We all have the same goal year in and year out. We want our businesses to be profitable and we want to eliminate as much shrink as humanly possible. One of the biggest contributors to shrink is shoplifting. No secret. As a merchant and a business owner it is up to you to stop shoplifting, but still provide a pleasant shopping experience for your customers. Can you very well put everything you have under lock and key? Theoretically, yes, but most customers want to touch and feel a product before purchasing it. In my experience, most customers will not want to find an employee to open a case, or unlock an item either. While there are some situations where you absolutely have to physically secure an item, there is a world of products out there that can help you curb external losses, all while providing an enjoyable shopping experience to your honest customers.
A few years back, I was selected by my company to be a part of a team designated to put together a company wide tagging policy. We had checkpoint systems installed in our stores, but we weren’t doing that great of a job protecting our merchandise from theft. Back then, I didn’t know much about different EAS tags, and figured they were all about the same. Either a hard tag, spider wrap or a plastic keeper box. I had no idea there was, what seemed, to be endless solutions out there to meet just about every need we had. We sat down a few times a week and looked at our most commonly stolen items from our stores. Based on the price of the item, we would look to implement either a checkpoint tag, or other solution that would keep the product secure, all while still keeping it available to the customer.
As the year progressed and we began splitting these anti-shoplifting devices and direction to our stores, the feedback was almost immediately and always positive from our store management teams. For too long, they fought with shoplifters and either had to take the losses, or sacrifice sales to simply protect their product. We also received feedback from our customers, which surprised some of us in the office. Most people understand the impact shoplifting has on the cost of a product are perfectly fine with a retailer taking steps to deter criminal activity. The most common concern we received was that the merchandise had to be accessible. It didn’t matter if there was a spider wrap, or an iS tag on the product, as long as our customer was able to handle the merchandise without the added stress of finding a free store employee made them very happy.
While each retailer is different, it doesn’t matter if you run 2 stores, or 2000, shoplifting will affect you in some way. Whether it be from an employee skimming money, or an organized crime operation, you have to take action to protect your inventory. Don’t stand idly by while your hard earned money walks out of your doors. Take the initiative to adopt protective standards in your store and watch how quickly you can cut down on losses and increase your stores profitability.
For more information, contact us: Anti-Shoplifting, or call 1.770.426.0547
We all have the same goal year in and year out. We want our businesses to be profitable and we want to eliminate as much shrink as humanly possible. One of the biggest contributors to shrink is shoplifting. No secret. As a merchant and a business owner it is up to you to stop shoplifting, but still provide a pleasant shopping experience for your customers. Can you very well put everything you have under lock and key? Theoretically, yes, but most customers want to touch and feel a product before purchasing it. In my experience, most customers will not want to find an employee to open a case, or unlock an item either. While there are some situations where you absolutely have to physically secure an item, there is a world of products out there that can help you curb external losses, all while providing an enjoyable shopping experience to your honest customers.
A few years back, I was selected by my company to be a part of a team designated to put together a company wide tagging policy. We had Checkpoint Systems installed in our stores, but we weren’t doing that great of a job protecting our merchandise from theft. Back then, I didn’t know much about different EAS tags, and figured they were all about the same. Either a hard tag, Spider Wrap or a Keeper. I had no idea there was, what seemed, to be endless solutions out there to meet just about every need we had. We sat down a few times a week and looked at our most commonly stolen items from our stores. Based on the price of the item, we would look to implement either a Checkpoint Tag, or other solution that would keep the product secure, all while still keeping it available to the customer.
As the year progressed and we began splitting these anti-shoplifting devices and direction to our stores, the feedback was almost immediately and always positive from our store management teams. For too long, they fought with shoplifters and either had to take the losses, or sacrifice sales to simply protect their product. We also received feedback from our customers, which surprised some of us in the office. Most people understand the impact shoplifting has on the cost of a product are perfectly fine with a retailer taking steps to deter criminal activity. The most common concern we received was that the merchandise had to be accessible. It didn’t matter if there was a Spider Wrap, or an EAS tag on the product, as long as our customer was able to handle the merchandise without the added stress of finding a free store employee made them very happy.
While each retailer is different, it doesn’t matter if you run 2 stores, or 2000, shoplifting will affect you in some way. Whether it be from an employee skimming money, or an organized crime operation, you have to take action to protect your inventory. Don’t stand idly by while your hard earned money walks out of your doors. Take the initiative to adopt protective standards in your store and watch how quickly you can cut down on losses and increase your stores profitability.
For more information, contact us: Anti-Shoplifting, or call 1.770.426.0547
