Staff Editor — Page 37

You Are Losing More Money Than You Realize

June 30, 2016 by Staff Editor Leave a Comment

Yep, you probably are! The shoplifter that walked out the door with your $45 item cost you MORE actual money than $45!

Many Retailers do not understand the actual impact of theft. For example:

You experience a $45 loss (shoplifting, employee theft, vendor fraud…). Is that $45 the total impact on the bottom line? Nope, you actually lost $2,250.00 in real money.

For your organization to simply recover or break even on a $45 loss, you would have to sell an additional $2,250.00 to break even! ($45.00 divided by .02% profit margin). This is on top of your normal sales.

WOW, how many more items are you going to have to order, receive, count, mark, prepare paperwork for, stock, and finally sell just to produce these extra sales? Theft/Shrinkage really cannot be recovered from because you should have had those sales to begin with.

Add to that the loss of sales because the stolen item was not available for sale to a legitimate customer.

You then begin to understand why one third of U.S. business failures are blamed on theft.

The obvious solution is to prevent the theft (we can help with that), errors and abuse that cause loss in the first place.

Loss vs. Sales

So if we assume for a moment that your company has a 2% bottom line net profit margin. Two percent is considered an overall retail normal margin. Yours may be higher/lower. The net profit is your final profit after all expenses such as payroll, payment to vendors, rent, taxes, utilities….

The chart below shows the sales required to replace losses due to theft:

AMOUNT OF LOSS 2% PROFIT MARGIN SALES

NEEDED TO REPLACE LOSSES

$100 $ 5,000

$500 $ 25,000

$ 2,500 $ 125,000

$ 5,000 $ 250,000

$ 7,500 $ 375,000

$10,000 $ 500,000

$12,500 $ 625,000

$15,000 $ 750,000

$17,500 $ 875,000

$20,000 $1,000,000

Inventory shrinkage cancels millions of dollars in sales. That means all of your hard work for an entire year can be wiped out by a single loss. Loss Prevention Systems can fix your shoplifting problems!

Filed Under: Featured Tagged With: Alpha 2 Alarm, Alpha 3 Alarm, Alpha High Theft Solutions, Alpha Jewel Lok, Alpha Nano Gate, Alpha Security, Alpha Spider Wrap, Anti-shoplifting training, anti-theft devices, anti-theft tags, anti-thefts devices, EAS Devices, employee background checks, Employee Theft, Georgia shoplifting prevention, Georgia shoplifting systems, Loss Prevention Seminar, Loss Prevention Workshop, mobile POS loss prevention, retail security and monitoring, Shoplifting Prevention, shoplifting statistics, shoplifting violence, surveillance

HOW SHOPLIFTERS CAN DECREASE THE VALUE OF YOUR BRAND

June 30, 2016 by Staff Editor Leave a Comment

I’m sure you’ve already read how shoplifters cost you money. It’s probably hard to digest the dire financial implications that shoplifters have on all of our businesses. Without adequate controls in place, you are putting your business and your financial well-being at risk, and honestly, you just can’t do that. That’s why we have to have a camera system and why EAS systems are a necessity and not just a “nice to have” technology. That’s exactly why we have to invest in exception reporting tools to help us identify criminal activity and why we preach the value of exceptional customer service in our stores.

Value. Your customers shop with you because you provide them with value. They could shop at 12 other stores and some of them might even be more competitively priced than you, but there’s something that draws them into your store. That’s the value of your brand. Retailers have a following just like any band, performer or Hollywood movie start. Believe it or not, you have fans, some of which will refuse to shop anywhere else. Ever stop to think what it is about your store that causes this? There could be several reasons, really. In my personal experience (I have a few stores that I exclusively shop at for different needs). All have a few things in common.

In stock position is number one on my list. If I am going shopping, I normally know exactly what I want. I don’t spend a lot of time browsing and normally don’t need a whole lot of help from a store employee. I simply expect that the item I want be available for me to grab and go. Having available inventory for your customer is key component to your success.

