Prevent Shoplifting Through Increased Employee Awareness

Many retailers look for new ways to prevent shoplifting, when some of the answers are right under their own noses. A well informed employee can make all the difference in the world.

Working in stores for years as loss prevention, I have seen the different levels of involvement from store employees. Most of the time, the employees don’t have a clue as to what shrink is, or what causes the biggest losses in their stores. Employees want to be involved with helping the store increase sales. They want to feel like they are part of the team and that their work is actually making a difference and benefitting the store.  However, many managers either refuse to inform employees or believe they themselves can prevent shoplifting.  These efforts take a combined team working towards the same goal, to prevent shoplifting.

As a former store manager, I was well in tune with loss prevention and every morning I held rally meeting and discussed loss prevention related topics. I would share with them the store shrink number and the hottest theft merchandise. I would also explain to them what shrink was and how it affects the store, overall. I especially more specific if I had a new hire with me. I am proud to say that when I first took over this metro store, the shrink was in excess of 5.5%. In two years, I took that number down to less than 1.5%. The biggest contributing factor to this dramatic reduction? Employee awareness. My employees worked to prevent shoplifting from happening, and enjoyed the challenge.

Any store, no matter how big or small can have the same results as I did. Stay dedicated to your work, sell merchandise and make sure your employees are well informed on how to prevent shoplifting.

Visit the Retail Loss Prevention Store.

 For more information contact us at prevent shoplifting or call 1.770.426.0547