Okay, let’s be realistic, ceasing shoplifting altogether is completely impossible. However there is no reason you can’t be on the front line and ready to wage war against these profit robbing bandits! If you truly want to stop shoplifting or at least make an impact in reducing it, you have to arm your store with the appropriate anti-shoplifting tools to combat it. Retail theft prevention is not only your responsibility but significantly impacts your bottom line.

The first and most important element to putting the brakes on shoplifters is putting a solid loss prevention program in place. A good program will consist of a sound policy, knowledge of local petit theft laws, trained personnel, anti-theft device systems and cross training of all store associates to make sure everyone is familiar with the your retail theft prevention policies.

Be sure all associates, members of management and employees understand why it is important to not only stop shoplifting but why your loss prevention program will benefit the consumer and company bottom line too.

All personnel should be knowledgeable about how to identify a potential shoplifter as well as your company policy regarding apprehending or approaching shoplifters. For instance, some companies will only allow trained Loss Prevention Detectives or Asset Protection Specialists to handle shoplifters. Your regular hourly associates need to understand whether or not you have a policy like this in place. Not having everyone onboard with total comprehension of your retail theft prevention program could be a massive legal liability. 

Ultimately though, being proactive with good anti-shoplifting measures is essential to preventing loss. A good loss prevention plan will include the use of anti-theft security devices like EAS (Electronic Article Surveillance) tags and other mechanisms that make it difficult for shoplifting to occur. These products are vastly inexpensive when compared with the amount of loss your likely incurring on a daily basis.

Anti-shoplifting devices also play a key role in deterring ‘would be’ thieves from even bothering with stealing your product. A lesser seasoned or amateur shoplifter often times never bother planning to steal at a store if they know beforehand that the store has EAS tagged products in place. It’s just not worth the time, hassle or risk to deal with them in most cases.
So making sure your loss prevention plan includes the use of these effective measures, to ward off potential thieves and make it difficult for shoplifters who tempt fate anyways. 

Everyone who works for you should be trained on how these devices work as well. They should be aware of not only how they work but what they can and cannot do too. Additional training should be given to show associates how to properly affix, remove and store these anti-shoplifting tags.

A good loss prevention plan should not lack cooperative communication between store management and if available, loss prevention personnel. The more open and communicative you are with your loss prevention team, the better chance you will have to stop shoplifting in your store(s). Management should fully support loss prevention operations, as should loss prevention support store management reciprocally. 

As long as you have a solid plan and written and distributed program, everyone should be on the same page and you will be well on your way to stop shoplifting. Make sure you have the proper tools in place with an informed staff and you will cut your losses significantly. 

Lastly remember that shoplifting is only part of the problem when it comes to reducing shrink in your retail stores. Other areas such as paperwork errors and internal theft weigh into the equation as well. So a portion of your loss prevention program should focus on these things as well, in addition to the aforementioned plans to stop shoplifting. 

For more information on how to bump up your anti-shoplifting awareness, contact us or call 1.770.426.0547.

For all of you who pay much attention to high school, you probably are well aware that winter formals are just around the corner for schools across the country. Yes, that starry time where the winter formal court walk across the gymnasium floor. Her in a stunning dress (that she will only wear once) and him in his rented tuxedo. Yes, a magical night for all indeed. If that ice queen is like thousands of teenage girls out there, your store could end up renting her that dress; unless your store is using Alpha Shark Tags. 

When you think of return fraud, what do you think of? Is it a booster stealing some high end product, then returning it for store credit? Perhaps a dishonest employee comes to mind. The suburban teenage girl and her soccer mom probably don’t register too much with you. Well, I’m here to tell you that they should!

This very popular form of return fraud is quite common this time of year. A dress will be purchased for a one time venue. The wearer will carefully and meticulously hide and cover all store tags, which remain on the dress. After the venue is over, the dress, since it still has the original tags attached will be returned to your store for a refund. Often you will hear an excuse that the dance was cancelled, or maybe they found a better dress down the road. Bottom line here, you were scammed. 

There is a very simple solution. Alpha Shark Tags are small, bright red devices that you can apply to any piece of clothing. It’s best to clamp the tag on a very, very visible location of the dress. Remember, they skirt around the return policy by hiding the store tags with accessories. So if you place the tag in a position where it cannot be hidden, you will thwart their attempt at return fraud. The tags are removed at home with a pair of scissors. Once removed, the dress cannot be return to the store. 

Do you really need to take these measures; it’s only a few returns, right? Wrong. Let’s say you sell 100 dresses over a 6 month period. Each dress retails for $200. That’s $20,000 in sales. Of those 100 dresses, let’s say that 50% come back as return fraud. Your net sales decreased to $10,000 and you may now be in possession of inventory that will no longer sell (depending on current style trends). Why would you ever want to give away half of your profits? Remember that you are in business to sell product, not rent it. Take control of your return policy and clamp down on these losses with Alpha Shark Tags!  

For more information about Shark Tags contact us or call 1.770.426.0547 

Extra! Extra! Read all about it and hopefully you might be reading it here first. If I sound excited, it is because I am! Checkpoint just released a new product that is worth raising your blood pressure over. One of the biggest complaints by retailers when it comes to retail anti-shoplifting strategies that utilize electronic article surveillance (EAS) has been the size of the antennae. The large antennae take up a large amount of floor space that is valuable in the retail store environment. Some retailers have buried the antennae so that the floor space is retained but this option isn’t available to convenience stores and small footprint retailers as it is expensive to bury the antennae and it is not practical to stick the antennae on the floor, cutting the floor space available for merchandise significantly. That is no longer the case.

 According to Uwe Sydon, Senior Vice President of Innovation, Checkpoint Systems, “We’ve researched and worked with convenience stores that have many of the same requirements for loss prevention solutions as larger outlets, but often have neither the floor space nor the budget for standard traditional floor mounted, free-standing EAS antennas. With the introduction of the N10 – featuring one of the smallest EAS antennas on the market — those limitations are gone.”

 Sydon further notes that the Classic N10 uses the latest in technology that includes anti-jamming capability which is becoming the method of operation for the organized retail criminal (ORC). It also has the latest noise filtering and reduction software to reduce false alarms and misses. The N10 also has a flashing LED that acts as a strong deterrent to the opportunistic shoplifter. One of the best features of the N10 is its flexibilty. This antenna is not stuck with a large floor mounted antennae that takes up floor space and makes customer ingress and egress difficult or cumbersome. The small footprint store and convenience stores require this flexibility to utilize electronic article surveillance (EAS). Many such retail stores have opted not to have the advantage of merchandise shelf availability and reduced shrink afforded by EAS due to these limitations. No more! The Classic N10 gives the small footprint store or convenience store the same capability as their big brothers without the reduced floorspace. The Class N10’s flexibility includes the ability to either wall or door-frame mount the single antenna or it can be sited on an optional free-standing floor mount. Regardless, when merchandise is being moved and there is a need to move the antenna, the retailer can swivel the antenna in any directions, as well as just spin it and tuck it out of the way.

 Wow! This solution has been needed for a long time. Convenience stores have been asking for a more flexible EAS system so they could realize the same benefits of EAS that other retailers enjoy and now they have it. The Classic N10 is one of the smallest antennae on the market but don’t let that small size fool you. It has the same capability as it larger brothers in the industry thus proving that sometimes big things do come in small packages.

For more information on Checkpoint Systems, contact us or call 1.770.426.0547