If your business carries shoes, you have probably had this unpleasant experience at least once. You pick up a shoebox and look inside, only to find a stinky pair of old worn shoes in place of the new pair that should be in that box. This may sound funny, but I can assure you that it is not a fun experience at all for the lucky person that has to dispose of the shoes. What someone did was come into the store and swap out the old shoes they were wearing for a pair of your new shoes. You can help stop this from happening by ensuring that you have good clothing security devices attached to your merchandise.
Once you stop trying to figure out how no one on your team noticed someone wearing shoes with holes in them that the manufacturer didn’t put there, and you could smell two aisles away, it’s time to get to work and make sure it doesn’t happen again. First off, talk to your employees and ensure they are offering customer service to everyone in the department. Also, the same as you put security tags on clothes like jeans or any other clothing item that may be stolen, you should also place the tags on footwear. Some manufacturers can source tag, or place a tag inside the shoe that is deactivated upon purchase. I prefer to use hard tags, such as Checkpoint tags to actually place on the shoes as a visual deterrent as well as causing the door alarms to sound as someone exits the store with the tag.
Although there are different tags and approaches to clothing security for footwear, one of the most common approaches I have seen is to attach a hard tag to the shoe through a shoelace hole, buckle, or zipper. You can either do this by placing the pin on the hard tag through the opening, or attach a cable or a type of lanyard to the tag to allow for more flexibility. You want to make sure that the tag is placed on the shoe in a manner that is not damaging the product, and cannot be easily removed. Also, if you want to save money on clothing security tags, just put the tags on one shoe in a pair. It doesn’t matter if you choose the left or right shoe, just make sure you are consistent so they can’t mix and match the same style shoes from different boxes.
Depending on the types of footwear you carry, it may not be necessary to purchase different Checkpoint tags, because the ones you already use on your other clothing may be compatible. To be safe, you may want to see what other options are available or order more of your current tags to account for the larger quantities you will now be using. Not everyone that comes into your store with stinky or dirty shoes is going to steal from you, but I can say that I’ve never seen a pair of nice clean shoes swapped out for another pair of nice new shoes. Having your employees keep their eyes open for this kind of activity will go a long way in reducing theft of your footwear.
For more information contact us: (clothing security) or call 1.770.426.0547
If your business carries shoes, you have probably had this unpleasant experience at least once. You pick up a shoebox and look inside, only to find a stinky pair of old worn shoes in place of the new pair that should be in that box. This may sound funny, but I can assure you that it is not a fun experience at all for the lucky person that has to dispose of the shoes. What someone did was come into the store and swap out the old shoes they were wearing for a pair of your new shoes. You can help stop this from happening by ensuring that you have good clothing security devices attached to your merchandise.
Once you stop trying to figure out how no one on your team noticed someone wearing shoes with holes in them that the manufacturer didn’t put there, and you could smell two aisles away, it’s time to get to work and make sure it doesn’t happen again. First off, talk to your employees and ensure they are offering customer service to everyone in the department. Also, the same as you put security tags on clothes like jeans or any other clothing items that may be stolen, you should also place the tags on footwear. Some manufacturers can source tag, or place a tag inside the shoe that is deactivated upon purchase. I prefer to use hard tags, such as Alpha Banded Hard Tags to actually place on the shoes as a visual deterrent as well as causing the door alarms to sound as someone exits the store with the tag.
Although there are different tags and approaches to clothing security for footwear, one of the most common approaches I have seen is to attach a hard tag to the shoe through a shoelace hole, buckle, or zipper. You can either do this by placing the pin on the hard tag through the opening, or attach a cable or a type of lanyard to the tag to allow for more flexibility. You want to make sure that the tag is placed on the shoe in a manner that is not damaging the product, and cannot be easily removed. Also, if you want to save money on security tags, just put the tags on one shoe in a pair. It doesn’t matter if you choose the left or right shoe, just make sure you are consistent so they can’t mix and match the same style shoes from different boxes.
Depending on the types of footwear you carry, it may not be necessary to purchase different Alpha Tags, because the ones you already use on your other clothing may be compatible. To be safe, you may want to see what other options are available or order more of your current tags to account for the larger quantities you will now be using. Not everyone that comes into your store with stinky or dirty shoes is going to steal from you, but I can say that I’ve never seen a pair of nice clean shoes swapped out for another pair of nice new shoes. Having your employees keep their eyes open for this kind of activity will go a long way in reducing theft of your footwear.
