PREVENT RETURN FRAUD WITH ALPHA SHARK TAGS

If you own, or work for a company with multiple store locations, chances are, you’ve been the victim of return fraud. This type of theft comes in various different forms, but the most common for my business is the most simplistic version. It involves a thief stealing an item from one store, returning it to another for store credit, then buying what they are really after, all while giving the appearance of a legitimate shopper. Not only does this cost the company in the form of the initial theft, but you then give a thief store credit and basically allow them to buy whatever they want, all on your dime. 

My company has a no problem/no hassle return policy, with only a few small exceptions. It seems that at least once per week, I’m investigating another case of return fraud. The basic method is easy to track once you spot a suspected fraudster. I simply review CCTV footage of the next closest store prior to the refund. About 70% of the time, I can find them stealing the product at the other store location prior to returning it to the second. This video, coupled with the ID information we obtain makes it very easy to make cases and prosecute these individuals. Well, what about other forms of return fraud that may not be so easily noticeable, or traceable? Have you ever considered that some people purchase clothing to wear for one occasion and then return it? It happens all the time. The practice is known as wardrobing and it can be easily prevented. 

It’s been 10 years since high school graduation and it’s time for that reunion. You want a killer dress to wear, but you can’t justify spending $300 for something you’ll just wear once, then throw to back of the closet for years to come. As you’re shopping, you notice the return policy in the store states that all clothing can be returned within 7 days as long as it is unworn is accompanied by a receipt. Well, who will know if it’s been worn or not? Those tags can easily be put back into place and no one will ever notice. If you’re not using an Alpha Shark Tags, you surely are the victim of this scheme. 

The Alpha Shark Tags is a small tag that is placed on a very visible portion of a piece of clothing. Usually, you would place the tag in a position where it would be quite visible if someone were wearing the clothing, like on the neck line, or on the sleeves front and center. The Alpha Shark Tags is then easily removed at home by the customer, after the purchase. With a return policy that states that clothing must have the tag still attached in order to be returned, you can easily cut down on return fraud completely. 

If you take that example above and conservatively estimate that happens to you at least twice per week, that’s easily over $30k in potential loss that can be added back to your bottom line. How could your business benefit from that extra cash flow? So if you’re tired of customer’s renting your clothes, take a bite out of this fraud scheme today!

 

For more information, contact us: Alpha Shark Tags, or call 1.770.426.0547

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Fighting Organized Retail Crime

Organized retail crime (ORC) has been a major problem for retailers for decades.  The FBI estimates that ORC causes retailers to lose 30 billion dollars every year. A booster is a thief who steals at the store level and usually has a specific list of items to steal. Popular items are razor blades, baby formula, DVDs, Tide detergent, health and beauty items and many other products. Once the booster has stolen the merchandise, it is taken “up the chain” to the crime ring leader. These crime rings will move from city to city and are usually well organized. This merchandise is resold at flea markets, gas stations, on Facebook and many other ways. While this may sound grim, there is a way to stop prevent shoplifting and protect your merchandise.

Alpha spider wraps come in different sizes and are a great way to help prevent shoplifting. They can go on just about any merchandise and can be tightened to ensure a secure fit that keeps them from being taken off without a key. They are very difficult to remove and have an alarm that will go off if they are taken through the entrance or exit of a store. 

I put Alpha spider wraps to the test when I had several of my stores that were being targeted by boosters. DVDs, razor blades and electric toothbrushes were disappearing at an alarming frequency. We suspected it was the work of the same ORC group because similar items were stolen from 3 stores in the area. After coming in one morning for work and finding that all of the electric toothbrushes and many of the razors had been taken the night before, I immediately ordered small, medium and large Alpha spider wraps.  I also started reviewing and documenting the thefts from the CCTV cameras and making copies to turn over to law enforcement. I was able to get a good picture of the three individuals involved in the thefts and showed the pictures to all of my store managers. 