If you’re constantly targeted by shoplifters and dishonest employees, those in demand items may not always be available for your legitimate customers. How many times have you walked a customer out the door because you didn’t have the thing they were looking for, even though you do stock that particular item? More times than you care to admit, I’m sure. So not only did you lose the item to theft, you’ve lost the sale to the customer as well. If that happens enough times to enough customers, you’ll be known as the retailer that “never has what I need in stock”.

Customer engagement is another factor I consider. I don’t often ask for help, but when I do. I expect an employee to be readily accessible, close by, knowledgeable and friendly. I also want to know that the employee is aware that I am in their area and available to help should I need it. This makes me feel that my business is wanted and appreciated.

Shoplifters will target stores that they know they can operate in with impunity. Those are the stores where employees ignore customers (you know the stores I’m talking about here). If a thief knows you are not paying attention, they will rob you blind and then come back for seconds. Customer service is one of the best methods to deter a criminal.

As a retailer, you have to offer value to your customers. You definitely can’t do that if your employees don’t engage your shopper, you don’t have the item in stock and your prices are out in left field compared with your competitor. Setting yourself apart from the competition is what drives business into your store and will keep you in business. As retailers and small business owners, remember that your brand carries value. Whether it’s a positive or negative value rest solely on your shoulders and has a direct effect on how your approach shrink and external theft.

Filed Under: Featured Tagged With: Alpha 2 Alarm, Alpha 3 Alarm, Alpha High Theft Solutions, Alpha Jewel Lok, Alpha Nano Gate, Alpha Security, Alpha Spider Wrap, Anti-shoplifting training, anti-theft devices, anti-theft tags, anti-thefts devices, Background checks, EAS Devices, Employee Theft, Georgia Alarms systems, Georgia shoplifting prevention, Georgia shoplifting systems, Loss Prevention Seminar, prevent shrinkage, Retail Anti Theft Devices, security devices, Shoplifting Prevention, shoplifting statistics, shoplifting violence, surveillance

EXACTLY HOW DO YOU LOSE MONEY TO CREDIT CARD FRAUD

June 30, 2016 by Staff Editor Leave a Comment

You have (or I hope you have) read the last article on preventing check fraud. It’s a great way to protect your business from a different avenue of fraud. Another, much more popular and prevalent scheme is credit card fraud. The United States lags far behind the other major countries in the fight against credit card fraud. We’ve only just begun adopting chip and pin technology and it will be several more years before we see magnetic strips become a relic of the past. So exactly how can you identify and prevent a fraudulent change from happening in your store and how exactly do you lose money on these transactions?

Credit card fraud is the one of the biggest, single fraud scheme affect my stores. While the criminals evolve their tactics quite often, there are some general rules you can follow to identify possible fraudulent transactions.

Large Dollar Gift Card Purchases| Normally, a legitimate customer will not purchase 3 $500 in back-to-back transactions with 8 different credit cards. This is a red flag and should involve management immediately.
Multiple Transactions with Multiple Credit Cards| This is another red flag that could help you identify criminal activity. The average American owns about 3 credit cards. If you have an individual using 5-8 credit cards to make several big ticket purchases, then you’re probably dealing with some fraud.
The Credit Card Lacks the Eagle Hologram|Holograms are hard to fake (although I’ve seen some really good ones). Often, the counterfeiters will skip over this step, so I always look for the eagle.
Typos| Since a lot of counterfeit cards come from manufacturers overseas, every now and then, you can spot a typo on the bank’s name, or even the credit card company (I’ve personally seen “MasterCard” about a dozen times.)
Verify ID on all purchases over $X. Now this one is tricky. About 3 years ago, this was an easy, sure fire way to spot a fraudster, as the ID and the card name would not match. Over the past 18 months, we have seen these groups become highly sophisticated in this area. They will now very often, imprint the actual name of the criminal on the card. They also imprint the card with an account number that is not the account number that is embedded in the magnetic strip, which makes identifying the card as fake at the point of sale almost impossible.

So now you have a few best practices to use in your fight against credit card theft, but you may still be asking yourself, “Why should I care? Then bank covers the loss to the customer anyway.” While that statement is absolutely true, the banks will then issue a “charge-back” to the retailer that accepted the fraudulent purchase. This means you can be out thousands upon thousands of dollars if you’re not proactive in your approach to identify and prevent fraudulent credit card purchases in your store.

