Electronic Article Surveillance – 4 WC Blog 409
Stop Shoplifting -4
Poor Inventory Results? Take Action To Stop Shoplifting And Operational Losses By Creating A Shortage Action Plan
Change quite often can be uncomfortable. Have you ever noticed that usually when people are sitting at their dinner table everyone has a particular seat they sit in? I know that in church my wife and I have a tendency to sit in the same seats. Consider your routines when you wake up in the morning. I have a set order I do things, I wake up, shower, walk the dogs, drink a pot of coffee, read from my Bible, brush my teeth and head off to work. I detest being late for something so I set my watch 10 minutes ahead (of course when I am going to go somewhere with my wife and I feel we are running late she tells me my watch is 10 minutes fast, “What’s the rush?”).The point I am trying to make is that we all get into routines and whether we want to admit it or not it can be difficult to change whether it is something about ourselves, something about our habits or something having to do with our environment. I believe retail owners who are reluctant to take adequate steps to stop shoplifting with the use of electronic article surveillance systems are avoiding changes they are not comfortable with.
Electronic article surveillance systems use radio frequency waves transmitted from a tag or label and picked up by a receiver tower to sound an alarm when tagged merchandise is carried in the field of a tower. Some of the tags also have their own internal alarms that activate when a shoplifter tries to pry it off of merchandise. Because of the variety of tags and labels on the market through Checkpoint Systems and other companies, there are very few items that cannot be protected in one manner or another to stop shoplifting. There are labels that can be peeled from a roll and applied to boxes, shrink wrap, cloth and cardboard hang tags, etc. Hard tags are available that can be pinned to merchandise and not pulled off or detached without a removal key. Tagged goods are items that shoplifters prefer to leave alone. When shoplifters know that merchandise is protected with electronic article surveillance labels or tags they frequently choose to find another store rather than take the risk of being caught stealing.
It is funny but when I first started as a Loss Prevention Manager we would conduct our inventory and get the results back. When I would begin work on a shortage action plan I remember trying to get other managers to give input. Inevitably the very first cause of shortage for almost ANY category was attributed to theft. Why? Well, first it is always easy to attribute shortage to theft, the primary responsibility for actions to address it fall on Loss Prevention in a big store. If other areas are identified that are related to operations, it meant someone else would have to take an active role in the plan. That also meant following up to ensure any action step was being followed. Lastly, it meant taking a hard look at one’s own department and taking responsibility for things that may not have been done correctly.
I am of the opinion this is why many managers in retail don’t like to make shortage action plans or if they do make them they don’t always follow up on their plans after the first few weeks. I’ve run into this as a Loss Prevention Manager trying to work with the “store side” managers to create realistic plans and then follow through with them. They say it takes 21 days to form a habit…with shortage action plans I would say 21 months is more like it. For stores experiencing high inventory shortage, it is important to identify the areas/departments with the highest losses, look at the possible causes of the shortages and create action plans with action items, follow-ups and due dates. When theft is the issue, identify it and look for way to stop shoplifting or internal theft. When the issue involves operations call it as you see it, make a plan to fix the problem, execute the plan and follow up to make the store is doing what you committed to doing. If you are only making a plan for the sake of making a plan, don’t waste your time and don’t expect shortage to come down.
Electronic article surveillance can go a long way to stop shoplifting. Controls over vendors, stockroom access, shipment check-ins, etc. can make a significant impact on operational shortage. Remember, improving shortage results impacts profits and sales.
Get more information on electronic article surveillance, contact us or call 1.770.426.0547 today.
Change quite often can be uncomfortable. Have you ever noticed that usually when people are sitting at their dinner table everyone has a particular seat they sit in? I know that in church my wife and I have a tendency to sit in the same seats. Consider your routines when you wake up in the morning. I have a set order I do things, I wake up, shower, walk the dogs, drink a pot of coffee, read from my Bible, brush my teeth and head off to work. I detest being late for something so I set my watch 10 minutes ahead (of course when I am going to go somewhere with my wife and I feel we are running late she tells me my watch is 10 minutes fast, “What’s the rush?”).The point I am trying to make is that we all get into routines and whether we want to admit it or not it can be difficult to change whether it is something about ourselves, something about our habits or something having to do with our environment. I believe retail owners who are reluctant to take adequate steps to stop shoplifting with the use of electronic article surveillance systems are avoiding changes they are not comfortable with.
