Survey Says…Use Clothing Security Tags

Clothing security should be a major concern for retailers this year if the information from the National Retail Federation is correct. According to the 2017 National Retail Security Survey, “In apparel, both the rates of shoplifting (41.0%) and employee theft (35.5%) were higher than the overall average.” Additionally the report states that “in apparel 15 of 26 respondents (to the survey, this author’s note) said shrink had grown. Only eight of 26 reported a slight decrease.” (pg.8). The study goes on to say that, “The apparel sector was slightly below the overall average at 1.36%, but showed a slight increase over 2016’s 1.2% for that sector.” Retailers cannot afford to see a rise in shortage over the prior year no matter how slight that increase may be. Checkpoint tags and other retail ant-theft devices have got to be high on a manager’s priority list.

Are you wondering what Checkpoint tags are and how they relate to clothing security and shortage prevention? Checkpoint tags are hard tags built out of extremely durable hard plastic materials with electronic article surveillance (EAS) technology integrated into them. The tags consist of two parts, one has a metal pin at one end and the other is a clip that snaps onto it once the pin is pushed through a garment. Once pinned together it is nearly impossible to remove a hard tag without the proper detachment tool available only to stores. Forcing a Checkpoint tag off of an item causes damage to the merchandise that renders it unserviceable. The EAS part of the tag works with Checkpoint pedestals and if tagged products get too close to a pedestal an alarm activation occurs. The pedestals have flashing lights and 95-decibel audible alarms that is heard throughout a store. If an alarm sounds employees respond and conduct package and receipt checks that usually result in uncovering unpaid merchandise. The patron is afforded an opportunity to buy the item(s) or return it. I didn’t mention the deterrence value of the tags since most experienced shoplifters know what the tags look like and how they work. This type of shoplifter actively seeks to avoid products that are protected because they don’t want to risk being caught if they can help it.

Since stores are seeing an increase in clothing theft it makes no sense to me that clothing security spending would actually be on a decline but according to the same report; (page 9) the authors state that, “In apparel only four of 22 respondents have a higher budget in 2017 compared with the previous year. Nine of 22 expect flat budgets while two expect significant decreases.” It was not clear if Loss Prevention spending included only Loss Prevention staff or all of Loss Prevention expenditures which may or may not include clothing security tags and other anti-theft measures. What is clear to me is that with an increase in theft additional expenditures on more Checkpoint tags would be the best use of money. It should go without saying that keeping budgets flat or even spending less will only result in another increase in shortage in 2018.

You may be asking if you could tag only high dollar clothes because you are concerned about the cost of constantly purchasing new tags. That does not need to be a concern. Clothing security tags like the ones I am referring to are reusable. They are made durable enough to withstand hundreds of uses and reuses. This means you can tag everything without worrying about how you will have to ration out your tags or restrict their use to only high dollar products. In order to get shortage under control and begin to reduce it stores should tag everything. Thieves will begin to migrate to stores that are not using electronic article surveillance technology to protect products.

The picture the 2017 National Retail Security Survey is somewhat bleak for clothing retailers based on the numbers being reported. This doesn’t have to be your story in 2018. You can reduce your clothing shortage and increase profits by using Checkpoint tags on all of your garments. 

For more information about clothing security contact us or call 1.770.426.0547