Essentially, what that means is the criminal impacts two people; the customer that is a victim of identity theft and the retailer that must then cover the cost of the transaction. For a large corporation, it may not be a big deal to dole out tens of thousands of dollars per month in chargebacks, but to a small business owner, even a few hundred could make the difference between being in the red, or black.

My best advice to you is that you follow the guidelines above and update your POS systems to accept the new chip and pin technology. Hopefully, in the coming years as the old tech is phased out and the more secure chip technology takes over, brick and mortar credit card fraud will be a distant memory. (Online fraud, however will take center stage… but I’ll save that for next time.)

Filed Under: Featured Tagged With: Alpha 2 Alarm, Alpha 3 Alarm, Alpha High Theft Solutions, Alpha Jewel Lok, Alpha Nano Gate, Alpha Security, Alpha Spider Wrap, Anti-shoplifting training, anti-theft devices, anti-theft tags, anti-thefts devices, Background checks, EAS Devices, employee background checks, Employee Theft, Georgia Alarms systems, Loss Prevention Workshop, mobile POS loss prevention, retail security and monitoring, Shoplifting Prevention, shoplifting violence

HOW SMALL BUSINESS OWNERS CAN PROTECT THEMSELVES FROM CHECK FRAUD

June 30, 2016 by Staff Editor Leave a Comment

You know, we talk about the thousands of ways you, the small business owner, loses money to thieves constantly. Most of that is centered on shoplifters and boosters stealing your merchandise. We talk about that for good reason… it’s one of the biggest financial impacts to your business if left unchecked. However, there are so many other ways that your business can be targeted by criminals and some of them may appear so legitimate, that you would have no idea you were a victim for weeks. In that time, the criminal is long gone and you’re left paying for that theft out of your pocket. One area of training that is often overlooked in retail is check fraud. I’ll give you some advice on how to identify this in your store and protect yourself from vulnerability.

I’ve worked in big box retail my entire adult life, mostly at a regional Loss Prevention level. The way large businesses protect themselves against phony checks is through a third party company. By using this company, the retailer in fact takes $0 loss on any fraudulent check purchases, since the 3^rd party company gives the retailer, through a quick scan on the POS, a guarantee on the check that it is accepting. That’s great for billion dollar companies that accept thousands upon thousands of checks each and every day. But what about you?

To protect yourself against counterfeit and fraudulent checks, you have to know what to look for. While technology is helping criminals create and print better looking checks, there are several tell-tale signs that you can look for to stop this from happening to you and your business.

Micro print| Take a really close look at a check if you happen to have one lying around. Pay close attention to your signature line. I bet you’ve never noticed that the line is in fact, not a line at all. It’s actually fine print. Really fine print. Often it says “micro print” or “security” and it is very difficult for a fraudster to recreate. In fact, if you try to copy the check on even a high end scanner and laser printer, it will not come out perfectly. This is absolutely, hands down one of the easiest ways to spot a fake.
Perforation| Pay special attention to perforations on the check if you suspect fraud. The vast majority of personal checks have a perforation at the top, which of course makes it easy for you to remove from your checkbook. Often, a fraudster will copy the checks on laser printers, giving the check a smooth side all around. Business checks will more often than not, have perforations along the left side, so also keep that in mind.
Single Checks| If someone is making a rather large purchase and are paying with a check, take note if that individual has just that one single check, and not an entire book. This can be a strong indicator of fraud. I mean, who just carries around one check?
Back of Check| Pay attention to the back of any check. Did you know that on the opposite side of the endorsement is a little paragraph explaining the security features of that exact check? Imagine that! Use that to your advantage and look for the features to be prevalent on the check. Most checks also have a watermark on the back of the check that is almost impossible to fake.
Out of State checks| You know your customers pretty well. If you are a local store and you have someone attempting to spend a great deal of money on high end product with a check from an out of state bank, pay close attention. I’ve dealt with this plenty of times in my career and the easiest thing to do is contact the financial institution on the check. Very often, you’ll find that the financial institution doesn’t even exist!!
Paper Quality| There are two type of phony checks. Ones that are counterfeited from scratch, and those that are actual checks that have been washed in some way. Each one will give you specific clues to the authenticity of the check itself. Washed checks will just look odd. Under the slightest of scrutiny, you should be able to notice that the check has been altered, whether it be an erased line or perhaps you may even still be able to see the original information underneath. Counterfeit checks will usually be printed on paper that’s not of the same quality as a legitimate check. It may feel a little different in your hands, or may be slightly thicker than a normal check.

