You spend a lot of your hard-earned revenue on purchasing more clothing for your loyal customers to come shop, purchase, and enjoy. The last thing you want is for some thief to come into your store and clean house, taking those tokens of your hard work, and those outfits that your shoppers love to buy. It may not seem like a problem today, but can you never be sure when a shoplifter will come take advantage of you. There are some important tips to ensure clothing security in your store to keep those loyal customers coming back, and to keep those would-be shoplifters at bay.
Merchandise Protection is probably the first, most important way to keep clothing in your store. Securing clothing by using ink tags or Electronic Article Surveillance (EAS) hard-tags is the primary way to protect your product. These devices are able to provide more protection that you might first think. Not only do they physically prevent criminals from taking your merchandise, but they also psychologically deter a large number of would-be shoplifters from even attempting such a feat. Beyond that, they also allow store employees to easily identify illegitimate customers trying to defeat devices securing clothing.
Fitting room controls are another essential aspect of protecting clothing. Most clothing theft occurs inside of fitting rooms; they are the perfect hiding place for thieves to do their dirty-work without being identified. If you have in-store fitting areas, it is a good idea to have an employee work these areas. Counting the number of items a customer enters the fitting room with, and recording this number is another strong psychological deterrent for bad guys (and girls). It also allows the fitting room attendant to remember what the customer went in with, and acknowledge any discrepancies that are noticed.
I worked for a clothing retail store in loss prevention for quite some time. One of the greatest theft preventers was the fitting room security. Fitting room attendants were trained to count items, and place items in the fitting rooms for the customers. As time went on, the associates would check back with the customers, asking them if they would like any other sizes or styles, sometimes offering them other style selections the employee thought might go well with what they saw the customer taking into the fitting room. It was a great way to prevent theft, and to encourage sales on different items!
Employee awareness is the last piece to ensure optimal clothing security. The better your employees know the product that is being sold in the stores, and the more they know how to identify suspicious behavior, the better they will be able to prevent merchandise theft. At one store where I worked, employees were trained to identify alert signals in the changing areas. When there were item discrepancies, the employee would simply provide a customer service-friendly statement, identifying the item they noticed missing specifically, such as, “Did those white-wash jeans not work out for you?” This would frequently panic thieves into dumping the merchandise concealed, and would be great customer service for those who were legitimate shoppers!
It is important that you do everything you can to make sure your clothing is protected and available for customers to purchase. Take some of these tips, get creative, and have fun with them. It will keep your customers happy, and keep the cash in your pockets and out of the hands of criminals.
For more information contact us at Clothing Security or call 1.770.426.0547