Show of hands, who sells clothes? Come on, raise your hand. Don’t be shy. It’s just you in your office right now. That’s not even the most embarrassing question I’m going to ask. How many of you don’t use clothing security tags? Is there any particular reason you aren’t? Is it since you’re making so much money that you like to throw a little charity to the shoplifters? Perhaps you feel like you can stand to lose a little money every once in a while? No? Then why on Earth haven’t you given Checkpoint tags a chance?
It’s probably too expensive, right?Wrong! Checkpoint tags are used throughout the retail industry and are known for their low cost and high efficiency. I’m not a salesman and I’m not writing this to sell you an item, but let me tell you how I use them and you can make up your own mind whether or not you should be using some clothing security tags.
Full disclosure, I work for an LP department in a national big box retailer. So I’veSeen what works in the field and what doesn’t. With any new technology or “solution” the ivory tower sends out, I’m usually the first to hit back with a list of reasons why it just won’t work at store level. So naturally, when we decided to carry a new line of jeans a few years back, the first concern I voiced was the placement of the checkpoint tags. Our buyers, our wonderful yet oblivious buyers, didn’t want any “clothing security tags” to be Placed on the product, as they felt that it would “diminish” the brand. No, sir, the only thing that will diminish is sales.
So, the line hits the stores, we merchandise them in their own little area and what do you know? A popular brand of jeans made famous by its celebrity endorser is popular… with the thieves. Some of my stores (I have 20) were losing a dozen or more pairs of week. Word quickly spread throughout the criminal underbelly that we stocked these jeans and didn’t have them secured in any way, shape or form. Talk about good publicity, right? An entire quarter goes by and we’ve lost nearly 17% of total sales to shrink. Our margin was only 10%, so, only after losing money did the company take the LP department’s original advice.
Sound familiar? How many times have you struggled with a certain line of clothing, or a particular product that, no matter what you tried and how much customer service you gave to that area, you still lost money? Frustrating, right? Frustrating to watch your profits dry up. Frustrating to see the loses from theft every, single day and you’re thinking to yourself that there just isn’t anything you can do. Well, stop thinking like a buyer and think like an LP manager. Get yourself an EAS system and use the heck out of those Checkpoint tags. What are you waiting on, a celebrity endorsement?
For more information about Checkpoint Tags, contact us or call 1.770.426.0547.
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