Loss Prevention Tips And Security

March 17, 2014 by Leave a Comment

theft (2)Employee theft is an increasing problem for the retail owner, or big retail stores in the United States and around the globe. The economic conditions of recent years have many employees struggling to support their families and make those conditions excellent excuses for stealing from their employees.  Many of the programs that a retail store can implement are lacking, or non -existent.  Loyalty programs that offer employees privileges are no longer used, and supervision and security for the work force is negligent.  Billions of dollars are lost each year due to employee and shoplifting crime, are you doing the right security for your business? Read more about this by following the links.

7 Steps for the Strongest Retail Loss Prevention System

In the retail industry, theft leads to billions of dollars in lost revenue each year. If you own a shop, it is vital that you develop an integrated plan for loss prevention to avoid becoming a victim. To ensure your plan is effective, make sure it takes into account the seven expert suggestions detailed below.

1. Have Obvious Security

If you want to catch thieves, hiding all of your security measures might be the best strategy, but if you want to deter thieves, you need to make your store appear well defended. While cameras, mirrors and window bars will not stop all thieves, people are much less likely to steal from a store they perceive to be monitored. According to studies, cameras and dummy camera domes are particularly effective for this purpose.

2. Protect Against Internal Theft

Internal theft by employees represents the most significant single component of white-collar crime annually according to the Institute for Financial Crime Prevention. It costs companies billions of dollars each year, yet most store owners do little to prevent theft by their employees.
Minimize your chances of internal loss by investing in access control that is auditable, keeping cash locked in a safe, and only allowing necessary employees access to cash handling areas.

Mature retail loss prevention

The first instances of dedicated loss prevention, or ‘security’ programs being used by retailers dates backs to the early 20th century where there was largely a culture of secrecy aligned to them. This was primarily due to their core objective of ‘catching’ dishonest employees or customers.

For many retailers, limited change in terms of evolution or maturity within their Loss Prevention program has taken place since the start of 20th century. Many retailer’s Loss Prevention programs are still focused on the issues of theft, either by staff or customers, as their sole contribution to their organisation’s efforts to reduce the impact of shrinkage on their profit.

This arguably is in direct contrast to the wider retail industry which has evolved dramatically, particularly during the last 20 years. For example, core functional areas such as Human Resources, IT, Merchandising, Marketing and Supply Chain have all matured in their approaches thereby broadening their value propositions to retailing. More importantly, they have seen that they had to operate outside their traditional thinking and approaches to truly support Retailers. What that said, for a few fortunate Retailers, significant maturing has taken place in their Loss Prevention programs since the start of the 21st century and this maturing has resulted in significant improvements within their shrinkage.

Shoplifter lawsuit highlights retail dilemma

Sometimes it’s better to just let things go.

That could be the mantra for overprotective retail clerks and loss-prevention agents everywhere following a lawsuit in Santa Rosa civil court by a would-be shoplifter who was badly injured when he was tackled by a grocery store manager.

The clash happened July 13, 2011 when plaintiff Johnny Ramirez was stealing a bottle of rum from the Rohnert Park Raley’s, according to a tentative ruling from Sonoma County Superior Court Judge Arthur Wick.

Ramirez tucked the glass bottle into his waistband and ran out the door, only to be stopped by manager Shea Carpenter, who tackled him to the asphalt, Wick wrote.

The bottle broke when he hit the ground, causing injury that required emergency surgery. Ramirez later sued the grocery chain and the manager for monetary damages.

He argued Carpenter acted with negligence because he was aware of the fact that the bottle was in his waistband and could break if he tackled him. Under the law, negligent behavior warrants higher punitive damages.

This week, Judge Wick said there were no grounds for Ramirez to seek punitive damages from the store. But he said Carpenter could be held liable because he knew the consequences of his actions and failed to avoid them.

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Why Do Kids Shoplift From Retail Stores? (And how to cut down on loss)

February 25, 2014 by Leave a Comment

theft (10)Adolescence is a time of emotional growth and development. During this stage, a young person’s life is largely dominated by peerage and the pressures of social activities. Some teens give in to peer pressure out of a sense of wanting to belong to a group. Better judgment and common sense are placed behind, especially when a teen decides to shoplift.
Malls are one of the most popular spots for teen hang outs. Most of these places sell clothes and merchandise that is fashionable. These items from teen perspective promote the thoughts of financial status and popularity. So this is one huge factor as to why kids shoplift from retail stores.

