Is Your Merchandise Safe?

Sure, your store visuals need to look pretty, but have you really given much thought into the loss prevention side of merchandising? I recently met with a client for the very first time.  The instant I walked into that store, I noticed several things that needed to be changed; not for aesthetics purposes but for loss prevention reasons.  As soon as you walked in the door, there was short slat wall with a rack of pyjamas on it.  Now, the store has 3 levels to it and they generally only staff one employee at a time in there, so the opportunity for someone to step in that front door and swipe all of those jammies is huge. 

I hate to say it, but I’ve seen it time and time again, where people get desperate, especially at this time of year.  If they spot an opportunity to take something and think they can get away with it, they will.  Here are some tips for safeguarding your merchandise while still making your store look nice.

·         Don’t merchandise anything too close to the entrance of the store.

·         If your store is an odd shape, with sections that are sometimes difficult to monitor, consider filling that space with large signage, mannequins or decorative stuff like empty boxes wrapped like Christmas presents.  For example, if you have a sporting goods store, put a snowmobile in there.  Nobody’s going to steal that!  The point here is to put something in there that isn’t going to be easily swiped or if it does, there isn’t any monetary loss from it.

·         Keep the change room area free of displays.  Things can go missing from there very easily unless you have a staff member delegated to monitoring that area at all times.

·         As you’re going around throughout the day straightening things out, putting items away and organizing sections, do a quick check to make sure there aren’t empty spaces where there shouldn’t be, empty hangers or items stuffed under racks.  If there are, that’s an area that will need to be more closely monitored in the future.

·        Be careful where you put small, easy to pocket items.  I’ve seen stores with slat wall on the front of their cash desks.  Big mistake!!  Putting small items there is easy target for someone to easily slip it into their purse or shopping bag all while they’re casually chatting with the salesperson who is ringing up their actual “purchases”.

I could go on and on about loss prevention merchandising, but this gives you a good start in terms of things to think about when designing the layout of your store or place of business.  The majority of us would never dream to take anything from a store, but unfortunately there are people who do.  So you need to think like the thief when displaying product.  Think about how easy you’re making it for them.

One of the things I was most proud of when I was managing a clothing store was when our store was recognized from head office because we had the lowest inventory percent loss in the entire company.  Not only was my staff diligent about shipping and receiving product accurately to reflect accurate inventory counts in the computer system, but we were very creative in our visual merchandising strategies.  We sort of followed the visual sets sent to us by head office, but we always had to get creative because our store was an odd shape.  I was really excited to share with my staff the results from our inventory count.

You too can have the same results.  Take a few minutes to draw out a diagram of your store and decide where you want to position things.  When you’re done, step back and look at it from the thief’s point of view.  Adjust things accordingly and you’ll have a store that is a deterrent to thieves.