In one of the places I work we employ student workers and we run a cash register but without employee background checks our students can’t run the register. Now as someone who has worked for nearly three decades in retail I find it hard to wrap my head around this. On a busy day we rarely take in over $200 in fines and payments. Yet I have seen teenagers in the stores I have worked in handling thousands of dollars in transactions in any given day! I did think about this as we are now starting to ask our college Human Resources Department to begin background checks on some of our student employees. If our college is this concerned over what I see as miniscule transactions compared to what a private business does, shouldn’t small and medium retail owners be as well?
In 2017 retail inventory shrink cost U.S. retailers 48.9 billion dollars (2017 National Retail Federation Survey, pg. 6). Of this amount 30% is due to employee theft (pg.8). This only accounts for merchandise shortage and does not include cash theft or financial transaction fraud perpetrated by retail employees. It is clear from these numbers that it can be costly if a business owner does not hire a company to conduct employee background checks in order to prevent employee theft.
A background check can encompass a number of different areas. Take for instance the checks Loss Prevention Systems Inc. conducts for clients. They can look into driver histories, criminal background checks and even education verification. Store owners should also remember that there are other factors they should be concerned with such as staff and customer safety. Employee background checks can also look into sex offender registries helping to ensure there is minimal risk of a predator being hired onto the team. How about a residence history? It may not seem important until you realize that there are people who move around frequently because they are always in debt. They may also be trying to hide from Law Enforcement officials. Seeing that an applicant is regularly pulling up stakes and moving should be a red flag that this could be a problem hire. Learning about an applicant’s history is a strong check against employee theft and creates a safe work environment.
It is easy to focus on merchandise theft since inventory is completed annually or in some case it is done more frequently. Shortage results show how much merchandise is unaccounted for and what is ‘missing’ through theft, paperwork errors, etc. Theft and fraud at the point of sale can be much more difficult to ascertain. Having an extensive background in Retail Loss Prevention I have worked cash theft cases that were not easy to identify and more difficult to close. Added to that were the cases of credit card, check and gift card fraud each with its own unique challenges to investigate and close. As a small retail owner there is a strong probability you do not have the time or resources at your disposal to identify and then properly investigate point of sale theft and fraud. Oh, and don’t forget a lot of that inventory shortage could be due to employee theft issues at the registers too. Employee background checks can significantly reduce the odds that you will hire the wrong people and have to worry about cashiers stealing from you OR your customers.
Theft cannot be taken lightly. If a college is concerned over who operates a cash register that may take in $200 a day, how much more concerned should a store owner be taking in a lot more in a day? Conduct employee background checks and focus more time on running a successful business and stress less over point of sale shenanigans.
Employee background checks are important and we can help with it. Call 1.770.426.0547 and let’s talk.
For many years I was a Retail Loss Prevention Manager and actively used Electronic Article Surveillance anti-theft devices to protect many high theft items. Two departments that we had an incredible amount of theft in were fragrances and skin care products. We tagged the boxes with security labels but found that we still were experiencing theft issues. The problem plagued most of the stores in the company and eventually Corporate Loss Prevention reviewed their strategy and worked with manufacturers to put the fragrances in blister packages. The packages were source tagged with security labels to stop shoplifting. The hard-nosed criminal didn’t want to fool with any kind of security device unfortunately they weren’t averse to using a knife or razor blade to circumvent the blister package to remove the product. Eventually individual security boxes became available to us to protect the merchandise. The boxes worked really well for the higher priced items. We were able to put more products on the shelf rather than limit the numbers on display. We also had the protection of electronic article surveillance with the security of a lock up showcase. A detachment key at the checkout lanes was required to open the boxes up in order to remove the product. So what could possibly be improved upon if we were seeing improvement in shortage numbers?
There is one area in which improvements could be made and it is an opportunity most people would not think about in a discussion on electronic article surveillance devices. The opportunity I am thinking of is flexibility of protection hardware. There are many different sized protection devices that help stop shoplifting but I have found that one size does not fit all. I have seen small packs of razor blades safely tucked away in a box that was also used for a large perfume bottle. I have personally had to use electronic article surveillance labels of one size to protect a compact disc and a label from the same roll to protect a box of medicine. It is a pain in the neck and if you take merchandise protection seriously it requires the purchase of a lot of different sized containers, wraps and labels to do it properly. Using a security box that is too large for the item being protected takes up unnecessary shelf space. This can limit the number of shelves or peg hooks you can use for merchandise displays and that cuts down on facings or varieties of products available to customers. Sensormatic has developed Adjustable Multi-Purpose Safers to make it easier to keep goods safe from criminals. These Safers give retailers more flexibility in the variety of devices that need to be purchased. One device can now protect a wider range of merchandise without requiring a planogram change to accommodate a bigger box than necessary.