Electronic article surveillance systems use radio frequency waves transmitted from a tag or label and picked up by a receiver tower to sound an alarm when tagged merchandise is carried in the field of a tower. Some of the tags also have their own internal alarms that activate when a shoplifter tries to pry it off of merchandise. Because of the variety of tags and labels on the market through Checkpoint Systems and other companies, there are very few items that cannot be protected in one manner or another to stop shoplifting. There are labels that can be peeled from a roll and applied to boxes, shrink wrap, cloth and cardboard hang tags, etc. Hard tags are available that can be pinned to merchandise and not pulled off or detached without a removal key. Tagged goods are items that shoplifters prefer to leave alone. When shoplifters know that merchandise is protected with electronic article surveillance labels or tags they frequently choose to find another store rather than take the risk of being caught stealing.
It is funny but when I first started as a Loss Prevention Manager we would conduct our inventory and get the results back. When I would begin work on a shortage action plan I remember trying to get other managers to give input. Inevitably the very first cause of shortage for almost ANY category was attributed to theft. Why? Well, first it is always easy to attribute shortage to theft, the primary responsibility for actions to address it fall on Loss Prevention in a big store. If other areas are identified that are related to operations, it meant someone else would have to take an active role in the plan. That also meant following up to ensure any action step was being followed. Lastly, it meant taking a hard look at one’s own department and taking responsibility for things that may not have been done correctly.
I am of the opinion this is why many managers in retail don’t like to make shortage action plans or if they do make them they don’t always follow up on their plans after the first few weeks. I’ve run into this as a Loss Prevention Manager trying to work with the “store side” managers to create realistic plans and then follow through with them. They say it takes 21 days to form a habit…with shortage action plans I would say 21 months is more like it. For stores experiencing high inventory shortage, it is important to identify the areas/departments with the highest losses, look at the possible causes of the shortages and create action plans with action items, follow-ups and due dates. When theft is the issue, identify it and look for way to stop shoplifting or internal theft. When the issue involves operations call it as you see it, make a plan to fix the problem, execute the plan and follow up to make the store is doing what you committed to doing. If you are only making a plan for the sake of making a plan, don’t waste your time and don’t expect shortage to come down.
Electronic article surveillance can go a long way to stop shoplifting. Controls over vendors, stockroom access, shipment check-ins, etc. can make a significant impact on operational shortage. Remember, improving shortage results impacts profits and sales.
Get more information on electronic article surveillance, contact us or call 1.770.426.0547 today.
Alpha Jewel Lok- 4 WC Blog 476
Prevent Shoplifting-3
Retail Anti-Theft Devices-4
Open Display Jewelry Is Possible With An Alpha Jewel Lok
In order to help prevent shoplifting some manufactures assist stores by enhancing packaging of products. Sometimes large stores will work with manufacturers to protect merchandise. I know that when I worked for a national retail chain as a Loss Prevention Manager our company was working with a razor company to introduce electronic article surveillance (EAS) source tagging for products. This was a shortage reduction coup not only for our stores but for any other retailers that had an EAS system. The tags would work regardless of which company was selling the products that were tagged. I also know that our corporate Loss Prevention Department worked with a manufacturer to improve packaging of certain products to make them more secure against theft. These methods of shortage reduction worked well but not everything is source tagged or comes with hardened packaging and then other measures need to be used especially when I think about jewelry. Loose jewelry like bracelets and necklaces may be displayed on open T-fixtures but are difficult to protect short of locking them up. This is where the Alpha Jewel Lok can come in handy.