Now these are just some general guidelines that should help you to identify the majority of check fraud. Since criminals are constantly evolving their tactics, there will never be an “all-inclusive” black and white guide to identifying fraud, following these few steps and using a bit of common sense can help protect your business from falling victim to a forged, counterfeit or otherwise phony check.

Filed Under: Featured Tagged With: Alpha 2 Alarm, Alpha 3 Alarm, Alpha High Theft Solutions, Alpha Jewel Lok, Alpha Nano Gate, Alpha Security, Anti-shoplifting training, anti-theft tags, anti-thefts devices, EAS Devices, employee background checks, Employee Theft, Georgia shoplifting prevention, Loss Prevention Seminar, Loss Prevention Seminars, Periodic inventory, POS ROI, Prevent Shoplifting, prevent shrinkage, racial profiling, Retail Anti Theft Devices, retail security, retail security and monitoring, security devices, shoplifting, Shoplifting Prevention, shoplifting statistics, shoplifting violence, surveillance

Improved Inventory Results With Alpha Spider Wrap

June 29, 2016 by Staff Editor Leave a Comment

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Improved Inventory Results With Alpha Spider Wrap

As a former store Loss Prevention Manager I found inventory time could be a little nerve wracking because I never knew what surprises the inventory results would hold. I usually felt fairly confident we would have good shrink results but my concern was seeing what our top shortage departments would be. Were the major items that we were losing due to theft or operational issues? What would those items be? Sometimes there would be items that were almost guaranteed to be on the Top 10 shortage department lists, such as cosmetics and DVDs. Occasionally something would show up that made me scratch my head trying to figure out what in the world I was going to do to prevent shoplifting of the item and prevent a recurrence the next year. One such item that made the list one year was vacuum cleaners. The fix for us came when we started using Alpha Spider Wrap to protect our high end vacuums.

Alpha Spider Wrap uses aircraft grade steel cable housed in a cinching device to protect merchandise. The wires can be loosened to fit around a boxed item and then tightened to create a snug fit and keep it from being slipped off. These retail anti-theft devices come in different sizes so even though we used the larger wraps for our vacuums, we had smaller wraps available for other merchandise in the store. Alpha Spider Wraps are available in several models with different features. They are all radio frequency sensitive to work with store electronic article surveillance systems. Some are tamper proof so they will sound an alarm if someone attempts to cut a wire to remove the device. There are also wraps available in a 3 alarm design that will self-alarm if someone were to get a protected item out the doors, past electronic article surveillance antennas.

In the case of our vacuum cleaner issue, we knew there had been some attempts to roll out vacuums past the cash registers, but we did not know how many thefts had taken place over the year. To prevent shoplifting we had placed our closed circuit television cameras on the aisle where the vacuums were merchandised. We had also attempted to use retail anti-theft devices such as EAS tags and tamper-proof security tape on the boxes. Finally, I tried to staff my front end security team members at times we suspected shoplifters were trying to conduct roll-outs. Obviously the results spoke for themselves and it was apparent we had not done enough to curb the thieves. They were cleaning house (pun intended) and I needed a new tactic, especially when I learned from Loss Prevention Managers in other stores that they were experiencing the same problem.

Our company had recently started purchasing Alpha Spider Wrap and sending them to stores. I had our merchandise protection specialist and our security team members start securing the vacuums with these new retail anti-theft devices. At this point we were also tracking sales and on-hand counts of our high end vacuums and as we wrapped merchandise we started to notice that the in-stocks were improving. Major improvements were seen in the decrease of empty shelf spaces and much to the chagrin of my Loss Prevention peers; I was hearing they were still experiencing significant losses. It seemed the steps we were taking were shifting shoplifter activity to other stores and away from us. By the next inventory we saw a drastic decline in the shortage dollars for this department, due in large part to the use of these wraps.