For more information contact us: Clothing Security or call 1.770.426.0547
Checkpoint tags don’t always stop theft, and that’s something every retailer needs to understand. Just last week, I was talking with a friend who is a general manager for a very small retailer. It’s a family owned business with just a handful of stores. He was telling me how they were getting absolutely hammered in a particular product line and convinced the owners to invest a small amount of money into security tags for the product, a more expensive pair of shoes. What he told me next is something I’ve heard time and time again, and I thought I’d take a moment to address this with anyone out there who feels the same way. He told me that even with the security tags in place, he was still losing product to theft.
Let’s take a minute and look at this issue from a global perspective. Let’s assume that in his store, he would lose about 10 pairs of shoes per week due to theft. Coming from a background in that business, I can tell you that is a very conservative number. In past lives, I’ve been in stores where every single pair of shoes are secured with a checkpoint tag, and the store still lost product. Why? I’ll get to that in a minute, but let’s get back to the scenario. Those 10 pairs of shoes retail, on average, $100 a pair, so we can say that this small store sees about $1,000 in loss every week, equating to just about $50k by years end, maybe more. Wouldn’t you like to have a spare fifty grand laying around? How could your store benefit from that much in additional sales?
Now, in this same, with the same amount of loss, the managers decide to deploy some checkpoint tags to combat the loss. Let’ assume they secure every pair of shoes. Chances are, it’s going to reduce their theft, but not by 100%. It’s a safe bet to assume that they will still lose 3-5 pairs per week. Why? Shoplifters make their living from stealing from you, and no amount of security will stop their actions altogether. As a manager/owner, you have to do what you can to limit your exposure to loss. You have to understand that you will never, and I mean never, completely eliminate shoplifting losses.
Then why bother? Remember that $50k loss estimate from above? Even if you reduce that number by 50%, you’re still saving your store $25-30K a year, with a very small investment. There aren’t too many things out there that will give you a 50% ROI, but a simple checkpoint tag can. The tags also serve as a great physical deterrent to theft as well. I’ve seen shoplifters shy away from an item just because it had a hard tag affixed to it. It’s a great way to implement a solid control in your business, and while you can never eliminate all losses from theft, you can get your losses down to a more manageable and acceptable level.
For more information, contact us: Cloting Security, or call 1.770.426.0547
Checkpoint Tags don’t always stop theft, and that’s something every retailer needs to understand. Just last week, I was talking with a friend who is a general manager for a very small retailer. It’s a family owned business with just a handful of stores. He was telling me how they were getting absolutely hammered in a particular product line and convinced the owners to invest a small amount of money into security tags for the product, a more expensive pair of shoes. What he told me next is something I’ve heard time and time again, and I thought I’d take a moment to address this with anyone out there who feels the same way. He told me that even with the Checkpoint Tags in place, he was still losing product to theft.
Let’s take a minute and look at this issue from a global perspective. Let’s assume that in his store, he would lose about 10 pairs of shoes per week due to theft. Coming from a background in that business, I can tell you that is a very conservative number. In past lives, I’ve been in stores where every single pair of shoes are secured with a Checkpoint Tag, and the store still lost product. Why? I’ll get to that in a minute, but let’s get back to the scenario. Those 10 pairs of shoes retail, on average, $100 a pair, so we can say that this small store sees about $1,000 in loss every week, equating to just about $50k by years end, maybe more. Wouldn’t you like to have a spare fifty grand laying around? How could your store benefit from that much in additional sales?
Now, in this same scenario, with the same amount of loss, the managers decide to deploy some Checkpoint Tags to combat the loss. Let’ assume they secure every pair of shoes. Chances are, it’s going to reduce their theft, but not by 100%. It’s a safe bet to assume that they will still lose 3-5 pairs per week. Why? Shoplifters make their living from stealing from you, and no amount of security will stop their actions altogether. As a manager/owner, you have to do what you can to limit your exposure to loss. You have to understand that you will never, and I mean never, completely eliminate shoplifting losses.