The Alpha Jewel Lok is a small hook and clasping retail anti-theft device that provides the protection of EAS while allowing ease of access with open displays. The Lok will activate EAS towers if a shoplifter attempts to carry a protected item through them. They are also strong enough to prevent a thief from breaking it off of a piece of jewelry without damaging the merchandise. Remember that once damaged, the product is no longer useful to the criminal. It can’t be returned to the store or re-sold anywhere. It also renders the item useless to wear for the opportunist who is stealing for their own use. The open accessibility frees the store management from the necessity of having to spend payroll on an associate dedicated to one small area of the store, specifically the jewelry department. By the way, this particular retail anti-theft device can be used on other small items such as wallets making it extremely versatile in its application.
You might be thinking that you would rather lock your jewelry up in a display case than take a risk of using a device you aren’t familiar with to prevent shoplifting. As a former Loss Prevention Manager I used to feel the same way about many retail anti-theft devices. I was all for keeping merchandise locked up and selling out of a stockroom or display case until I understood that sales are driven by access to products. You heard me right, a Loss Prevention Manager came around to the idea that merchandise can be protected and still made available to customers to handle and look at.
I noticed that merchandise tagged to prevent shoplifting increased in sales as those items came out of display cases. While that may seem contradictory at first glance it isn’t so odd if you think about what happens when merchandise is taken out of showcases. Customers get irritated when they have to wait for help. If no one is at a display case to open it when a shopper walks up many of those shoppers won’t bother waiting for assistance. They walk out and shop elsewhere and that equates to lost sales. Protect products with retail anti-theft devices and remove them from a locking case and customers can select an item without someone hovering over them. They can shop at their leisure which also drives up sales since many people won’t find just one item and leave. The Alpha Jewel Lok allows you the flexibility to put more jewelry on an open display. This does not mean you should take all of your high end gold and silver out. That would be foolish, but you are sure to have lower end merchandise that could be tagged and displayed. That will mean bonus sales for you.
Electronic Article Surveillance soft tagging can be a fantastic way to reduce shortage with minimal expense to your store. But while it is good for those items that can be EAS soft tagged not everything can be. Don’t get frustrated when soft tags can’t work on your jewelry. Use the Alpha Jewel Lok to keep merchandise out of lock up and then be prepared for higher sales and lower shortage.
Alpha Jewel Lok is important and we can help you with it. Call 1.770.426.0547 and let’s talk.
In order to help prevent shoplifting some manufactures assist stores by enhancing packaging of products. Sometimes large stores will work with manufacturers to protect merchandise. I know that when I worked for a national retail chain as a Loss Prevention Manager our company was working with a razor company to introduce electronic article surveillance (EAS) source tagging for products. This was a shortage reduction coup not only for our stores but for any other retailers that had an EAS system. The tags would work regardless of which company was selling the products that were tagged. I also know that our corporate Loss Prevention Department worked with a manufacturer to improve packaging of certain products to make them more secure against theft. These methods of shortage reduction worked well but not everything is source tagged or comes with hardened packaging and then other measures need to be used especially when I think about jewelry. Loose jewelry like bracelets and necklaces may be displayed on open T-fixtures but are difficult to protect short of locking them up. This is where the Alpha Jewel Lok can come in handy.
The Alpha Jewel Lok is a small hook and clasping retail anti-theft device that provides the protection of EAS while allowing ease of access with open displays. The Lok will activate EAS towers if a shoplifter attempts to carry a protected item through them. They are also strong enough to prevent a thief from breaking it off of a piece of jewelry without damaging the merchandise. Remember that once damaged, the product is no longer useful to the criminal. It can’t be returned to the store or re-sold anywhere. It also renders the item useless to wear for the opportunist who is stealing for their own use. The open accessibility frees the store management from the necessity of having to spend payroll on an associate dedicated to one small area of the store, specifically the jewelry department. By the way, this particular retail anti-theft device can be used on other small items such as wallets making it extremely versatile in its application.