While some kids may have jobs after school, there are others who may not. Even though kids who work are not exempt from shoplifting, the ones who have no money at all and hang around malls are most-likely to shoplift from retail stores. Some might even try to solicit a friend who works at a retail store for help in trying to shoplift an item.

Some kids maybe casual or amateur shoplifters. There are many who fall into this category versus professional shoplifters who steal stylish clothing or jewelry. These pros may seek to sell the hot item(s) over the internet for money.

Concerned retailers who lose a lot of money from kids shoplifting can do the following things to deter theft. Create policies that limit the number of kids in the store at one time and/or staff appropriately at times large numbers of kids come in, such as after school.  Having and extra person out engaging with the visitors can be a big deterrent.

Retailers can also try to address kids shoplifting by having more closed-circuit cameras installed or even hiring more security to discourage teen thefts. While cameras may not deter the professional shoplifter, it may make the teens think twice.  If teens like hanging around retail stores, encourage security to tell them not to solicit the premises. Sometimes when teens enter the premises, they might carry book bags. Retailers might have all book bags checked at the check-out desk in order to avoid having small items stolen.

These are just some of the ways a retailer can reduce the casual theft by youngsters who may be tempted.

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Shoplifting Control Through Web And Mobile Technologies.

February 7, 2014 by Leave a Comment

theft (12)For some consumers, it is a bit hard to understand the shoplifting issues facing the retail industry today. It is a surprising and scary fact that the retail industry losses approximately $13 billion dollars in stolen goods yearly, and the uncollected taxes along with them.  Retailers across the nation invest in theft-prevention technology to help them deterred the shoplifter without involving the authorities. Some of the technology involved includes smart tagging, source tagging and entry sensors. For more about the impact of web and mobile technologies on shoplifting prevention, click on the links below.

The Impact of Evolving Web and Mobile Technologies on Retail Fraud Control

As the separate tracks of online and mobile technology continue to evolve and converge, the challenges and the opportunities facing fraud control professionals are maturing at a similar rate.

The main shortcoming of traditional search engines is that they are almost totally dependent on hyperlinks and keywords to identify what data is available online. However, less than 10 per cent of the open-source data stored on the Internet is accessible in this manner and only about 27 per cent of that is in English.The phrase “Deep Web” refers to that part of the Internet that is not indexed by traditional search engines. Estimates vary, but it is commonly thought that the data held in Deep Web repositories is 500 times greater than that normally searched by conventional means.New technologies, or the application of existing technologies in new ways, can bring both risks and rewards. Fraud control teams and investigators need to come to terms with an emerging new world order in which, not only consumers, but also autonomous devices, are responsible for some transactions, and where threats from other sectors such as banking and the unregulated payments space are increasingly relevant to anyone engaged in e-commerce.

5 Ways Businesses Can Prevent Retail Theft

Retailers in the U.S. lose nearly $US45 billion annually as a result of theft. That’s a lot of money walking out the door.

“Retailers have a challenge,” says Steve Sell, director of marketing for North American retail at Tyco Integrated Security. “They can put everything out on the sidewalk and everything is going to be stolen, or they can lock everything up and nothing will get bought. No matter how quickly loss-prevention technologies evolve, the criminals will evolve just as quickly. There will always be a need to increase visibility and manage theft.”

The solution is to make it harder and riskier to steal things, according to Dr. Hayes, director of the Loss Prevention Research Council.

“Retailers spend so much money on technology that is hidden,” says Dr. Hayes. “That doesn’t work.” Thieves need to understand the danger, which means having technology in plain sight. Difficult-to-open packaging can act as a deterrent, as can eye-level cameras. Hayes also advocates “benefit denial” — making products useless unless they are purchased legitimately.

Beeping baskets new retail tool

Supermarkets are electronically tagging baskets after thousands started disappearing out the door.

Pak ‘n Save Petone has used the electronic tags since late last year, and is believed to be one of a number of supermarkets who are tracking their baskets.

Several Countdown supermarkets are also keeping a closer electronic eye on their baskets.