Retail anti-theft devices such as Alpha Spider Wrap can prevent shoplifting in your store, lik it did on ours. Why wait for inventory results before protecting your products? Be proactive now and watch your profits grow.

Need information on Alpha Spider Wrap? Give us a call at 1.770.426.0547 now.

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: 3 Alarm, Alpha Spider Wrap, Prevent Shoplifting, Spider Wrap

Shoplifters Don’t Worry About Bottle Prices, That’s Why You Should – Use Bottle Security For ALL Wine And Spirits.

June 23, 2016 by Staff Editor Leave a Comment

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Shoplifters Don’t Worry About Bottle Prices, That’s Why You Should – Use Bottle Security For ALL Wine And Spirits.

Wine and liquor bottle security for grocery stores and alcohol beverage stores can be a difficult problem to address. According to the 2014-2015 Global Retail Theft Barometer report, in the Food and Beverages vertical rankings category, wines and spirits ranked number one both in North America AND Worldwide. The report states on page 55, “Products that are easy to steal, as well as easy to sell, are most prone to theft – resulting in high pilferage for items such as accessories, perfumes, and wines and spirits.” If you run a store that sells wine or alcohol you may be seeing empty shelves, but not from sales. Thieves could be targeting your merchandise if you aren’t protecting it. You may contend that you are protecting your merchandise because you are locking up your high dollar beverages. You might even argue that you are using bottle locks to secure merchandise higher than a specific price point. I would commend you on those efforts, but I believe you could do better. Shoplifters may be denied access to the expensive goods, but they will move to the cheaper items if they think no one is paying attention. A solution for protecting your lower-risk, lower end-merchandise is the Alpha Security Steel grip bottle cap.

The Steel Grip lock is an electronic article surveillance (EAS) device that is designed to provide bottle security for lower-risk wines and spirits. The lock has a metal strap that is secured around the lower portion of the bottle cap, tightening it around the neck of the bottle. While it does not protect the full cap like the other styles of bottle locks do, it does provide visual deterrence and EAS alarm protection if someone attempts to steal a bottle.

I have always been opposed to the merchandise protection strategy that sets a price point on merchandise before it is protected with some type of security device. As a former Loss Prevention Manager, I had to abide by similar guidelines and it annoyed me. In my opinion, this type of strategy is indicating there will be an acceptable level of loss. Here is what I mean, I walked into one grocery store and looked at their selection of wines. I tried to determine the price point that they were using before they implemented bottle security. It appeared the price of a bottle had to be around $29.99 or above before they used bottle locks to protect the merchandise. There were not a lot of selections at this price point, so that left a LOT of wine and champagne unprotected below that price. As a matter of fact, I would estimate over 95 percent of the merchandise in the department was NOT protected and therefore subject to theft. It might be irritating to a shoplifter to be prevented from stealing the higher priced bottle, but I can tell you from experience, they will be willing to settle for a $20 bottle if the $30 bottle is not available. Why is that loss acceptable to any store manager? That’s the message being sent.

The best strategy for improving profits and keeping store shelves in-stock for your legitimate customers is to protect all of the merchandise in a category of which you are concerned could be a target for theft. In a grocery store, squash and celery theft may not be a significant concern, but wine is (as indicated in the Global Retail Theft Barometer Report). Grocery managers should not worry about merchandise protection for veggies, but investing in Alpha Security bottle locks for all of the wine in the store could pay big dividends, especially if all the bottles are protected in some fashion.

Use Alpha Security full size bottle locks on your top shelf/ high ticket wines and spirits but don’t neglect the lower priced bottles. Use the Steel Grip bottle lock to deter ALL theft in your store and watch your profits grow.

Bottle Security is important and we can help you with it. Call 1.770.426.0547 and let’s talk.

Filed Under: Security Tagged With: Alpha Security, bottle lock, bottle locks, bottle security, liquor bottle security

Shoplifting Prevention

June 21, 2016 by Staff Editor Leave a Comment

When dealing with a shoplifter, your employees are at risk of violence. Knowing the company’s policies on how to approach and deal with a shoplifter must be known by every employee in your company. A loss prevention training seminar that will help your employees or your loss prevention team deal with such situations is imperative for your business. Safety is always the most important issue when dealing with a shoplifter, and your employees should know this fact. A law suit that can cost your business millions of dollars is not something you can afford to have. Call us, we will walk you though our programs and find the one that meets your need.

