No matter what type of retail store you manage, shops are always prone to pilferage and shoplifting.
Retail crime is a growing concern in New Zealand as it costs the economy over $1.2 billion annually. Shoplifting sprees by criminal groups and ‘career thieves’ have made a killing targeting retailers from local bookshops to high-end luxury stores. Theft incidents may also arise from individuals prone to anti-social behaviour and juveniles involved in truancy.
No Shop is Left Alone
If your shop has dozens of shelves and hundreds of products on display, keeping tabs on every item in the store is virtually impossible. You may only have a POS system to rely on in order to keep track of every sold unit, but by the time you detect the missing items in your current inventory, those products are long gone and unaccounted for. In addition, paying customers can’t then buy the product they sought, leaving you with the added disadvantage of missing a crucial sale.
This is often the very real nightmare any retail business seeking to stay afloat and combat incidences of retail shrinkage faces.
What is Retail Shrinkage?
Retail shrinkage is a tally of your inventory losses. When your monthly sales totals and your physical inventory don’t match up, and that glaring discrepancy has to be attributed somewhere.
Retail shrinkage due to these operational factors and incidents:
- Items lost during transit and deliveries
- Damaged items are disposed of
- Cashier and bookkeeping errors
- Theft
But the real bulk of the retail shrinkage happens when your business starts losing money due to theft. And that kind of theft is not just limited to shoplifting, but with other forms of misbehaviour as well, such as vendor credit fraud, employee pilferage, return fraud, stockroom burglary, etc.
Also, repeat shoplifters can really be a burden on your profits. If your store has zero to lax security, this will embolden shoplifters to keep coming back and target even higher value items. Your store products end up ‘boosted’ which means it’s resold on the street at a lower retail value.
Confronting these suspected thieves is not easy; things can escalate rather quickly and turn violent, and not surprisingly, in most cases, a store employee ends up being physically assaulted by the shoplifter.
It’s worth pointing out that you can take steps to beef up your security— and you should. Retail shrinkage can’t be avoided, but incidents leading up to it can be controlled. It goes without saying that hiring a security service is a smart move not just to protect your business, but to keep your retail staff and customers from harm.
Advantages of Hiring a Security Service
When deciding whether to hire a local Northland security services firm, you’ll need to consider both your shop’s scale and needs with consideration to the potential costs. In general, shops in Whangarei and Northland with even moderate foot traffic could benefit from having security guards in their retail premises.
A security guard can ensure control and visibility over access areas and entry points. Often a security guard has considerable interaction with shoppers, it’s a crucial part of the job, they can help answer customer-service questions, assist in settling store disputes and even direct people towards different sales areas.
But Why Hire a Security Service?
Every aspect of your retail business can suffer without any visible security measures in place. And there are numerous reasons why retail management should look into hiring a reliable security agency. Here are the following:
You want your retail store to be a safe place to shop in the community
Having uniformed security personnel that are highly visible and roving around the sale area can discourage shoplifters. When customers are in your store’s premises, you want them to have a good time and not worry about their safety.
Crime Prevention
One reason for getting a security agency on board is their valuable insight on security planning and risk management. They’ll scope out your shop’s vulnerable spots and entry points. For example, if you have sizeable selling area each with several product aisles, a security guard would know the most efficient way to cover ground at specific intervals.
Handle In-Store Situations
Shoplifting incidents can be dealt with by security guards who are trained in loss prevention, conflict and threat management. They will put themselves at risk to handle the threat with a calm and focus precision, and they will not resort to force or use unless warranted by the situation.
Consumer security threats are at an all-time high during the holidays
Everyone is out shopping during Christmas and major holidays. During this time, the store’s cash volume is high. This can easily attract criminal activity. Also, the non-stop sales transactions at the cashier area can keep the retail staff overly busy. Having a roving and alert security guard on the premises can look out for any suspicious activity. Security personnel can use force to restrain and detain individuals until the police arrive if necessary, but having a presence can usually deflect unwanted attention from your store from criminals.
Having a security guard, you can rely on during retail hours is the best loss prevention strategy you can invest in, as you can cut down your store’s losses from retail shrinkage.
What sets Northern Districts Security apart from other NZ security services is that we invest a lot more in our staff training and are local in the community. Our security staff take pride in their work and are industry professionals highly-trained with the required national certificates in security level 2, 3 and 4 and are licensed through the Ministry of Justice. They have undergone training in different types of security practices and know de-escalation techniques.
Whatever your retail security requirements are, you can trust that Northern Districts Security can provide you with security measures that meet your business needs.
Call us today for a consult!