You might be thinking that you would rather lock your jewelry up in a display case than take a risk of using a device you aren’t familiar with to prevent shoplifting. As a former Loss Prevention Manager I used to feel the same way about many retail anti-theft devices. I was all for keeping merchandise locked up and selling out of a stockroom or display case until I understood that sales are driven by access to products. You heard me right, a Loss Prevention Manager came around to the idea that merchandise can be protected and still made available to customers to handle and look at.
I noticed that merchandise tagged to prevent shoplifting increased in sales as those items came out of display cases. While that may seem contradictory at first glance it isn’t so odd if you think about what happens when merchandise is taken out of showcases. Customers get irritated when they have to wait for help. If no one is at a display case to open it when a shopper walks up many of those shoppers won’t bother waiting for assistance. They walk out and shop elsewhere and that equates to lost sales. Protect products with retail anti-theft devices and remove them from a locking case and customers can select an item without someone hovering over them. They can shop at their leisure which also drives up sales since many people won’t find just one item and leave. The Alpha Jewel Lok allows you the flexibility to put more jewelry on an open display. This does not mean you should take all of your high end gold and silver out. That would be foolish, but you are sure to have lower end merchandise that could be tagged and displayed. That will mean bonus sales for you.
Electronic Article Surveillance soft tagging can be a fantastic way to reduce shortage with minimal expense to your store. But while it is good for those items that can be EAS soft tagged not everything can be. Don’t get frustrated when soft tags can’t work on your jewelry. Use the Alpha Jewel Lok to keep merchandise out of lock up and then be prepared for higher sales and lower shortage.
Alpha Jewel Lok is important and we can help you with it. Call 1.770.426.0547 and let’s talk.
Retail Traffic Counting-3 WC Blog 488
People Counting Systems-5
People Counting Systems Aid In Business Planning
People counting systems should be playing a part in your plans for strategizing to improve sales. It may not seem like a big deal on the surface but knowing how many people are in your store and the times of the day they are there can go a long way in improving the sales of your business. Let me give you an example of a recent incident which my wife experienced at a major retailer and it made her extremely angry. Since I bore the brunt of her anger it made me angry as well. My wife had gone to this store for a special sale they were having. She picked out her merchandise and got some very good deals that would have saved us a LOT of money. She got into this store’s self-checkout line and was waiting patiently. After being in line for a few minutes the store shut the self-checkouts down and forced patrons to go to a single cashier. My wife told me there was a long line of customers queued up at this single register. When she finally got to the register to make her purchase she was told the sale prices were no longer in effect because it was now past midnight. She reminded them that it was not her fault that they closed down the self-check while she was in line. The front end manager told my wife there was nothing she could do, it was a corporate decision (don’t get me started on my rant about what I think of the “we can’t help it, it is a corporate decision” excuses). This incident could have been avoided if the store had knowledge of how many people were in the building (and used some common sense before closing registers down since they operate on a 24/7 basis). Retail traffic counting has more uses than simply providing managers information on how popular their store is…or isn’t. My wife put the items back. An email from me did result in a sincere apology from the front end manager and they honored the prices from the sale.
A people counting system is a tool that is usually attached somewhere near a store entrance to count the number of patrons entering the establishment. They can be stand-alone units or for stores with an electronic article surveillance system it may be attached to the pedestals. A good retail traffic counting system will provide information on how many people have entered the store at specific hours of the day. So let’s say a store is having a special sale that ends at midnight, management could look at the foot traffic for the past several hours. Prior to hitting midnight they can get an idea of how many people are in the building before they close registers down and anger their customers (hint, hint). A better system will also provide information about electronic article surveillance alarms and employee responses. This information can be used to look for potential patterns that may indicate theft is taking place at certain times of the day. As a former Retail Loss Prevention Manager I can also say that stores that utilize a digital video surveillance system can easily review this alarm activity from the people counting systems to the cameras. Digital camera systems make it easy to review activity by time of day.
