The holiday season is the busiest and most important time of the year for retail stores to make their biggest sales. However, it’s also a time where theft spikes from shoplifters taking advantage of the busy stores and valuable merchandise. If you’re looking for ways to prevent retail theft this holiday season, here are 6 helpful tips.
- Think carefully about holiday decorations: Festive decorations can help you attract more customers to your store during the holiday season, but you should careful about the location and size of your decorations. You should double check everything to make sure that your decorations are not covering any security cameras and creating new blind spots that can hide incidences of theft. Besides that, keep an eye on any large present boxes or other displays items that may be used to stash stolen merchandise for thieves to retrieve at a later time.
- Strategize the store’s layout: The holiday season is the busiest time of the year for retail stores and overcrowding is a frequent issue. Some people may take advantage of this and commit theft while they’re being obscured by the large crowds and overall hustle-and-bustle of the store. In order to deter thieves, you should evaluate the store’s layout and revise it in a way that will keep customers moving and control overcrowding. Reducing crowds will allow the store to keep a closer eye on the store and detect any suspicious activity. You can also reduce theft by placing items that are easily shoplifted near registers and locking up expensive, desirable goods.
- Hire additional staff: In a super busy store, it can be difficult for staff members to notice shoplifters as they can be distracted by the increased activity or have too many duties to perform. Hiring adequate staff will bring in more eyes to monitor the store and prevent theft. Not only that, having the right ratio of employees to customers can help with overcrowding issues and keep the store maintained, resulting in a better customer experience.
- Don’t overlook employee theft: It’s a common misconception that theft can only come from the outside, but employee theft “accounts for nearly half of inventory shrinkage”. The chance of employee theft during the holidays are even bigger if you hire seasonal workers who won’t be staying around for long. To minimize employee theft, you can implement practices like checking inventory often, performing random audits of suspicious individuals, and having a process for balancing the register after each shift. It’s good to be cautious of theft, but remember to be respectful to your employees and never make accusations without proof.
- Train employees on loss prevention: In fact, your employees can be one of the store’s best tools for preventing theft when they’ve been properly trained. When new employees are hired, take the time to educate them on recognizing suspicious behavior and what they should do if they suspect someone is stealing. It’s also a good idea to give current employees a loss prevention refresher before the holiday season so that they’re alert and prepared.
- Invest in a security camera system: Your best bet for preventing theft this holiday season would be to invest in a security camera system. The presence of security cameras is enough to deter shoplifters but even if your store does become a victim of theft, the recorded video footage will increase your chances of identifying the thief. Having a security camera system will also enable you to keep a close eye on all areas of the store, even when you’re not there. You can even set up notifications so you can be instantly alerted if any suspicious activity has been detected long after the store has closed for the night.
If you’re in need of a security camera system, be sure to gives our sales team a call at +1 866-708-5401 or email us at sales@2mtechnology.net so that we can tailor a plan to suit your needs with the right equipment and features.