Anti Shoplifting – Is Your Return Policy Too Liberal?

In spite of anti shoplifting efforts, according to a recent survey merchandise returns amount to over $219 billion a year. Nearly $12 billion of this is fraudulent.  This category of retail loss is significant.

Why has this category of retail loss kept increasing?

From the thief’s standpoint, obtaining full value of the goods is preferable to fencing the merchandise for cents on the dollar, or attempting to sell it on the brown market for less than the full retail price. There are so many ways to return stolen merchandise to the store: using duplicate or counterfeit receipts; legitimate receipts accompanying stolen merchandise; and buying merchandise from a discounter and returning to a full service retailer, are only some of them.

The source of the stolen merchandise brought back for return may be a result of internal theft, sweethearting, or more likely shoplifters.

It is doubly painful for the retailer to pay retail for his own merchandise that he usually buys wholesale from a vendor.

To become a harder target in this area of retail loss while maintaining great customer relations is a balancing act faced by retailers every day.

Shutting of the supply through anti shoplifting efforts is one way to tip the scales in the retailer’s favor.

Checkpoint Systems’ line of retail theft prevention products allows full access to the customer to inspect the merchandise, but prevents it from being stolen by detecting Checkpoint security tags attached to the merchandise as the shoplifter attempts to exit the store.  This not only announces that merchandise is being taken, but serves as a deterrent to potential shoplifters who know why the Checkpoint security tags are attached.

For assistance with your anti shoplifting strategy, call the experts at Loss Prevention Systems, Inc. at 1-770-426-0547 or click here to contact us.  Please visit our Online Retail Loss Prevention Store for the latest in Loss Prevention products.