There is no way to teach anyone how to prevent shoplifting in one easy lesson.  Retailers have been trying for years to come up with foolproof solutions to the serious problems that are caused by shoplifting.

 Shoplifting is somewhat of a unique crime.  I can’t think of any other situation where so little is done to protect merchandise valued at so much money.  You may routinely visit a store that contains up to half a million dollars in inventory that is protected by one lonely sales clerk.  Very few other crimes begin with the victim putting his assets out in the open for people to see and touch, and in fact arrange them so as to make other people want them, then walk off and leave them wide open for anyone to toss in a bag or inside a coat and more times than not walk away unmolested having just stolen merchandise worth a couple of hundred dollars or more.  No one would leave their wallet or credit cards out like that and most of us lock our houses and cars when we leave them unattended, so why do we leave valuable merchandise out to be taken.

 Well, of course we depend on the fact that most people are honest and won’t steal from us and that’s true.  But the one or two in ten who will steal from us ruin it for everyone.

 Retailers want to keep the merchandise open and accessible, but they don’t want people to steal it.  That’s where all the ideas to prevent shoplifting originate.

 There are too many types of merchandise and too many retail environments to come up with one solution to prevent shoplifting.  There are so many variable involved, and so many solutions and programs offered, it takes an expert to sort them all out. 

 To see some shoplifting solutions, visit the Loss Prevention Store.

 To speak with an expert and learn ways to prevent shoplifting , contact us or call 1.770.426.0547 – Atlanta Georgia

You find another empty package out on your sales floor, and are irritated once again that you cannot  prevent shoplifting inside your business.  But there are things that a business owner can do in order to help prevent shoplifting – there are simple techniques that can show results by reducing your losses.

Schedule an appropriate amount of employees at one time in your business.  Having too few employees allows for more opportunity for the shoplifter to find a secluded area to steal from you.  Also, your employees are better able to provide good customer service and attention to a possible shoplifter, which can further help prevent shoplifting.  Potential shoplifters do not want attention, so you can be sure to provide them the attention they despise by having good coverage on your sales floor.

Having registers or an employee working near the entrance of your store can also further prevent shoplifting so that shoplifters have to pass watchful employees to leave.  By greeting a customer that comes into your store and asking them if you can help them today, the shoplifter has been noticed.  The shoplifter now knows that employees are aware of his or her presence within your business.

Employees should also help try to prevent shoplifting through being available to customers.  While your employees are working on the sales floor, they should keep their eyes up, looking around.  By doing this while they work, they will notice suspicious customers or any customer that may need help finding an item.  Your employees can provide better customer service and prevent shoplifting at the same time.

Your employees can be an important tool to help you prevent shoplifting,  they may not even know it.  Once you make them aware of the difference they can make, you can reap the benefits of reduced loss.

 For more information contact us at prevent shoplifting  : or call 1.770.426.0547.

 

It can be extremely frustrating for a business owner to suffer a large loss due to shoplifting. Owners and managers sometimes do not know where to begin to fix this issue. In order to effectively prevent shoplifting, you must recognize the factors within the business that make it at a greater risk to shoplifting, and then take measures to correct these factors while still providing a pleasing shopping environment to the honest customer. Businesses do not want to cater to the shoplifter; just the paying shopper.

Businesses should consider keeping small expensive items or high theft items in locked cases or behind counters where employees control access to these items. Having a policy in place to where the customer has to pay for the item at the counter is a good idea as well. Theft can be greatly reduced by keeping these types of items secure until a customer is ready to purchase them.

Other constants in your store may help prevent shoplifting. Having employees located near restrooms and fitting rooms. Also teach employees to check the number of items going into fitting rooms, and verify that the same number is coming out. Additionally, fitting rooms should be locked when not in use, and unlocked only when a customer is ready to try something on. This simple policy can greatly help prevent shoplifting through the fitting rooms, because the potential shoplifter has to get the attention of an employee in order to go into the fitting room. Shoplifters do not like to draw attention to themselves.