For more about shoplifting news, follow the links below.

$20 million lawsuit filed against Arundel Mills security

The family of a suspected shoplifter who drowned in 2014 near Arundel Mills mall has filed a $20 million lawsuit against the shopping center’s security staff for allegedly chasing him to his death.

The family of Tavon Talley filed the lawsuit against Valor Security Services and Mydatt Services in Baltimore City Circuit Court in February. A judge has denied a motion by the defendants to transfer the case to Anne Arundel Circuit Court and allowed the dispute to move forward to trial.

As of Friday, a trial date had yet to be scheduled, according to online court records.

Reached by phone Friday afternoon, Thomas P. Bernier, the Baltimore attorney representing Valor Security and Mydatt Services, declined to comment citing the ongoing litigation.

A spokesman for Mydatt Services, Valor Security’s parent company, did not immediately return a call for comment.

According to the complaint, on July 7, 2014, Talley was at the Zumiez store, which sells skate and snowboarding equipment, when a manager came to suspect the 26-year-old of shoplifting.

Connecticut’s Facial Recognition Bill: A Model for States?

State legislators step back from a bill that would limit such technology and instead take a reasonable approach — that should serve as a model for state legislators considering regulation for other emerging technologies.

Earlier this year, the Connecticut General Assembly was considering a bill that would prohibit the use of facial recognition technology for commercial applications unless companies got prior consent from consumers to gather that information — a move that would have severely curtailed the deployment of the technology. Fortunately, state lawmakers listened to reason and revised the bill so that it now simply requires retailers to display signs indicating that their establishments use facial recognition. This type of reasonable approach to regulating new technology should serve as a model for state legislators considering regulation for other emerging technologies.

Facial recognition is a form of automated image recognition that uses computer algorithms to uniquely identify an individual in a database based on a photo. Concerned with the growing accuracy of the technology, some privacy advocates have argued that facial recognition is a threat to privacy and public anonymity and have recommended the government impose restrictions on both public– andprivate-sector uses of it.

Police: Long Island Macy’s Loss Prevention Employee Steals $69,000 In Perfume

MANHASSET, N.Y. (CBSNewYork) — Police said a trusted security guard in charge of theft prevention at a Long Island Macy’s used his position to steal.

As CBS2’s Jennifer McLogan reported, Juan Adriano Infante, 21 allegedly got away with $69,000 worth of Chanel perfume.

The Morrow family, who are loyal customers at Macy’s of Manhasset, were disappointed to learn of the heist of products from Chanel – their favorite fragrance.

“He was security and he was stealing?” Ms. Morrow said.

Police and prosecutors said Infante, the loss prevention associate for Macy’s, entered the stockroom where the high-end perfume is kept in storage. Police alleged that Infante carried box after box out of a side exit – making off with 1,000 expensive bottles of perfume.

It happened after he mysteriously disabled the alarm, police said.

“He would actually call the fire alarm company; have them disengage the fire alarm. At that point, he would walk out of the store – the side exit; put these fragrances in his car,” said Nassau County police Detective Lt. Richard Lebrun.

Filed Under: Shoplifting Prevention Tagged With: Alpha 2 Alarm, Alpha 3 Alarm, Alpha High Theft Solutions, Alpha Jewel Lok, Alpha Nano Gate, Alpha Security, Alpha Spider Wrap, Anti-shoplifting training, anti-theft devices, anti-theft tags, anti-thefts devices, employee background checks, Employee Theft, Georgia Alarms systems, Loss Prevention Seminars, Loss Prevention Training, Loss Prevention Workshop, POS ROI, Retail Anti Theft Devices, Shoplifting Prevention, surveillance

Is Technology The Answer To Shoplifting And Employee Theft?

June 15, 2016 by Staff Editor Leave a Comment

What is the solution to shoplifting and employee theft? Are harsher punishment by law the solution to this devastating social problem? Technology aimed to help retail stores prevent this problem do not seem to be helping yet. As the technology advances, so does the professional shoplifter. Meanwhile the losses due to shoplifting and employee theft are becoming retailers greatest problems to date.