Pak ‘n Save Petone owner Leo O’Sullivan said the store had lost about 2000 baskets in 15 years but, since the tags were introduced, not one had gone missing.

He did not know why anyone would want a supermarket basket, but suspected many were taken absent-mindedly, rather than maliciously, and never returned.

“There must be a graveyard of baskets somewhere in Petone.”

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Technology Solutions For Your Business

January 30, 2014 by Leave a Comment

theft (13)Staying abreast of the latest technology your business can utilize to enrich the customer experience, as well as your employees is vitally important to the profitability of your business. Nowadays consumers look for a more personalized experience when doing business with your company, having the technology available to do so, can offered them the customer experience they are looking for while providing your business with better security intelligence. Read more about the new technology solutions you can integrate in your place of business.

Verint Supports the Retail Value Chain 

Building on Verint’s vision of delivering solutions that drive the utmost consumer experiences, Verint supports the entire retail value chain – from bringing enriched technology experiences to engage with customers, to delivering products and solutions that enable retail businesses of all types to deliver improved experiences for customers, vendors and employees.

With the Verint portfolio, retailers are able to bring scalable and integrated solutions into their businesses that boost enterprise and security intelligence including:

· Voice of the Customer Analytics
Verint’s Impact 360® i s a comprehensive voice of the customer analytics (such as speech analytics, text analytics, and enterprise feedback management) application used to gain a better understanding of the shopper experience, workforce performance and the factors underlying business trends. Voice of the customer analytics solutions help analyze and categorize customer interactions automatically through voice, email, web chat, customer surveys and social media in order to detect patterns and trends that can significantly impact the business. These solutions provide a new level of insight into important areas such as customer behavior, sentiment, satisfaction and loyalty, as well as staff effectiveness, including the underlying causes of business trends in these critical areas.

Ninth Annual Report from the Retail Equation Sheds Light on Growth in Return Fraud

NINTH ANNUAL REPORT FROM THE RETAIL EQUATION SHEDS LIGHT ON GROWTH IN RETURN FRAUD; IMPACT ON SALES, JOBS AND SHRINK

Study Shows Merchandise Returns Account for Nearly $270 Billion in Lost Sales; Ranking it Third on the Fortune 500 if it were a Company.

The Retail Equation, the industry leader in retail transaction optimization solutions, today released its 2013 Consumer Returns in the Retail Industry report, which analyzes results from the National Retail Federation’s annual survey on merchandise returns and the 2012 Canadian Retail Security Survey from The Retail Council of Canada (RCC) to provide insights for North American retailers to minimize the effect of return fraud and abuse on their business.

According to the NRF, merchandise returns in 2013 cost U.S. retailers more than $267 billion in lost sales. In fact, as a company, this would rank third on the Fortune 500 and higher than household names such as Chevron, General Motors and General Electric. Retail fraud and abuse accounted for $9.1 billion to $16.3 billion in the United States, an increase of 2.6 percent from last year.

“In the competitive world of retail, it is critical to understand how returns and return fraud reduce net sales and contribute to shrink – clear causes of lost profits,” said Mark Hammond, chairman and CEO of The Retail Equation. “The results within this report offer the industry’s best look at merchandise return policies and procedures, as well as potential fraud and abuse. This information can be used by loss prevention professionals to compare and contrast their own program results to those reported here, with an eye toward reducing losses.”

Filed Under: Shoplifting Prevention Tagged With: , , , ,

Why Do People Shoplift? The High Price of Shoplifting for Retailers

January 22, 2014 by Leave a Comment

theft (1)Shoplifting is a serious issue that affects more than just the retailers being stolen from. This hurts an economy that is struggling to recover from the recent recession because shoplifters are stealing approximately 25 million dollars worth of merchandise every single day.
There are several different reasons that people shoplift. A professional shoplifter is looking for a profit from reselling what he or she has stolen, but the majority of shoplifters is not professional and shoplifts for very different reasons. One reason non professional shoplifters steal is the emotional high or thrill they get from the theft.

Another reason is often the lack of funds to buy what the shoplifter wants. The shoplifter may also feel that they are entitled to take what they want if they can get away with it, or if they feel it is over-priced.

