Clothing Security-4 WC blog 33
Clothing Security tags-3
Checkpoint tags-3
Make Clothing Security Part Of Your Inventory Action Plan
The New Year is approaching and with it a new round of inventories for retailers. Anyone who has been in retail for more than a year has probably experienced inventory in one form or another. You may have been involved in the preparation or the actual count and verification process. Following inventory, stores will receive results and make action plans to address high shortage departments. If your store is a specialty business, such as only selling apparel, you may have high shortage SKU’s. For the purposes of this article, I would like to address clothing security and the things that should be included in a shortage action plan, including the use of clothing security tags.
There are a lot of factors that can come into play in creating clothing shortage. Obviously theft is a major contributor, both internal and external. Operational factors play a role in shortage also. Does the store utilize clothing security of any type, such as Checkpoint tags? If not, I would recommend that a sound shortage action plan should include clothing security of some type. If the store does use clothing security tags, who places them on the merchandise and how consistent is the placement? Security tags on clothing act as a deterrent to theft by being visible to thieves and they will activate a store EAS system if the store has one. When placement of tags is inconsistent it negates the deterrent value because thieves simply look for the items that are not tagged.
Over the last 25 years, I have been involved in store inventories in one capacity or another. I have counted merchandise, prepped stores for inventory, audited inventory and I have been the designated “inventory captain”, overseeing inventory for the store from start to finish. I have also learned that the creation of shortage action plans can be a team effort or dumped on the Loss Prevention department with the expectation that most of the shortage is theft related and it should be Loss Prevention’s job to address it. I have also seen shortage action plans created that look very good on paper but there is no follow up or accountability built in the plan. Many stores do not have an in-store Loss Prevention staff to create a shortage action plan after an inventory. In those cases, it falls on a store management team to create the plan. Where there is a Loss Prevention department, even if it is a district level manager, stores should partner with Loss Prevention and seek assistance in the formation of an effective plan. From an operational side it may be the store manager commits to having an associate dedicated to auditing clothing security tagging for consistency. Stores can also incorporate in a plan specific training for fitting room attendants and cashier training that includes shortage prevention strategies like looking inside boxes, comforters, and purses for possible hidden merchandise. Training should include proper response to EAS activations, and handling the interaction if unpaid merchandise is located during an alarm response.
Action items are good but two more components that are musts on an effective shortage plan are assignments of responsibility for an action item and time frames. Holding a specific person(s) accountable to an action item makes it more likely that item will be completed. When a plan is vague there is a tendency for no one to take responsibility. The second must is having a target date for follow up or completion. Let’s say an assistant store manager is going to audit Checkpoint tags on jeans, or clothing security tags on leather coats, there need to be expectations on the plan that say how frequently audits will be completed. This may be once a week or once every two weeks. The follow up for the assistant manager may be a results review with the store manager once a week. The other side of the equation is if the assistant manager is finding opportunities, they need to hold the tagger(s) accountable.
Checkpoint tags and other clothing security devices are an effective means to preventing clothing theft and can improve inventory loss due to theft. If your store is experiencing shortage in clothing and you can use some help to get it under control look into what Checkpoint Systems can do for you.
For more information about clothing security contact us or call 1.855.426.0547
A new year comes with a new round of inventories for retailers. Anyone who has been in retail for more than a year has probably experienced inventory in one form or another. You may have been involved in the preparation or the actual count and verification process. Following inventory, stores will receive results and make action plans to address high shortage departments. If your store is a specialty business, such as only selling apparel, you may have high shortage SKU’s. For the purposes of this article, I would like to address clothing security and the things that should be included in a shortage action plan, including the use of clothing security tags.
There are a lot of factors that can come into play in creating clothing shortage. Obviously theft is a major contributor, both internal and external. Operational factors play a role in shortage also. Does the store utilize clothing security of any type, such as Checkpoint tags? If not, I would recommend that a sound shortage action plan should include clothing security of some type. If the store does use clothing security tags, who places them on the merchandise and how consistent is the placement? Security tags on clothing act as a deterrent to theft by being visible to thieves and they will activate a store EAS system if the store has one. When placement of tags is inconsistent it negates the deterrent value because thieves simply look for the items that are not tagged.