For more about this and other stories, follow the links below.

Shoplifting: Retail’s $45 Billion Problem

Retailers are struggling to keep tabs on shoplifters who are increasingly becoming their top source of loss, averaging $377 per incidence, up $60 from the year before.

At 39 percent, shoplifting was found to be the biggest contributor among factors that led to overall inventory shrinkage in 2015 causing a $45.2 billion loss across the United States, according to NRF’s 2016 National Retail Security survey. The new numbers reflect a $1.2 billion increase in losses from 2014.

The inventory shrink averaged 1.38 percent of retail sales and saw 47 percent of retailers reporting losses in 2015.

“With a constantly evolving retail landscape, loss prevention becomes more complex every day,” said NRF Vice President of Loss Prevention Bob Moraca. “LP professionals have been working diligently to find advancements in technology aimed at deterring crime in our industry, sometimes even before it happens – but as our techniques get more sophisticated, so too do the criminals.”

Another factor adding to inventory shrinkage was a rise in robberies that exclusively targeted jewelry stores. The average loss reported by robbed stores increased from $2,465 per incidence in 2014 to $8,180.17 last year.

RETAIL INVENTORY SHRINKAGE INCREASED TO $45.2 BILLION IN 2015

The 2016 National Retail Security Survey, conducted in collaboration by the National Retail Federation and the University of Florida, reveals that retailers’ inventory shrink averaged 1.38 percent of retail sales, or $45.2 billion in 2015, up by $1.2 billion from 2014.

According to the report, 47 percent of retailers surveyed reported increases in overall inventory shrink in 2015, with shoplifting accounting for the greatest cause with an average loss of $377 per incident (39 percent), up nearly $60 from 2014.

Robberies continue to be a growing expense for retailers, costing an average of $8,180.17, up from $2,465. The rise in robberies in 2015 was driven by an increase in jewelry stores reporting extremely high average losses.

Gieves & Hawkes Installs RFID to Prevent Shrinkage, Track Inventory

The U.K. men’s wear retailer is using a solution from Catalyst to invisibly secure the doorway at its two newest stores, and to make sure its products are always in stock.

Apr 05, 2016—

To improve inventory visibility and prevent loss, men’s clothing retailerGieves & Hawkes has deployed a radio frequency identification system at its store in Birmingham, England. The solution tracks goods as they are received and stored in the back room or store front, then prevents unpurchased merchandise from being taken out the front door by sounding an alert, as well as storing data regarding which item is being removed. The company is expanding its RFID deployment to its newest store, located in of Hackney, an East London borough. The technology is provided by RFID solutions companyCatalyst. Both Gieves & Hawkes and Catalyst are owned by Li & Fung.

Gieves & Hawkes is a high-end men’s custom and ready-to-wear clothing retailer based in London, with more than 200 stores in China alone, as well as eight stores in the United Kingdom. The company was founded in 1771, making it one of the world’s oldest tailors. Britain’s royal family and royal military have worn its custom suits and clothing for several centuries. (Gieves & Hawkes did not respond to requests for comment.)

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Strong Hiring Practices can Deter Employee Dishonesty

June 13, 2016 by Staff Editor Leave a Comment

Employee theft is a common and costly problem in retail. Some businesses’ are reporting that, for the first time, internal pilferage has now surpassed external. There are many ways to control and manage internal theft. But, one of the most effective ways is often overlooked. Stop it before it starts.

Many companies have the misconception that “management” starts after someone is hired. But, good management practices start before the employee is ever hired. They start when the candidate is sitting in her first interview.

Companies who’re committed to integrity understand that from the moment the potential hire encounters the company (i.e., website, employment application, recruiter, Human Resources) he should know that the company values honesty. Values it and is activity looking for employees who do too.

When a business makes it a priority and emphasizes it as a condition of employment, dishonest people will start to be weeded out. Some will self select — they’ll become uninterested in the job and move on to a less stringent company. Or if they think they can cheat the system, make it difficult for them to get through the hiring process.

