Alpha Cable Lock-5 WC blog 22
Prevent Shoplifting-5
Shoes Walking Out On You? Alpha Mini Cable Locks Can Bring Theft To A Screeching Halt!
How do you stop shoplifting in a department like shoes? This was one of those departments where I found it difficult to prevent theft when I was an Assets Protection Manager. We regularly found old shoes in a box sitting on a shelf…YUCK! I was fairly certain they were not donations to the store. Of course we also had the regular shoplifters who would steal shoes, box and all without leaving anything behind. We didn’t have a lot we could do except place soft EAS tags on the shoes, but generally this was restricted to higher priced shoes. Soft tags were problematic because they were pulled off with the hang tags. Alpha Security products include a mini Alpha Cable Lock as an effective means to prevent shoplifting of shoes (as well as other hard to tag merchandise).
Larger hard tags tend to be too big and bulky to place on shoes and can interfere with trying the shoe on. Soft EAS tags on a box or on hang tags make no sense because hang tags can be pulled off and when on a box, the shoes are just removed from the box. The mini Alpha Cable Lock has a steel cable that can be run through a shoe eyelet or around a sandal strap. The cable is secured in an alarmed locking mechanism. The alarm device will sound if the cable is cut and store staff will be alerted that someone is attempting to steal a pair of shoes. If a shoplifter attempts to leave the store with a pair of shoes secured by a cable lock, the electronic article surveillance antenna alarm will be triggered. Because the device is secured through the shoe eyelet, the shoe is not damaged from pins holes. The cable of the Alpha Cable Lock is small enough to fit through the eyelet while the Alarm mechanism is large enough to provide a visual deterrent to prevent shoplifting
Why is it such a big deal to focus on shoe theft? Because it is a very real issue and with the prices of shoes being what they are, one pair of shoes walking out of a store can be a significant loss. There is a particular brand of athletic shoe that has prices over $300.00 for a single pair of shoes. A name brand hiking/outdoors boot has styles well over $200.00 a pair. There are women’s dress shoes advertised for over $150 for a pair of high heeled shoes. If a shoe has laces, straps, clasps or buckles, the mini Alpha Cable Lock offers the retailer the protection needed to prevent shoplifting. Certainly not ALL shoes can be tagged if they don’t have a place to secure the tag, but there are methods to help stop the shoplifting of those styles, such as displaying a single shoe or as an alternative, using the soft EAS tags (at least for lower priced shoes).
The question arises, “Why not display one shoe of every style and prevent shoplifting altogether?” I would argue that there are two reasons for not doing this. From a customer service stand point a merchant has to personally assist every customer that wants to try on shoes. On a busy day this may not be practical. I believe every customer should be greeted and made to feel welcome, however not every customer wants one on one attention the entire time they are in a store. This can actually drive customers away if they feel “crowded”. The second reason not to display shoes like this is that customers will find a shoe they want and try it on, but if they like it they want to try on the other shoe also. Not having the second shoe available, a customer has to find an employee and then the employee has to go to the stockroom and find the other shoe. I have been one of those customers, with one sales person in the department trying to assist three or four families and I had to wait for assistance to allow my son to try on the second shoe. No retailer should be willing to risk losing a customer because of a lack of service.
Don’t let shoplifters walk all over you. Use Alpha Cable Locks to prevent shoplifting of your shoes. You will improve the level of customer service you can provide without adding payroll and your customers can make selections, take them to a point of sale without waiting for additional assistance and this translates to more profit!
For more information on Alpha Cable Locks, contact us or call 1.770.426.0547
How do you stop shoplifting in a department like shoes? This was one of those departments where I found it difficult to prevent theft when I was an Assets Protection Manager. We regularly found old shoes in a box sitting on a shelf…YUCK! I was fairly certain they were not donations to the store. Of course we also had the regular shoplifters who would steal shoes, box and all without leaving anything behind. We didn’t have a lot we could do except place soft EAS tags on the shoes, but generally this was restricted to higher priced shoes. Soft tags were problematic because they were pulled off with the hang tags. Alpha Security products include a mini Alpha Cable Lock as an effective means to prevent shoplifting of shoes (as well as other hard to tag merchandise).