Over the last 25 years, I have been involved in store inventories in one capacity or another. I have counted merchandise, prepped stores for inventory, audited inventory and I have been the designated “inventory captain”, overseeing inventory for the store from start to finish. I have also learned that the creation of shortage action plans can be a team effort or dumped on the Loss Prevention department with the expectation that most of the shortage is theft related and it should be Loss Prevention’s job to address it. I have also seen shortage action plans created that look very good on paper but there is no follow up or accountability built in the plan. Many stores do not have an in-store Loss Prevention staff to create a shortage action plan after an inventory. In those cases, it falls on a store management team to create the plan. Where there is a Loss Prevention department, even if it is a district level manager, stores should partner with Loss Prevention and seek assistance in the formation of an effective plan. From an operational side it may be the store manager commits to having an associate dedicated to auditing clothing security tagging for consistency. Stores can also incorporate in a plan specific training for fitting room attendants and cashier training that includes shortage prevention strategies like looking inside boxes, comforters, and purses for possible hidden merchandise. Training should include proper response to EAS activations, and handling the interaction if unpaid merchandise is located during an alarm response.
Action items are good but two more components that are musts on an effective shortage plan are assignments of responsibility for an action item and time frames. Holding a specific person(s) accountable to an action item makes it more likely that item will be completed. When a plan is vague there is a tendency for no one to take responsibility. The second must is having a target date for follow up or completion. Let’s say an assistant store manager is going to audit Checkpoint tags on jeans, or clothing security tags on leather coats, there need to be expectations on the plan that say how frequently audits will be completed. This may be once a week or once every two weeks. The follow up for the assistant manager may be a results review with the store manager once a week. The other side of the equation is if the assistant manager is finding opportunities, they need to hold the tagger(s) accountable.
Checkpoint tags and other clothing security devices are an effective means to preventing clothing theft and can improve inventory loss due to theft. If your store is experiencing shortage in clothing and you can use some help to get it under control look into what Checkpoint Systems can do for you.
For more information about clothing security contact us or call 1.855.426.0547
Fighting a battle against clothing thieves can be difficult, merchandise may be hidden in purses or bags or it may go into a fitting room and worn out of the store. How many times do you find stray price tags, hang tags, etc. lying on the floor of your fitting room. Add to the effort to prevent shoplifting, the fight against return fraud and a clothing retailer can feel like they are fighting a lost cause. Now, what if you could fight both battles with ONE solution? The Alpha ink tag could be the weapon you need in your arsenal to fight theft AND fraud.
The Alpha ink tag is designed for items such as denims, jackets and sportswear, but you may find they can be used for a wide variety of clothing lines. The tags are alarmed so attempts to leave the store with the merchandise will activate EAS antennas. The built in ink capsules ensure that if someone attempts to force the tag off the ink will spill onto the merchandise and ruin it, making it useless for return fraud.
In the first department store I worked at we had a major problem with ball cap theft and we needed to take steps to prevent shoplifting in that department. Baseball hats were a prestige item and one issue we encountered with traditional EAS soft tagging on the hang tags was that teenagers were leaving tags on even if the hats were purchased. We could not risk stopping someone leaving the store with a hat on just because tags were hanging off. If the EAS alarm sounded, that seemed to make the wearer even happier. When we implemented an ink tag program we saw an immediate reduction in the theft of ball caps which ran around $20 each at the time. The ink tags were apparently NOT cool to have on a hat and much of the theft stopped.
In that same store we also saw a lot of clothing return fraud. We did not ink tag everything, since ink tags were a new item and we wanted to see the impact, but we did tag a number of higher priced jackets and denim items. I clearly remember “customers” attempting to return clothing items with spots of dye on them. It was apparent they had tampered with the ink and tried to protect the garment and their efforts had failed. Excuses ranged from, “I don’t know how that got on there” to “They forgot to take the tag off when I bought it so I tried to take it off myself.” The return would be denied and the “customer” left with a useless piece of clothing.
