Any business knows how damaging to your bottom line theft in your store can be. If your store has a 5% margin on each sale you make, it would need to sell an additional $500 worth of goods to compensate for a loss from a $50 theft.
What Is The Average Theft?
According to a recent survey, the average shoplifter walks out with around $440 per theft, and the chance of being caught is less than 1 in 50. The value of products being stolen each year from retail stores in the US alone is in the billions. If you’re a serious retail business, you simply cannot ignore this.
Technology to the Rescue
The good news is that there are many devices, tools, and strategies you can use to address this problem. By combining an anti-theft approach with technology like any other sales business, you can catch thieves red-handed, reduce losses, and make your store theft resistant.
This article will share information about the best devices retailers use to prevent theft. You’ll learn how tech helps reduce theft and pick up some insights. We’ll also review the anti-theft technology of the future so you’ll see how it’s all developing a few years from now.
How Inventory Management Tools Prevent Inventory Loss?
Smart, frequent inventory management is one of the most effective devices to prevent inventory loss. Many retailers dramatically decrease theft at their stores by watching their inventory closely through regular stock counts and monitoring discrepancies. It can help to use smart barcode scanners to do stock takes to accurately account for your inventory levels.
Monitoring ‘user permission levels’ of staff for operating the POS system is another key measure retailers use. A reliable POS will make it possible to set different permission levels, so only key employees can edit data on your system.
Taking these measures will keep people from stealing because you know when something goes missing. POS system stock control options are a viable solution to help you stay on top of your inventory. They help you gain better inventory visibility so you can improve accuracy, stop theft, and more.
Educating your Team
One of the best ways to stop theft is through education. Get your team to help secure the premises by keeping them well-informed of the latest loss prevention best practices. Be aware of them yourself. They also need to know about codes of conduct so they know what the ramifications of theft will be. You set the right foundation for controlling theft from the start of their tenure by making them take eLearning programs and induction modules when they join your company.
Using Anti-theft Signs
You need to inform customers they’re being watched and what the effects of shoplifting can be. Retailers instantly warn potential thieves about illegal actions by installing anti-theft signage across the entire store. It doesn’t need to be anything special – just simple and cost-effective.
Electronic Goods Surveillance
By attaching security tags to their goods, retailers can trigger off an alarm if someone walks out with an item with the tag still on. The alarm is triggered by the electronic sensors at the exit gates. There are many types of devices like this that you can use. Labels, tags, antennas, and spider tags are just a few examples. They use a combination of sensors, radio frequency, metal detectors, and electromagnetic technology to prevent theft. The best ones are the ones that cause the minimum number of false alarms!
Merchandising Security
Merchandising security is a great way to allow consumers to pick up and test your products while keeping them attached to your display furniture securely if you have high-value products in your retail stores like laptops, mobile phones or others. Some retailers use a security stand mounted on top of their displays and allows them to showcase tablets, phones, watches, and cameras while keeping them secure and tethered.
A wide variety of merchandising security equipment is available, such as wired grip holders and magnetic holders. Retailers can choose which ones are best suited to their items depending on the size, shape, and value of the products they are offering.
Some merchandising security devices are equipped with in-built chargers so your displayed goods are always charged to ensure a great customer experience. Electronic goods stores and Amazon sell these devices. Cables and physical locks also make it harder for thieves to just grab a product from your shelves. Technology improves the visibility of displayed products. Cameras throughout the store make potential thieves more conscious of their acts since they feel more watched. These inexpensive loss prevention devices are effective and efficient.
Futuristic surveillance systems provide you with real-time data through RFID technology from the time items enter your store to the moment they leave. It’s fascinating how closely they can monitor each product in your store.
Video Analytics
Continuing from the point above – surveillance cameras at key points around your retail store can be a fantastic theft prevention formula if it’s complemented by video analytics software. The software signals whenever any kind of suspicious movements occur like if a customer leaves your store without paying, you’ll instantly get an alert if this occurs. The likelihood of theft with greater accuracy can be increased using information on demographics, heat maps for more advanced visitor analytics, and incoming and outgoing people count.
It becomes easy to identify ‘known’ shoplifters by matching them against an existing database of criminals or thieves supplied to you by the police if you use cameras with facial recognition technology.
Ready To Reduce Theft in Your Retail Store?
You’ll be surprised by the possibilities if you consider what the future of anti-theft technology holds for businesses. The trend of IoT (Internet of Things) will make it harder to lift high-value products because they will have integrated chips that can be used to monitor the location of the item using the internet. To prevent theft in your retail store, at least rudimentary prevention measures are needed, and while some are inexpensive, there are no free ones.
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