Larger hard tags tend to be too big and bulky to place on shoes and can interfere with trying the shoe on. Soft EAS tags on a box or on hang tags make no sense because hang tags can be pulled off and when on a box, the shoes are just removed from the box. The mini Alpha Cable Lock has a steel cable that can be run through a shoe eyelet or around a sandal strap. The cable is secured in an alarmed locking mechanism. The alarm device will sound if the cable is cut and store staff will be alerted that someone is attempting to steal a pair of shoes. If a shoplifter attempts to leave the store with a pair of shoes secured by a cable lock, the electronic article surveillance antenna alarm will be triggered. Because the device is secured through the shoe eyelet, the shoe is not damaged from pins holes. The cable of the Alpha Cable Lock is small enough to fit through the eyelet while the Alarm mechanism is large enough to provide a visual deterrent to prevent shoplifting
Why is it such a big deal to focus on shoe theft? Because it is a very real issue and with the prices of shoes being what they are, one pair of shoes walking out of a store can be a significant loss. There is a particular brand of athletic shoe that has prices over $300.00 for a single pair of shoes. A name brand hiking/outdoors boot has styles well over $200.00 a pair. There are women’s dress shoes advertised for over $150 for a pair of high heeled shoes. If a shoe has laces, straps, clasps or buckles, the mini Alpha Cable Lock offers the retailer the protection needed to prevent shoplifting. Certainly not ALL shoes can be tagged if they don’t have a place to secure the tag, but there are methods to help stop the shoplifting of those styles, such as displaying a single shoe or as an alternative, using the soft EAS tags (at least for lower priced shoes).
The question arises, “Why not display one shoe of every style and prevent shoplifting altogether?” I would argue that there are two reasons for not doing this. From a customer service stand point a merchant has to personally assist every customer that wants to try on shoes. On a busy day this may not be practical. I believe every customer should be greeted and made to feel welcome, however not every customer wants one on one attention the entire time they are in a store. This can actually drive customers away if they feel “crowded”. The second reason not to display shoes like this is that customers will find a shoe they want and try it on, but if they like it they want to try on the other shoe also. Not having the second shoe available, a customer has to find an employee and then the employee has to go to the stockroom and find the other shoe. I have been one of those customers, with one sales person in the department trying to assist three or four families and I had to wait for assistance to allow my son to try on the second shoe. No retailer should be willing to risk losing a customer because of a lack of service.
Don’t let shoplifters walk all over you. Use Alpha Cable Locks to prevent shoplifting of your shoes. You will improve the level of customer service you can provide without adding payroll and your customers can make selections, take them to a point of sale without waiting for additional assistance and this translates to more profit!
For more information on Alpha Cable Locks, contact us or call 1.770.426.0547
Return Fraud-5 WC blog 55
Alpha Shark Tags-4
Wardrobing-3
A Family Reflection On Return Fraud
As a parent you enjoy telling stories that are interesting or funny from work experiences to your family. Now I know my children listened to some of my shoplifter stories and there were also times they would be in the store and see me stop shoplifters. I would also tell them about someone who tried to return something that I suspected was stolen. So they had a sense of what happened in the retail world and I would later explain how some people do stupid things and sometimes people were just outright dishonest. My children are older now and working themselves. Our two sons work in the grocery store business and our daughter works in a clothing retail store. All have had the shared experience of seeing someone stealing or trying to short changes them at the register. I get a kick out of hearing their encounters. It is also fun for me to hear my daughter come home from work and tell her stories of people attempting to commit return fraud at her place of business. Since she often works at the customer service desk, she gets to experience the joys of the customers trying to return merchandise that clearly does not match a receipt or has been re-ticketed. I listen as she tells us about a customer who has brought back merchandise that belongs to another retailer but has a receipt from her store and none of the items match. Then there are the stories of the tags that are on merchandise but do not match the clothing being returned. She tells the stories of clothing being returned that smells of odors like it was worn or had cigarette smoke on it. I just nod and smile, thinking back on my experiences and knowing I told her the same type of stories when she was younger. Of course, I share some bits of wisdom on what else she can look for from those attempting return fraud, but what I want to tell her is that much of the return fraud she is telling me about could be prevented if her store used Alpha Shark Tags.
