me to install cctv or a Checkpoint Security System? How many people do I hire to properly meet the needs of my customers, ring sales, stock freight and do I include Loss Prevention staff? All of these are important considerations, a children’s gently used clothing store probably does not need the same amount of security or staffing as a jewelry store would need. This does not mean theft will not occur it will be a difference in the cost of each loss and what it will take to recoup the loss. Unfortunately, what often happens when sales stagnate or shrinkage begins to impact profits, rather than look at the root causes of those issues, owners and managers begin to look for ways to reduce expenses. If they use Checkpoint Systems they may reduce the number of sku’s they protect by tagging fewer items. I have seen companies that have Loss Prevention staff reduce the hours and the number of people in those departments, at the cost of increased theft. Then there are the sales floor associate hours that are trimmed. Sure, it seems like it will save money, but if your merchandise protection strategy includes customer service to deter theft (and drive sales) trimming those hours hurts a company twice.
Being careful when looking at expenses only makes sense. No business can last long if money isn’t being spent wisely. On the other side of that coin, when sales start to flag, a company needs to look at all of the factors that may be contributing to the problem. Has a new policy been implemented? Is the weather played a part? Are merchandise lines being discontinued that were popular? When was the last time a new sales display or endcap set up? There are many things that can impact sales and cutting corners to save a few dollars may wind up costing you more in the long run. Before you start cutting things such as staff hours, Checkpoint Security System budgeting, or even reducing store hours, make sure you look at the big picture. Sometimes it is easier to look at the quick fixes rather than analyzing the external influences.
Get more information on Retail Theft Prevention, contact us or call 1.770.426.0547 today.
Over the past 6 months one of the two vehicles my wife and I own had started making some very disturbing noises. It was purchased as a used vehicle but because the price seemed right at the time I did not take time to look at vehicle reviews or do any research on this particular make and model. I did not bother with an extended warranty either which would have cost me an additional $2,000. As the problems persisted and got worse, I went online and started to look at reputable websites and consumer reviews. Low and behold, many other owners reported similar problems with the transmissions on this year and model of car. Stupid me, I should have done the research in advance, even when the deal seemed good to me. How many times do retailers make similar short sighted decisions? The cheap way may seem to be the most cost effective, but is that necessarily true? Does it make sense when operating a store to try to save money by not spending any on retail theft prevention measures? How many times do stores reduce payroll in an effort to save money? How much research is done prior to making these types of decisions? What may seem like a great way to reduce expenditures may actually cost money in the future.
Retail theft prevention comes in many forms, from installing closed circuit television (CCTV), installing a Checkpoint security system with electronic article surveillance technology and even staffing a store with enough people to provide ample customer service. It also includes the proper training of staff on how to detect and deter shoplifting while still promoting customer service. Sometimes theft prevention includes hiring professional Retail Loss Prevention Associates who can conduct receipt checks at doors or catch and prosecute shoplifters. Different strategies require different levels of investment and levels of commitment. The amount to invest in retail theft prevention is an individual choice and has to be balanced with the annual sales for the store and how much merchandise shortage will be an “acceptable” level of loss. Bear in mind that merchandise shortage includes shoplifting, dishonest employee activity, vendor shortage and administrative shortage with shoplifting and employee theft accounting for about 80% of all losses.
So what happens when a store owner decides on a means of merchandise protection? What kind of assumptions come into play in the decision? Obviously cost is the first thing that is going to be considered. What will it cost me to install cctv or a Checkpoint Security System? How many people do I hire to properly meet the needs of my customers, ring sales, stock freight and do I include Loss Prevention staff? All of these are important considerations, a children’s gently used clothing store probably does not need the same amount of security or staffing as a jewelry store would need. This does not mean theft will not occur it will be a difference in the cost of each loss and what it will take to recoup the loss. Unfortunately, what often happens when sales stagnate or shrinkage begins to impact profits, rather than look at the root causes of those issues, owners and managers begin to look for ways to reduce expenses. If they use Checkpoint Systems they may reduce the number of sku’s they protect by tagging fewer items. I have seen companies that have Loss Prevention staff reduce the hours and the number of people in those departments, at the cost of increased theft. Then there are the sales floor associate hours that are trimmed. Sure, it seems like it will save money, but if your merchandise protection strategy includes customer service to deter theft (and drive sales) trimming those hours hurts a company twice.
Being careful when looking at expenses only makes sense. No business can last long if money isn’t being spent wisely. On the other side of that coin, when sales start to flag, a company needs to look at all of the factors that may be contributing to the problem. Has a new policy been implemented? Is the weather played a part? Are merchandise lines being discontinued that were popular? When was the last time a new sales display or endcap set up? There are many things that can impact sales and cutting corners to save a few dollars may wind up costing you more in the long run. Before you start cutting things such as staff hours, Checkpoint Security System budgeting, or even reducing store hours, make sure you look at the big picture. Sometimes it is easier to look at the quick fixes rather than analyzing the external influences.
Get more information on Retail Theft Prevention, contact us or call 1.770.426.0547 today.