Then why bother? Remember that $50k loss estimate from above? Even if you reduce that number by 50%, you’re still saving your store $25-30K a year, with a very small investment. There aren’t too many things out there that will give you a 50% ROI, but a simple Checkpoint Tag can. The tags also serve as a great physical deterrent to theft as well. I’ve seen shoplifters shy away from an item just because it had a hard tag affixed to it. It’s a great way to implement a solid control in your business, and while you can never eliminate all losses from theft, you can get your losses down to a more manageable and acceptable level.
For more information, contact us at Prevent Shoplifting Loss, or call 1.770.426.0547
Ask any retailer today and they’ll tell you that the fastest growing part of their business is E-Commerce. I work for a company that has a fairly recent online store and I can tell you that within the past 4 years, it has exploded. A considerable amount of people, myself included, would much rather shop from the comfort of my own home. It’s fast, easy and you don’t have to deal with crowds and traffic, especially during the holiday season. It’s also more convenient, with most sites offering free, or heavily reduced shipping. Anyone with a smartphone can practically have anything they could ever need shipped right to their door. For a new business, an online store is much more affordable than a traditional brick and mortar. The one thing the online store has in common with a traditional retailer though, is shrink. If you’ve got your hands in the E-Com cookie jar, you may want to take a look at Alpha Shark Tags and how they could save you tons on loss.
As an online apparel retailer, you probably don’t have to worry much about shoplifting. It’s not like someone can walk into your store and stuff a purse full of your clothing. In fact, you’ve probably never thought about customer theft since the day you first launched. Why should you? You never have face to face interactions with your customers, and the only time your customers are touching your product is well after it has been purchased. So where is the risk? The big two are counterfeiting and wardrobing. If you’re not familiar with the wardrobing, it’s where a customer will purchase an item, where it once, or twice and then return it within your allotted return policy and receive a full refund. On the surface, it doesn’t seem like that big of a deal, but it is. It’s a form of return fraud that many store fronts have taken very seriously…. And you should too.
Alpha Shark Tags are a great solution to this fraud scheme. They are small, in-expensive and will not damage a garment. You can place the tag in a very open place on any piece of apparel. If placed in a prominent location, it will not allow a customer to wear it out in public. You could also stipulate in your returns policy that a garment cannot be returned without the tag still in place. This will not only protect your sales, but also protect your honest customers from higher prices.
For more information, contact us: Alpha Shark Tags, or call 1.770.426.0547
Ask any retailer today and they’ll tell you that the fastest growing part of their business is E-Commerce. I work for a company that has a fairly decent online store and I can tell you that within the past 4 years, it has exploded. A considerable amount of people, myself included, would much rather shop from the comfort of my own home. It’s fast, easy and you don’t have to deal with crowds and traffic, especially during the holiday season. It’s also more convenient, with most sites offering free, or heavily reduced shipping. Anyone with a smartphone can practically have anything they could ever need shipped right to their door. For a new business, an online store is much more affordable than a traditional brick and mortar. The one thing the online store has in common with a traditional retailer though, is shrink. If you’ve got your hands in the E-Com cookie jar, you may want to take a look at Alpha Shark Tags and how they could save you tons on loss.
As an online apparel retailer, you probably don’t have to worry much about shoplifting. It’s not like someone can walk into your store and stuff a purse full of your clothing. In fact, you’ve probably never thought about customer theft since the day you first launched. Why should you? You never have face to face interactions with your customers, and the only time your customers are touching your product is well after it has been purchased. So where is the risk? The big two are counterfeiting and wardrobing. If you’re not familiar with the wardrobing, it’s where a customer will purchase an item, where it once, or twice and then return it within your allotted return policy and receive a full refund. On the surface, it doesn’t seem like that big of a deal, but it is. It’s a form of return fraud that many store fronts have taken very seriously…. And you should too.
Alpha Shark Tags are a great solution to this fraud scheme. They are small, in-expensive and will not damage a garment. You can place the tag in a very open place on any piece of apparel. If placed in a prominent location, it will not allow a customer to wear it out in public. You could also stipulate in your returns policy that a garment cannot be returned without the tag still in place. This will not only protect your sales, but also protect your honest customers from higher prices.
For more information, contact us: Alpha Shark Tags, or call 1.770.426.0547