Not all shoplifters lack the funds to buy items, but feel pressured to steal by their peers. Emotional issues or kleptomania is a cause for some shoplifters. Whatever the reasons may be, the effect of shoplifting is hurting the economy. The attitude that many Americans have toward shoplifting is part of the problem. Shoplifting is often called the nations “silent crime” because it happens so often with so little consequence to the shoplifter. On average a shoplifter only gets caught one out of every fifty times he or she shoplifts.

Retailers are primarily the ones left with trying to stop shoplifting. Fortunately there are options available to help retailers curb shoplifting in their stores. An electronic surveillance system is a great tool in spotting shoplifters, and when it is used in connection with security tags on merchandise, the two become an outstanding line of defense for the store.

When potential shoplifters see a security tag detection systems at the front of a store, find security tags on the merchandise, a visible electronic surveillance system, and alert store associates, it might make shoplifters think twice about trying to get a five-finger discount from that retailer. For retailers, a good security system is a small price to pay in the struggling economy.

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New Technology Solutions To Reduce Shrinkage

January 16, 2014 by Leave a Comment

theft (11)According to Wikipedia, organized retail crime indicates professional shoplifting, retail crime rings and other organized crime happening in the retail industry.  Organized crime refers to professional thieves that are not taking a pack of gum only, but that consistently visit stores and shoplift hundreds of dollars every time.  The FBI has estimated that the retail industry loses an approximate $30 billion a year due to organized retail crime. Retailers in South Dakota alone estimate that they loose and approximate $95 million a year due to organized shoplifting crime, depriving the state of the sales tax revenue they would otherwise collect and hurting the local economy.

Read more about the this topic by following the links below

Twelve Reasons Why We Need to Focus on the Fundamentals in 2014 

Reflecting back on my humble beginnings in loss prevention, I can still remember the first lesson that I ever learned; a message fundamental to everything that followed. While it may have been shared in different ways or with different words, it was the same message that all of us have heard, still echoed today in companies across the country. In fact, they’re words that most of us have repeated – many times over. But they weren’t words of shrink, or partnerships, or Five Steps. That came with time, and was built upon with experience. The words were more primal, yet far more important. Do you remember?

“There’s nothing in the store that’s worth the risk of anyone getting hurt.”

2013 gave us far too many examples showing just how quickly that message can be lost.

Clearly, the shoplifter is making a bad decision when they make a conscious effort to steal from the store. Those actions have consequences, occasionally much more severe than might be anticipated. But sometimes the cost is much too high. People can get hurt, and lives can change forever. In some cases, lives are lost.

1. January 04, 2013: Shoplifter Dies After Being Attacked by Other Customers

2. January 24, 2013: Police Shoot, Kill Shoplifter on College Campus

To read more please follow the link above.

Retailers support tougher shoplifting law

Legislation to help prosecute organized retail crime in South Dakota will be proposed during the 2014 legislative session, which opens Jan. 14.

“This is an issue we’ve seen exploding around the nation, and it’s starting to reach into South Dakota,” said Shawn Lyons, executive director of the South Dakota Retailers Association, which is working with the state attorney general’s office to craft the legislation.

Existing statutes speak only to prosecuting the occasional shoplifter, Lyons said.

“Organized retail crime is not shoplifting,” he said. “It refers to groups, gangs and sometimes individuals engaged in (taking) retail merchandise through theft and fraud in substantial quantities.”

Panasonic Highlights Retail Technology Solutions to Enhance Operations, Reduce Shrinkage and Improve the Customer Experience at NRF2014 Expo

Panasonic System Communications Company of North America, a leading provider of retail business technology solutions, is today demonstrating the integrated retail solutions at NRF 2014 EXPO (booth #1539). Featuring a wide variety of technology solutions designed to help meet the needs of retailers from the sales floor to the back office, delivery truck and everywhere in between, the Panasonic exhibit space demonstrates how rugged enterprise-grade tablets and wireless solutions can connect the retail environment. This connection enables stores to manage much of their technology portfolio, including surveillance systems, digital signage, point of sale and more from one handheld screen.