The tags we were using in my first store were a first generation product and designed only to deter theft and prevent fraudulent returns, they were not capable of working with an EAS alarm. The Alpha ink tags are a superior device because they provide visual deterrence, being large enough to stand out when placed in a conspicuous location on a garment. They will sound the EAS alarm if someone attempts to walk out of the store without having the device removed from the clothing at the point of sale. Of course if someone were to get the tagged clothing out of the store somehow, if they attempt to remove the tag they will, in all probability stain the clothing, rendering it useless for wear OR return.
Whether your store specializes in selling sporting goods clothing or you sell blue jeans, you can benefit from Alpha ink tags. You may find that you can prevent shoplifting and fraud with one easy solution. Reap the rewards of investing in ink tags.
For more information on Alpha Ink Tags contact us or call 1.770.426.0547
The best way to stop shoplifting amateurs in your business today is to catch them with an element of surprise! I remember this one case I was working a while back where we used simple EAS labels to not only apprehend but essentially embarrass a well-known shoplifter. More on that here in a minute though.
EAS (Electronic Article Surveillance) is a fundamental component of any successful loss prevention effort. It uses a bevy of physical checks and balances to ensure your product is not leaving through the front door unnoticed. The basic premise of EAS is that specific items are tagged with passive small labels (such as Checkpoint labels) that activate loud alarm systems at the front of the store. If a shoplifter tries to exit with tagged merchandise, they are exposed to staff by an exceptionally loud alarm.
Anyhow, we had this one shoplifter that kept ‘hitting’ our store. It would be an understatement to say that he was the most brazen thief I have ever come across. He was known throughout our city, across many retailer brands and most law enforcement officers had prior dealings with him. This guy was so daring (or careless) that he would literally look us dead in the eyes and dare us to do anything about him stealing. Once, he looked at me and said “I’ll (expletive) kill you”. Assuming that this shoplifter was armed with some sort of weapon, no one ever found justification enough to attempt apprehension. He would come into the store at least three times per week and virtually take anything he wanted. That is, until we waged war against him with tiny Checkpoint labels.
As it turned out, we had some external intelligence on him that led us to understand that he was selling our merchandise to an undercover police officer. Yes! It turned out that our favorite crook was the subject of a multicounty theft ring involving several stores. We didn’t know anything about it until our informant let us in on the operation. At that point, some of the detectives met with us and asked us for assistance in building a criminal case against him (and ultimately the theft ring). Since law enforcement can’t be in our stores 24/7 with us, they couldn’t find direct probable cause to indict this professional shoplifter without building more of a case. They needed for us to obtain video surveillance of him exiting the store with merchandise. Since it was ‘hit or miss’ as to whether or not he would conceal the merchandise before exiting, we decided to implement the use of EAS labels to help identify instances of theft.
Since we knew that this particular shoplifter always boosted the same products (DVD’s and music CD’s) we decided to affix Checkpoint labels inconspicuously onto each package. Additionally, we decided that over the course of a couple of weeks, we would go ahead and disable the audible alarm feature of the EAS towers at the front of the store but leave the visual flashing lights enabled. This way, the alarm would alert us visually through the flashing lights on top of the EAS pedestal but no alarm would be heard while being triggered. This essentially allowed us to build a video tapped record of this shoplifter entering and exiting the store while causing the EAS tower to visually alert. The subject would enter the store without triggering the pedestal but open exit, the lights would flash indicating that he had something concealed. Not once, did he ever notice that the lights were flashing! It’s hard to say whether or not we missed out on a lot of other shoplifter cases by disabling the audible alarm on the EAS system but in order to stop shoplifting incidents caused directly by this individual, we felt it was justified.
Altogether, we recorded a video log of this guy triggering the EAS system upon exit, a total of twelve separate occasions. The police were able to use the accumulated footage we provided to them in conjunction with purchases of the product bought by the undercover detective. It was enough to convict him and get him locked away for ten years. Somehow, the prosecutor was able to escalate the charges (by working with the US District Attorney) into a Federal case, most likely because the shoplifter was also selling our stolen merchandise across state lines. This was all credited to the use of our EAS labels placed in conspicuously onto the stolen merchandise!
For more information on how to stop shoplifting, contact us or call 1-770-426-0547.