Having security tags, two way mirrors, and CCTV are additional ways you can prevent shoplifting. Keep signs posted that CCTV security systems are in use. Also, have visible camera globes, especially in corners and other areas attractive to shoplifters. Utilizing a merchandise alarm with security tags is also a good theft prevention technique.

We may not be able to eliminate all shoplifting, but with a few of these suggestions we can go great lengths to prevent shoplifting within our businesses.

To purchase different anti shoplifting devices visit our website.

For more information on how you can Prevent Shoplifting contact us or call 1.770.426.0547.

There comes a time when every retailer asks how far he needs to go to prevent shoplifting.  The key here is to prevent theft before it escalates into a negative that adversely impacts the bottom line to the degree that it threatens the business.

 Retailing would be much simpler if there were no theft.  Operating costs would decrease, inventory would remain where it’s supposed to be, and net profit would rise.  There would be no reason to budget for shrink.

 As long as there are stores, there will be shoplifters, so retailers should and do plan ahead to prevent it.

 A fact about shoplifting at the store level is that if no action is taken to prevent it, it will only get worse.  It doesn’t matter what merchandise is for sale, from penny candy to diamond rings, if a shoplifter has access and opportunity, he will make the attempt to steal it.

 The degree of effort taken by the retailer to prevent shoplifting depends on many factors: location; merchandise; clientele.  A store in an urban area selling designer denim, frequented by teenage shoppers may need to plan differently than a rural farm supply store with a stable customer base.

 Every retailer should emphasize customer service and employee education to prevent shoplifting, but most retailers go beyond to include merchandise layout, CCTV, EAS, uniformed or plainclothes loss prevention staff.  All these methods need to be measured against return on investment.  How much shoplifting do I have, what items are being taken, and how much can I stop using one or a combination of methods designed to prevent shoplifting?

 Ultimately, that is a decision the retail business owner must make to be sure that his business doesn’t become a target of shoplifters because of inadequate prevention measures and doesn’t get the reputation of being known as an easy mark in the shoplifting community.

 Do what’s necessary to prevent shoplifting in your retail store.

 Please visit our Online Retail Loss Prevention Store.

 Call 770-426-0547 for a free consultation on ways to prevent shoplifting or click here for more information.

There are many ways that you may be able to prevent shoplifting in your business. Ways that the average business owner may not think of, but that are important none-the-less. Loss prevention experts can analyze the aspects of your business and offer up important advice on how to reduce your losses from shoplifting.

 

For example, store design should be taken into consideration. Registers should be near the entrance and exits of the business. This can prevent walkout thefts and also make a shoplifter nervous that they have to walk past where there are employees. Another way you can prevent shoplifting through store design is to not have aisles that stand too tall or create blind spots. You do not want to provide shoplifters a place to hide and complete their crime. Have mirrors in place to eliminate any potential blind spots, and also have good lighting so there are no dark corners for shoplifters to lurk.

 

Do not place high theft, expensive merchandise near the entrances and exits. Some bold shoplifters will simply “grab and go” by taking the merchandise and quickly getting out of the store. You are able to prevent shoplifting this way by placing this type of merchandise further back within your store, near employee work areas.

 

Another way you may be able to prevent shoplifting within your business is by keeping a neat and organized store. If your employees know the merchandise and what is on the sales floor, they are more apt to notice when merchandise is missing. This is also a good prevention tactic for employee theft. Employees will be less likely to steal if they know that it will be quickly noticed. Having good inventory audit programs will also allow you to keep tabs on your merchandise and notice right away when something is missing.

 

In order to reduce your losses, you have to think like a shoplifter, and then react by creating an environment less desirable to most shoplifters. If you do these things you will be able to effectively prevent shoplifting in your business.

 

To purchase loss prevention devices that may also help you to stop shoplifting in your store check out our website.

 

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

 

 

 

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.

Visit the Loss Prevention Store.

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.