‘Tis the Season to…Prevent Shoplifting

Loss prevention is something every brick and mortar faces, especially during the holidays. In fact, shoplifting is a $6 billion problem for retailers. This is the time of year that business owners have to be able to lean on their staff. Retail Expert Francesca Nicasio claims that employees are indeed the best line of defense against loss. So let’s talk about how to get your front line ready.

 

The first issue is that your staff can only help be the solution if they are trained and invested. Therein lies an issue inherent to retail, which is turnover. According to a recent study conducted by LinkedIn, turnover in retail is 16.2%, making this one of the most disruptive and costly issues for retail business owners.

 

Since we don’t have time to solve all of the world’s problems, we aren’t going to focus on increasing employee retention in this blog post, but rather focus on working with what we have.

 

Training Programs Should Cover Loss Prevention

You might be surprised to find out that many of your employees don’t even know that loss prevention is part of their job. It is very rarely mentioned in training, and almost never mentioned after training. The loss prevention portion of training should, at the very least, cover these basics:

 

-Loss prevention is everyone’s job.

-What to look for to spot shoplifters.

-What to do when you suspect someone of shoplifting.

-What not to do when you suspect someone of shoplifting.

 

This information should be updated on a regular basis to include emerging trends in loss prevention and crime. For instance, retailers are reporting an increase in Organized Retail Crime (ORC). According to findings presented from a National Retail Federation (NRF) survey, ORC is on the rise, with 100% of retailers saying they have been a victim in the past 12 months. Furthermore, 83% said ORC activity had increased in the past year. Specific strategies are used to combat this particular type of theft.

 

Train Quickly and Efficiently

Now that we’ve talked about the basics of an effective loss prevention training program, we must consider the initial concern of turnover in the retail industry. The issue then becomes getting our new staff trained as quickly and efficiently as possible.

 

Embrace Technology

Recruiting, hiring, onboarding, and training take a considerable amount of time and resources, so when you can speed up any process while maintaining or improving efficiency, it’s a must.

By utilizing customizable software in your training programs, you can help new employees ramp up faster. Checklists, automated follow-ups, trends reports, and information databases should be part of the software you base your loss prevention program on. These tools will help streamline the process and ensure consistency.

 

Switch to Video

Can some of your current training materials be converted to video? Switching your in-person or printed content to video format translates into more consistent and faster training. It also offers savings on labor and printing. Furthermore, people retain information from video more than any other form of content.

 

One of the top challenges facing retail Loss Prevention these days is definitely doing more with less resources – we find that in times of a downward business trend, Loss Prevention seems to be one of the first areas that gets cut, then upon the financial rebound, we are the last discipline to regain funding.

-Robert Moraca, VO of Loss Prevention at the National Retail Federation

We know that many Action Card clients don’t have a budget dedicated to loss prevention, and if they do, they’re not working with much. We want to help you find a way to do more with less. Let’s talk about how Action Card can be part of your own loss prevention program through audit time saving, real time data, trends reports that highlight recurring non-compliance at stores, the ability to schedule essential follow-ups or training sessions, as well as automated reminders that help keep everyone moving forward in the same direction.

 

Have a very safe and happy holiday season! Please reach out to us anytime you have questions about your service or if you’d like to take a demo with an Action Card expert.