While I am taking a poke at the store that inconvenienced my wife the fact is retail traffic counting can be helpful to retailers who use the information to improve sales. If a store runs a special ad it is important to know how many people visited. Did the number of transactions match the traffic counted? If not, why? Did the store run out of product? Did the sales floor not get replenished from the stockroom? Were there an inadequate number of registers open to serve everyone? As a positive statistic can you compare an increase in the amount of customers that visited on the special sale day over any other day? If there is an increase in customers and sales, what can you do to build on that momentum? People counting systems become a key component in your business planning.
Shoppers will come to your store but you may not always know how many or what brought them in. Using people counting systems will aid you in comparing your traffic by day and even seasons. Have a sale and see if customer traffic increases. Is one day regularly slower than the others? Try to drive sales that day or determine if you can save some payroll by adjusting your staffing to better serve customers during the times they are in the building. Make your business more prosperous by knowing your shopper’s habits.
For more information about people counting systems contact us or call 1.770.426.0547
People counting systems should be playing a part in your plans for strategizing to improve sales. It may not seem like a big deal on the surface but knowing how many people are in your store and the times of the day they are there can go a long way in improving the sales of your business. Let me give you an example of a recent incident which my wife experienced at a major retailer and it made her extremely angry. Since I bore the brunt of her anger it made me angry as well. My wife had gone to this store for a special sale they were having. She picked out her merchandise and got some very good deals that would have saved us a LOT of money. She got into this store’s self-checkout line and was waiting patiently. After being in line for a few minutes the store shut the self-checkouts down and forced patrons to go to a single cashier. My wife told me there was a long line of customers queued up at this single register. When she finally got to the register to make her purchase she was told the sale prices were no longer in effect because it was now past midnight. She reminded them that it was not her fault that they closed down the self-check while she was in line. The front end manager told my wife there was nothing she could do, it was a corporate decision (don’t get me started on my rant about what I think of the “we can’t help it, it is a corporate decision” excuses). This incident could have been avoided if the store had knowledge of how many people were in the building (and used some common sense before closing registers down since they operate on a 24/7 basis). Retail traffic counting has more uses than simply providing managers information on how popular their store is…or isn’t. My wife put the items back. An email from me did result in a sincere apology from the front end manager and they honored the prices from the sale.
A people counting system is a tool that is usually attached somewhere near a store entrance to count the number of patrons entering the establishment. They can be stand-alone units or for stores with an electronic article surveillance system it may be attached to the pedestals. A good retail traffic counting system will provide information on how many people have entered the store at specific hours of the day. So let’s say a store is having a special sale that ends at midnight, management could look at the foot traffic for the past several hours. Prior to hitting midnight they can get an idea of how many people are in the building before they close registers down and anger their customers (hint, hint). A better system will also provide information about electronic article surveillance alarms and employee responses. This information can be used to look for potential patterns that may indicate theft is taking place at certain times of the day. As a former Retail Loss Prevention Manager I can also say that stores that utilize a digital video surveillance system can easily review this alarm activity from the people counting systems to the cameras. Digital camera systems make it easy to review activity by time of day.
While I am taking a poke at the store that inconvenienced my wife the fact is retail traffic counting can be helpful to retailers who use the information to improve sales. If a store runs a special ad it is important to know how many people visited. Did the number of transactions match the traffic counted? If not, why? Did the store run out of product? Did the sales floor not get replenished from the stockroom? Were there an inadequate number of registers open to serve everyone? As a positive statistic can you compare an increase in the amount of customers that visited on the special sale day over any other day? If there is an increase in customers and sales, what can you do to build on that momentum? People counting systems become a key component in your business planning.
Shoppers will come to your store but you may not always know how many or what brought them in. Using people counting systems will aid you in comparing your traffic by day and even seasons. Have a sale and see if customer traffic increases. Is one day regularly slower than the others? Try to drive sales that day or determine if you can save some payroll by adjusting your staffing to better serve customers during the times they are in the building. Make your business more prosperous by knowing your shopper’s habits.
For more information about people counting systems contact us or call 1.770.426.0547
