A business’s ability to effectively prevent shoplifting can be extremely important in order for that business to be profitable.  No business owner wants all of his merchandise walking out of the front door without being purchased.  All businesses are affected by retail theft, but to what extent can be determined by the ways they prevent shoplifting in the business.

A business owner should make sure that their sales floor lay out is not attractive to shoplifters.  Keep shelving low and aisles spaced apart.  Clothing racks should have some space between them and not be too tall.  The sales floor should be analyzed to make sure that there are no hidden corners or dark areas that make it easy to be out of sight and concealing merchandise.

Shoplifters can be professionals or amateurs.  Both types can be good at what they do and difficult to catch, but you may still be able to stop shoplifting by knowing what to watch for when these individuals come into your business.  Professionals are shoplifting for a living and can be difficult to detain.  Both may use lookouts to watch store employees while another member of the group steals your merchandise.  Prevent shoplifting by both of these groups by being aware that they exist, and by trying hard not to be a target.

Shoplifters steal in a variety of ways.  They may conceal merchandise in purses, pockets, strollers, or inside of other merchandise that they will then purchase.  Some shoplifters will switch price tags on items, or try to conduct return fraud.  All of these varieties can lead to shrinkage within your store. 

However the shoplifter may choose to steal, it is your job as the business owner or manager to make it more difficult for them.  Prevent shoplifting to increase your profits.

To purchase products to help you prevent shoplifting check out our website.

For more information on how you can stop shoplifting contact us or call 1.770.426.0547

Give yourself a bonus every time you prevent shoplifting from your store. 

Retailer know that shoplifting costs them big bucks every time they take inventory or do a periodic merchandise count.  Take the retail value of the merchandise you’re supposed to have and subtract the retail value of what you actually have and the dollar amount you are left with is shrink.  This is the value of the merchandise you have lost and don’t know where it went.

A good portion of it went out the door with your least favorite customers, shoplifters.  Or as I like to call them, thieves.  Those customers who take merchandise without paying break the law in addition to trying to destroy your business.  Shoplifters may not realize that they and others like them can and have put stores completely out of business by making it unprofitable to continue operating, but it has happened.  A retailer who can’t prevent shoplifting can’t operate without making a profit.  That’s the point of opening a business in the first place, not to provide a bunch of lazy shoplifters with free stuff.  That free stuff is costing somebody, and that somebody is the retailer and his good legitimate customers that have to pay higher prices to cover the thefts.  But the retailer can’t mark up prices too high to recover or he will no longer be competitive and his customers will go somewhere else.

What’s the real cost of shoplifting?  When an item that retails for $100 is stolen for instance, what is the real cost?  If a store operates at a 3% margin, the profit on the item is $3.00.  That means the store has to sell almost 34 identical coats or $3333.34 in merchandise to recover the cost of the stolen coat.  (100/.03) No wonder retailers go to such lengths to prevent shoplifting.  It’s vital for the health of the business.

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For suggestions on traditional and non-traditional ways to prevent shoplifting in Atlanta Georgia and elsewhere, call 770-426-0547 or click here for more information.

 

Do you know how to prevent shoplifting by professional shoplifters? My employees recently experienced something that does not happen very often in our business. They identified some suspicious people and started observing them, as they are trained to do. They noticed that a male in the group started talking to an employee, while the female went to a nearby aisle and started stuffing her purse with merchandise. She also managed to put some clothing on under her jacket. My employees were in a good position to observe this activity until the female received a phone call. She non-nonchalantly discarded everything she planned to steal and the two left the store followed by a third person my employees had not seen with them before.

While my employees did prevent shoplifting this time, they were frustrated that these individuals were not identified and may try to “hit” our store again. I used this situation as a learning tool. I explained that the third person they did not see until she was exiting was probably a perimeter lookout. The male’s job was to distract the employee while the other female loaded up on our merchandise. The perimeter lookout did her job and alerted the concealer that she was being watched, who then discarded the merchandise. Our business did not suffer a loss and we were able to luckily prevent shoplifting in this case.

In your business, teach your employees to watch out for groups like this. Employees need to provide good customer service but also be aware that a customer’s intent may be to distract their attention from the job that they are supposed to be doing. Joint efforts from all employees in your business can really help prevent shoplifting and ensure profits instead of loss.

Prevent shoplifting while still providing excellent customer service, and you can see your losses decrease.

To buy other anti shoplifting systems please check out our website.

To learn more on how to prevent shoplifting contact us or call 1.770.426.0547

 

A new scheme is occurring in the world of shoplifting! Just when you thought you had it figured out. Why would we be concerned about how we prevent shoplifting of gift cards? Wait a minute there is no value to a gift card until it is purchased!

Well…shoplifters are stealing the unpurchased gift cards taking them home and cloning the information on the mag stripe. They then take them back to the same retailer and put them back on the peg hook. When your customer purchases the card and you activate it the customer takes his new gift card and leaves.

But when the unsuspecting customer or the gift receiver tries to redeem the gift card…the money is gone! That’s because the shoplifter has already used the cloned card.

So how do we solve this problem? Well we can keep the cards locked up, behind glass or behind the counter. Of course this takes the retailer is the opposite direction we need to be in. We do not want to spend labor while a customer decides which gift card or amount to purchase.

 If we want to prevent shoplifting of this nature we have to get inventive. Another solution is to use an Alpha Security Hang Tag. This hard tag is designed to go over the peg hook hole. It has a dual pin that then locks the Hang Tag onto the packaging. The Hang Tag is designed for blister packs but will work on this type of packages also. The gift card is then put back on the peg. If the shoplifter tries to remove the gift card the coil in the Hang Tag will cause an alarm.

Visit the Loss Prevention Store for more items to prevent shoplifting.

For more information to prevent shoplifting contact us or call 1.770.426.0547

Shakespeare wrote in Hamlet “One may smile, and smile, and be a villain.” This is a point that I press upon my employees when teaching them to actively prevent shoplifting in our business. I don’t believe that everyone is a thief…but in order to effectively prevent shoplifting the employees within your business have to know how to identify and deter the shoplifters that frequent your establishment.

I ask my newly hired employees “what does a shoplifter look like?” In response to this question I usually receive a variety of interesting answers. Some employees already have the insight to know that there is not a “look” to a shoplifter. Any person that walks into your store could be a shoplifter, whether they are young or old, male or female, etc. In order to truly prevent shoplifting your employees need to observe customer behavior and identify when a customer may be acting suspiciously.

A person intent on shoplifting will take note of exits, the merchandise they would like to steal, and where the employees are located in the store. He or she will notice secluded corners and choose these areas to conceal your merchandise. Shoplifters may work in pairs so one can distract an employee while the other steals. Shoplifters may also select merchandise quickly without really “shopping” i.e. looking closely at the item, or the price. When your business is training employees to effectively prevent shoplifting, the above noted behaviors need to be brought to their attention. Noticing simple behaviors can speak volumes as to the intent of the customer.

I recently visited with my employees that apprehend shoplifters at the company I work for. I had studied 2010’s statistics and noticed that our average shoplifter age was pretty young – late 20s. This reminded all of us that anyone, of any age, might be a shoplifter. Just because she looks like your Grandma doesn’t mean she isn’t a shoplifter. Their actions must be what we listen to when identifying a customer’s intent to shoplift. Train on these techniques, and you can help prevent shoplifting within your business.

To buy retail anti shoplifting equipment check out our website.

For more information on how to prevent shoplifting contact us or call 1.770.426.256.