I mentioned that some of the merchandise my daughter has people trying to return has odors. These types of returns are often the result of wardrobing, a return fraud that takes place when someone buys clothing, wears it out once or twice and returns it. The tags are often left on the clothes and taped up or carefully taken off and replaced after the item is worn. Alpha Shark Tags can prevent this type of return fraud because they are brightly colored and stand out so they are obvious to anyone looking at the garment. There is no removing them and replacing them because they are a one-time use device. The customer is required to cut the tag off after they leave the store if they want to wear it. The store ensures that they enforce a no return policy if the garment does not have an intact tag on it. Someone who is in the habit of wardrobing is unable to wear an item with an Alpha Shark Tag because it will be obvious they intend to return it and have not bought it for that special night out.
I also pointed out that my daughter has had people attempt to refund merchandise with tags from her store, but the items came from another retailer. Alpha Shark Tags would help her be able to readily point out to the customer that the merchandise being returned does not have tag on it and therefore could not have come from her store. If the customer were insistent she could let them know that if it did come from their store, the Alpha Shark Tags were removed and can no longer be returned.
My daughter is not in a position where she can influence her employer to utilize tags that would prevent wardrobing and other types of return fraud. However, if you are a business owner or manager you may be in a situation where you can make that decision. Return fraud hits a store’s profit margin. Stop the needless expense to your business. Find out more about how to prevent return fraud.
For more information about return fraud, contact us or call 1.770.426.0547
As a parent you enjoy telling stories that are interesting or funny from work experiences to your family. Now I know my children listened to some of my shoplifter stories and there were also times they would be in the store and see me stop shoplifters. I would also tell them about someone who tried to return something that I suspected was stolen. So they had a sense of what happened in the retail world and I would later explain how some people do stupid things and sometimes people were just outright dishonest. My children are older now and working themselves. Our two sons work in the grocery store business and our daughter works in a clothing retail store. All have had the shared experience of seeing someone stealing or trying to short changes them at the register. I get a kick out of hearing their encounters. It is also fun for me to hear my daughter come home from work and tell her stories of people attempting to commit return fraud at her place of business. Since she often works at the customer service desk, she gets to experience the joys of the customers trying to return merchandise that clearly does not match a receipt or has been re-ticketed. I listen as she tells us about a customer who has brought back merchandise that belongs to another retailer but has a receipt from her store and none of the items match. Then there are the stories of the tags that are on merchandise but do not match the clothing being returned. She tells the stories of clothing being returned that smells of odors like it was worn or had cigarette smoke on it. I just nod and smile, thinking back on my experiences and knowing I told her the same type of stories when she was younger. Of course, I share some bits of wisdom on what else she can look for from those attempting return fraud, but what I want to tell her is that much of the return fraud she is telling me about could be prevented if her store used Alpha Shark Tags.
I mentioned that some of the merchandise my daughter has people trying to return has odors. These types of returns are often the result of wardrobing, a return fraud that takes place when someone buys clothing, wears it out once or twice and returns it. The tags are often left on the clothes and taped up or carefully taken off and replaced after the item is worn. Alpha Shark Tags can prevent this type of return fraud because they are brightly colored and stand out so they are obvious to anyone looking at the garment. There is no removing them and replacing them because they are a one-time use device.The customer is required to cut the tag off after they leave the store if they want to wear it. The store ensures that they enforce a no return policy if the garment does not have an intact tag on it. Someone who is in the habit of wardrobing is unable to wear an item with an Alpha Shark Tag because it will be obvious they intend to return it and have not bought it for that special night out.