One way to get people to fall by the wayside is to have an up-to-date written drug free workplace policy, which includes rigorous pre-hire testing. The applicant must sign it and follow through with the testing. Many will sit in the interview, say they agree with the policy and never go for the testing. Or, of course, fail it.

Another way to screen for honesty is to let people know up-front, clearly and in bold letters that the company has a firm policy of checking references, education and work history. It may also check on credit and criminal history, depending on the job requirements.

People are blatant about their dishonesty, they count on nobody checking — make sure they know your company does. They’ll walk away and not even attempt to apply for the job or will be caught in their deception when their information is checked.

Be very careful about using social media in hiring practices. It shouldn’t be used as a shortcut. It’s not a substitute for due diligence and good procedures. If an interviewer doesn’t hire a woman because they found out through Facebook she was pregnant, the company is in violation of the law.

The laws concerning the applicants’ “right to privacy” and potential employers’ “right to know” are just starting to be written. Many legal experts are encouraging businesses to err on the side of caution and use only legally established hiring methods. Don’t let your company become the test case to make new law.

Nicole Abbott is a professional writer who’s had over 200 articles published. She’s a business consultant and former psycho-therapist with over 20 years of experience in mental health, business and addiction. She’s a coach, lecturer, trainer and facilitator. She has conducted over 200 workshops, trainings, presentations, seminars and college classes.

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Do You Need To Build A Loss Prevention Team In Your Store?

June 9, 2016 by Staff Editor Leave a Comment

According to the National Retail Federation-NRF organized retail crime costs the retail industry approximately $30 billion each year. 97% of the retailers surveyed admit to being victims of organized retail crime in their stores, and the problems of organized retail crime, employee theft and shoplifting do not seem to abate. The solution to this devastating problem seems to elude retailers, law enforcement, and communities across the country.

To read more about this and other topics, follow the links below.

How to Build a Loss Prevention Program in a High-Risk Store

Integrating an effective loss prevention program can yield dramatic improvements when it comes to mitigating inventory shrinkage. But aligning an LP department appropriately within the structure of an existing company is not an easy thing to do. It is crucial to ensure that the LP team becomes an essential component of the entire store process.

Which Stores are High-Risk?

It makes sense to target the stores with the highest amount of loss risk first in order to make the greatest impact from the very beginning. When Stage Stores decided to realign its loss prevention department in the early 2000s, for example, the LP corporate manager worked with regional managers to rank stores based on shrinkage performance and its change over time.

Other attributes that were factored into the grouping evaluation included geographic location, internal and external theft history, and employee turnover rates. They eventually landed on a bundle of 50 stores that could be designated as “high-risk” and decided to focus their attentions on these stores.

Employee theft cited as largest cause of retail loss

Crime cost retailers £2.34 billion last year, according to a recent survey conducted by conference series Retail Risk London, and the UK Retail Fraud Survey 2016.

Employee theft was identified as the single biggest cause, with 68% of retailers citing it as their top area of loss.

Published by Retail Knowledge and sponsored for the second consecutive year by WIS International, the survey is the most extensive report into the systems, processes and strategies of the UK’s top retailers available, and covers retail transactions accounting for some 32% of all UK retail sales online and offline through 34,950 stores across the UK.

Shrinkage rates vary by retail sector from mass merchants and department stores at 2.68% of sales to a low of 0.25% of sales for hospitality and leisure retailers. However, mass merchants and department stores have seen a massive increase in shrinkage rates since last year, of 58% whereas hospitality and leisure retailers have seen a decrease of 38%.

Employee involved in retail theft ring that stole $11,000 from Clinton outlet store

CLINTON–Police are trying to find a group responsible for stealing $11,000 in merchandise from a store at Clinton Crossing.

A group that was connected to an employee at the POLO outlet in the mall was able to steal the merchandise between January and March 2016. The scam worked by having the employee, who was a cashier, void large transactions but still place the merchandise in shopping bags for the customers. The customers were involved in the scam, and left with the stolen merchandise.

The same “customers” were involved during all the transactions.

The employee at POLO admitted to the scam, but she refuses to name the other suspects. Police are not yet naming her or saying if she’s been charged.

The suspects may be from the New London area. If you have information please call Clinton Police at 860-669-0451 or email [email protected].

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