“As technologies continue to converge onto one network, 2014 will be the year that retailers truly embrace reliable end-to-end technology solutions that will connect data to customers, employees and managers to create not only a best-in-class customer experience, but also improve overall employee productivity, boost sales and reduce shrinkage,” said Ed McCabe, National Sales Manager, Retail, Panasonic System Communications Company of North America. “This convergence will also enable retailers to manage these technologies from a single device – like our family of fully-rugged Toughpad tablet computers.”

 

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Point Of Sale Challenges, ROI And Benefits

January 1, 2014 by Leave a Comment

theft (13)One of the most desired mobile integration solutions in the retail industry has been the Point of sale. It is not surprising that retailers are keen to learn everything they can about this solution. The numbers are pretty clear. 66% of U.S. Smartphone owners use their phone to help them shop, and if you are not ready, or don’t have a POS solution for your business, you should.

Read more about this topic by following the links below.

Mobile POS: The Loss Prevention Challenges

66% of U.S Smartphone owners use their phone to help them shop.

80% of Smartphone owners say they want more mobile-optimized product information while they’re shopping in stores.

43% of Smartphone owners have used their mobile device while in a store for shopping purposes.

Consumers spent 6 times as much time in retailer’s app in December 2012 than they did a year earlier.

These are the sorts of statistics driving the retail-sector mobile revolution. Retailers are keenly interested in becoming more engaged with the mobile-integrated lives of their customers. At the same time retailers are embracing their own mobile devices as a kind of retail Swiss Army knife—multifunctional, powerful, yet compact and portable. With both consumers and retailers desiring more mobile integration in the retail realm, a diversity of mobile solutions has naturally emerged, perhaps most visibly the mobile point of sale.

Immediate ROI with Mobile POS

You may not know the name, but you have probably eaten a Juicys’ product.  As the leader in special event food concessions, its growing fleet needed a new system, and,  for the back office — a real-time view of sales.

Juicys, purveyor of county fair favorites  like the famous Kawabunga Corn Dog, Turkey Legs, Giant Western Sausages and the Funnel Cake Sundae, got its start in 1984 as a single-person corn dog stand. In nearly three decades, Juicys has grown from a humble corn dog stand into a massively popular outdoor dining and special event food concessions vendor.

Mobile Grill Means Mobile POS
The company is frequently on the road with its Outlaw Grill, the world’s largest mobile grill trailer. Juicys owner Brett Enright was looking for a new POS system to ring sales and provide better oversight into the company’s back office operations.

With a fleet of Juicys trucks moving constantly, Enright needed to be able to see comprehensive sales reports from each truck, from anywhere, at any time.
Ease-of-use was also a must—the system needed to be easy to set up and move. Enright had already ruled out several options: Wi-Fi systems had proven themselves unreliable and it was difficult to set up a Wi-Fi infrastructure at each stop the trucks made.

The Gift of Mobile POS

Long lines and holiday crowds can easily turn the most wonderful time of the year into the most frustrating time of the year. Today’s consumers are used to being one-click away from most items on their wish list and as they abandon their virtual shopping carts for the real thing this shopping season, retailers should be prepared to keep up with their tech savvy needs in brick-and-mortar stores. This means easy payments, fast service and exceptional customer service. One of the most successful ways retailers can create a stand-out in-store experience is through the use of a mobile point-of-sale (MPOS) system.
A mobile POS system benefits both the retailer and the consumer by creating an approachable workforce that offers improved customer experience, while simultaneously streamlining behind-the-scenes processes. A simple consumer solution such as Square or Level-Up will offer most mom-and-pop shops a solution to the increase in holiday shoppers by offering a faster and easier checkout experience. However, for large retailers considering deploying a mobile POS system this holiday season, an enterprise-grade solution is the truly the only reliable, secure option. Here are a few things retailers with a mobile POS on their holiday wish list should consider when picking out a solution:

  • Checkout Features: Consumers have more ways to purchase an item than ever before, often at the click of a button. Retailers need to be prepared to accommodate whatever form of payment a customer wants to use, especially if that company operates globally. In total, mobile POS systems should be able to handle traditional payments, including cash, as well as chip and pin, European chip and pin, RFID and near-field communication (NFC). Barcode scanners are also an in-demand checkout feature of mobile POS because they automatically activate with a simple swipe across the scanning field cutting down on the time it takes to complete a purchase.
Filed Under: Shoplifting Prevention Tagged With: , , , ,
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