I also pointed out that my daughter has had people attempt to refund merchandise with tags from her store, but the items came from another retailer. Alpha Shark Tags would help her be able to readily point out to the customer that the merchandise being returned does not have tag on it and therefore could not have come from her store. If the customer were insistent she could let them know that if it did come from their store, the Alpha Shark Tags were removed and can no longer be returned.
My daughter is not in a position where she can influence her employer to utilize tags that would prevent wardrobing and other types of return fraud. However, if you are a business owner or manager you may be in a situation where you can make that decision. Return fraud hits a store’s profit margin. Stop the needless expense to your business. Find out more about how to prevent return fraud.
For more information about return fraud, contact us or call 1.770.426.0547
In my opinion, you should look at loss prevention initiates as a way to help you succeed. If your programs work, your sales increase, losses decrease, you’re more profitable and customers will shop your store because you are in stock. I think there are plenty of small business owners and managers out there who are having problems with theft, who may have the solutions already in place, but maybe lack the eye that put the puzzle pieces together. Well, I’d like to be that last puzzle piece and highlight 10 ways you can maximize the effectiveness of your Checkpoint tags.
- Denim Jeans –These are a popular item for shoplifters. Whether a teenage girl, or a coast to coast booster who walks out with 25 pairs, jeans attract thieves. Having a good clothing security device, such as an ink tag through the front of the jeans in a visible area will deter any and all criminal activity.
- Footwear – This is one area that a lot of smaller stores often overlook. Shoes are easy to conceal in a purse, or if you have even bolder thieves, they can simple trade out their old shoes for a new pair. One very effective way to protect this merchandise is using a checkpoint tag right through the tongue of the shoe.
- Accessories- Winter is here and that means you’ll see an increase in winter gloves, scarves, beanies and knit caps in store. These are a shoplifter’s favorite items, as most stores lack any clothing security devices here. By simply using a Checkpoint tag in a prominent location of the item, you can help keep more of those items available to your legitimate customers.
- Hats – This is especially true for licensed hats. I find myself in stores pretty regularly and see that they have a huge assortment of these hats, which aren’t cheap, completely void of any type of clothing security device. A hard tag through one of the eye holes at the top of the cap prevents damage to the item and provides a great visible deterrent to a would-be thief.
- Belts – These are a bit tricky. It’s difficult to use a hard tag without damaging the product. I’ve used some soft tags in the past with some success. The more experienced shoplifter will just remove the sensor; however, depending on the size of the belt and the buckle, there are several varieties of soft tags that will work quite well.
- Socks – Every single day, my agents catch someone stealing socks. It’s a bit ridiculous really… Again, with a simple hard tag through the top of the packaging, you can really make a dent in hosiery losses.
- Outerwear – Winter is here. That means your store has the seasons newest jackets, coats and sweaters. What I’ve find most beneficial is a checkpoint tag on the back of the collar. This placement lets the tag stay hidden on those high end pieces that need to be prominently merchandised, all while giving you the full protection of a solid clothing security device.
- Swimwear –To prevent swimwear theft, I’ve always used a hard tag in the arm seam of the garment. This prevents any damage and again, gives you that strong visible deterrent to any thief.
- Undergarments – High dollar and little fabric. Makes concealing incredibly easy. A simple hard tag on the rear can cut down your losses in an instant.
- Purses – If you carry designer handbags, then you know that these are a huge target for thieves. What I find works best and is the most effective is a simple ink tag through the seam on the strap. Thieves are not willing to tamper with the ink tag as it will completely ruin their haul.
For more information Clothing Security, contact us or call 1.770.426.0547