Several days later, my order of Alpha Spider Wraps arrived and I started putting them on my merchandise. I called a meeting for all of store management and explained the problem about the boosters in the area. I showed them how to remove the wraps at checkout and how they would alarm at the door if not removed at a check stand.  According to the CCTV footage, the boosters were coming in first thing in the morning between 6 and 7 am, before most of the store’s employees arrived for their shifts. I decided to come each day around 5 am and wait. On my third morning, I hit the jackpot. The boosters arrived with their backpacks and walked right over to the electric toothbrushes.  I immediately called the police and notified the store manager who, thankfully, had just arrived. One of the boosters started using a pocketknife to try and remove the wraps but was unable to cut through the steel cable. They went over to different aisles looking for the items on their list to steal but were dismayed to find the merchandise protected with spider wraps or Alpha keepers. Thankfully, they were in the store long enough for the police to arrive and were arrested after being identified as the thieves from earlier CCTV recordings.  

One of the best ways to prevent shoplifting is to protect your merchandise.  Thieves are less likely to steal things that are harder to gain access to and will move on to easier targets.  Whatever the merchandise is in your store, there is a way to protect it. 

“For more information contact us or call 1.770.426.0547”

(Keywords: Checkpoint Hard Tags-5, Checkpoint (Tags-1

Prevent Cart Staging And Theft With Checkpoint Hard Tags

Cart staging also known as staging a cart is a common yet crafty way for a thief to steal from you. If you provide your customers shopping carts then this is for you. Cart staging (just one common phrase) is when a thief creates a barrier in the shopping cart in order to make it easier to steal items from you without detection. This can now be prevented and leave shoplifters very discouraged with Checkpoint Hard Tags.

Working in a big box store for many years I would come across these carts frequently. But this is not just a problem for big box stores. If you provide shopping carts to your customers, shoplifters will use these carts to assist them in taking your merchandise. This is done by the shoplifter blocking out all sides of the cart usually with clothes draped over the sides to prevent anyone from seeing through all sides of the cart. This creates a very large area for the thief to place items inside the cart, now concealed from all sides. While it may look like they are just placing merchandise inside the cart they are actually ripping tags or trying to disable security tags. With the Checkpoint Hard Tags, this stops thieves in their tracks.

While working in a big box store shoplifters would create these carts while walking around the store. The problem was the store used inferior security tags on their merchandise. With social media now it’s like a tutorial for shoplifters on how to disable these tags. This made my job much harder as the only way to stop these thieves was to catch them in the act. This created a problem as there was always more customers than there was of me or any of my colleagues. Plus I don’t work 7 days a week and many times the store had no loss prevention. This is when the store really needs to depend on the security systems we had in place. With inferior security tags used on the merchandise, unless I caught them in the act we were losing many items with only a shopping cart left with several broken tags inside.

Staging carts or any other type of shoplifting is a crime of opportunity. Thieves don’t want to attract a bunch of attention or spend much time trying to defeat your security tags. Many of these devices used in retailers are frankly inferior. The Checkpoint Hard Tags have undergone extensive testing. They’ve taken hammers to them and even taken tools to try and pry them open to no avail. The fact is, the time and the amount of tools it would take to defeat the Checkpoint Hard Tags is not worth their time. Remember, shoplifting is a crime of opportunity. If a shoplifter has to bring multiple tools and then spend a lot of time and effort to defeat the security device they will simply move on. 

While staging carts and other types of deception used by shoplifters will still occur, we can now prevent and discourage shoplifters in your store. Pay attention to a shopper that has concealed their cart. Become a customer service expert! Give them all the attention they could have ever hoped for. But in the end by using Checkpoint Tags on your merchandise, you can at least rest easy knowing that those tags will still be in place with your merchandise still in the store. You may have to put all that merchandise in the cart back on the racks at the end of the day, but at least it will remain in your store!

For more information on Checkpoint Hard Tags contact us at 1-770-426-0547