The Adjustible Multi-Purpose Safers Can be raised and lowered to fit the height of the item you want to keep safe from criminals. Going back to my fragrance problem, I had to work with perfumes and cologne boxes of varying heights. Today’s merchants have the ability to stop shoplifting without having to buy nearly as many different anti-theft protection boxes as they once would have done. If you are one of those store owners who believes that locking or alarming display cases are the best protection for high theft items I have something for you to consider. I know that the perception is that lock-up cases are a guarantee against theft. Having worked in retail for over 28 years and over 17 of those years in Loss Prevention I know the problems showcases cause. They require an available associate to respond and unlock a case when a customer wants to look at an item. That isn’t even a sure sale. That employee is tied to that display case until the customer decides if they do or don’t want an item. IF the customer wants the item the employee has to take it to the checklane and ring it up or have a cashier hold it until the customer comes up to make the purchase. Safers allow customers to view a product and carry it around the store until they are ready to proceed to checkout. Managers get all of the security of a showcase and none of the hassle.
If you haven’t considered how you can save money through theft reduction and the use of electronic article surveillance equipment contact Loss Prevention Systems, Inc. If you are using Sensormatic equipment but need to find ways to save money or planogram changes due to protection devices talk to Loss Prevention Systems, Inc. about the Adjustable Multi-Purpose Safers from Sensormatic.
Electronic Article Surveillance is important and we can help you with it. Call 1.770.426.0547 and let’s talk.
The area I live in has several annual events coming up that are good for businesses and would make it beneficial for store owners to invest in customer counting systems. I say this because while I was working at my part-time retail job I thought about the coming month and two of those activities that will be taking place. Having lived here for over 30 years I am very familiar with the events and I also know that many vendors are in attendance and will need supplies. Some purchase cash boxes, some raffle tickets and others will purchase cash registers. Since I have worked for this retailer for over seven years now I know many of the requests we will get so I started to look at our in-stocks on several of the items. Sure enough we were out of many or critically low and there is a good chance we will lose sales without getting more into the store. We were still several weeks away from the start of the season so I let my store manager know of the potential for missed sales opportunities if we did not put in a request for replenishment of these items. The store manager said he would look into it. The company I work for does have a door counting sensor and the data is tracked and used to some extent I just do not know how much. For small and medium sized retailers if you aren’t keeping track of the foot traffic in your store you could be missing your own opportunities to increase sales.
Customer counting systems are exactly what they sound like. They are systems used to keep up with the number of people entering a store. While many stores will track only the number of sales transactions that take place through the point of sale systems, the system reports how many people entered the building. Some may be protesting, “Why should I care about how many people came in, I need to know how many people spent money!” You should care because if there is a difference between transactions and foot traffic you should be asking, “Why didn’t these people spend money in my store?” How many missed opportunities were there to get an additional sale and your team dropped the ball? During special events or activities was there an increase in patronage that did not reflect in your sales? Was there anything you could have done to increase sales during those times or improve add-on sales? These are all questions that would not need to be asked if a store manager has a door counting sensor installed.
The addition of a door counting sensor would be beneficial to the small store owner for evaluating the impact local events are having on your business. Using the information gleaned from that data can help prepare you for similar events in the future. If the activity is going to be an annual event then you can look at what you sold and ran out of and have more on hand next time. As an example take the Fourth of July. If you sell coolers, grills, grilling accessories or outdoor games look at what your foot traffic was last year and sales of those items. Did you run out? Add a few more units to your on-hands the next year. Did your door counts far exceed your sales transactions? You can use this information in conjunction with your scheduling plans to determine if you could have used additional floor help to provide service. Could you have used an extra cashier to ring transactions so people would not get frustrated and leave empty handed? Bill Bregar, the founder of Loss Prevention Systems Inc. recognizes that not having real patron numbers only gives you a glimpse at what is really taking place in your store. This is why he strongly supports adding a system to his client’s stores.
Customer counting systems are a valuable tool for retailers who are truly interested in improving sales. Used in conjunction with sales data and calendar and event activities it can be a powerful addition for evaluating what you are doing and preparing for future activities. Don’t settle for less than your store can actually produce, install a door counting sensor today!
Get more information on customer counting systems, contact us or call 1.770.426.0547 today
