Friday 29 November 2013

Help For Small Business Owners: Loss Prevention Tips

By Mark Mahaffey


If you own your own business, you are probably aware that thousands and thousands of dollars are lost each year to shoplifting. In fact, the amount of money is probably close to 25 million dollars! Unless you want to be found among the many small businesses that lose money this way, you should make security a top priority.

And that message is to take loss prevention seriously. For starters, a business owner should know about the common characteristics that shoplifters have in common. Take time to study these traits, so that you will be better prepared to control shoplifting in your own store.

People who are about to shoplift may act and move certain ways. They may look guilty. Or they may move in strange ways, picking up items and putting them down in a distracted or absentminded way.

Another thing to watch out for is someone who keeps coming into your store, several times a day. If you notice this happening, watch out, because he may be planning the best way to rob you. He may be learning about your employees, where certain items are positioned and what time of day is ideal for stealing.

In your store, do you provide a changing room where customers can try on clothes before they buy them? If you do, then you should watch this area very carefully. It is easy for someone to take things into the dressing room and hide them in their own clothes and bags. They can then just walk out of the store with them.

Hire someone to work the dressing room by counting the number of items each customer takes into and brings out of the dressing rooms. The best way to do this is by assigning tags with numbers on them to each customer. If a customer takes 3 items into the dressing room, give them a tag with the number 3 on it. When they come out, you will have an easy way to remember how many items they took in with them.




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