Wardrobing is a common fraud scheme that most retailers are oblivious to. In an effort to retain customer loyalty in today’s economy, many retailers have relaxed their return policies and adopted more of a “no problem” stance when it comes to returns. While customer satisfaction should always be our top priority, how do manage to please your clientele, but also protect your bottom line? Obviously, there is no one answer to solve this dilemma, but there are programs you can put into place in your store to help mitigate the risk of refund theft.
In a company I once worked for, we were in the business of selling high end clothing. Now, if you’re a guy like me, I hate trying on clothes in a store. I know my size(ish) and want to be in and out as quickly as possible. Occasionally, I find a brand doesn’t quite fit like the rest and have to return it to the store for a different size. This is acceptable. Wardrobing is not. If you’re not familiar with that term, it when an individual purchases clothing, usually higher end product, wears it a few times, or for an important night out, then returns it for the full purchase price. That’s not acceptable, but as a retailer, how are you supposed to know the difference between the honest and dishonest customer?
Let’s take that example from above and look further at it. Let’s say that someone purchases a $500 evening dress, then returns it after a wedding. You now are out that $500 from the sale. What you may not realize is that sales you may have missed while that particular dress/size/color was out of stock. Even if only one additional person wanted that same exact item that equates to a $1,000 loss. Multiply that by 10 or 15 times per month, and the losses can add up very quickly. What’s more disturbing is that they do not appear as shrink, so you never truly realize how much wardrobing can cost your store. What’s the solution?
There are several products on the market, however, the Alpha Shark Tag, has been most effective in my stores. These tags easily attach to the garments and provide a great physical deterrent to shoplifting. Unlike other clothing security tags, the customer must remove the device at home with a pair of scissors. This prevents the item from being worn. This, coupled with a strict return policy for garments without the tags, can and will prevent wardrobing. The key here is to make sure your customer’s are well educated on your policy. You should clearly state to them at the time of purchase that returns are absolutely accepted, however, the red tag must still be on the product. You will also need to ensure that the placement of the device does not interfere with, or damage the product. Your customer has to be able to try on the item either in store, or at home. These very simple steps can go a very long way in preventing those hidden losses from affecting your store.
For more information, contact us: Clothing Security, or call 1.770.426.0547
Wardrobing is a common fraud scheme that most retailers are oblivious to. In an effort to retain customer loyalty in today’s economy, many retailers have relaxed their return policies and adopted more of a “no problem” stance when it comes to returns. While customer satisfaction should always be our top priority, how to manage to please your clientele, but also protect your bottom line? Obviously, there is no one answer to solve this dilemma, but there are programs you can put into place in your store to help mitigate the risk of refund theft.
In a company I once worked for, we were in the business of selling high end clothing. Now, if you’re a guy like me, I hate trying on clothes in a store. I know my size(ish) and want to be in and out as quickly as possible. Occasionally, I find a brand doesn’t quite fit like the rest and have to return it to the store for a different size. This is acceptable. Wardrobing is not. If you’re not familiar with that term, it is when an individual purchases clothing, usually higher end product, wears it a few times, or for an important night out, then returns it for the full purchase price. That’s not acceptable, but as a retailer, how are you supposed to know the difference between the honest and dishonest customer?
Let’s take that example from above and look further at it. Let’s say that someone purchases a $500 evening dress, then returns it after a wedding. You now are out that $500 from the sale. What you may not realize is that sales you may have missed while that particular dress/size/color was out of stock. Even if only one additional person wanted that same exact item that equates to a $1,000 loss. Multiply that by 10 or 15 times per month, and the losses can add up very quickly. What’s more disturbing is that they do not appear as shrink, so you never truly realize how much wardrobing can cost your store. What’s the solution?
There are several products on the market, however, the Alpha Shark Tag, has been most effective in my stores. These tags easily attach to the garments and provide a great physical deterrent to shoplifting. Unlike other clothing security tags, the customer must remove the device at home with a pair of scissors. This prevents the item from being worn. This, coupled with a strict return policy for garments without the tags, can and will prevent wardrobing. The key here is to make sure your customer’s are well educated on your policy. You should clearly state to them at the time of purchase that returns are absolutely accepted, however, the Alpha Shark Tag must still be on the product. You will also need to ensure that the placement of the device does not interfere with, or damage the product. Your customer has to be able to try on the item either in store, or at home. These very simple steps can go a very long way in preventing those hidden losses from affecting your store.
For more information, contact us: Clothing Security, or call 1.770.426.0547
When it comes to preventing loss to your business the two main categories that require the most attention are shrink reduction and safety. The importance of shrink reduction needs no further explanation, but safety can affect your profitability in many ways. First of all, you can incur hefty costs from insurance when an accident occurs in your store. More importantly, the reputation of an unsafe store can be very damaging for both hiring new talent and for providing a great experience for customers. If your store sells alcoholic drinks like liquor, wine, and other spirits, those drinks are at risk. A bottle sitting unprotected on a shelf will eventually lead to an attempted theft. Without bottle locks, the lengths some may go to take that bottle might put your customers and employees in harm’s way.
I have been working in loss prevention for several years. Recently, I have seen a string of thefts being committed at a local grocery store. At first, two young males came into the liquor department, selected about six bottles of unprotected liquor, concealed them in a backpack, and made their way to the front of the store. When store management approached them, one of the boys pulled out a knife and held it in the direction of the employee. Afraid for his life, the employee backed off. The two offenders continued to come back, week after week, then day after day, each time knowing that they had easy access to unprotected bottles, and that if anyone attempted to confront them, they could use the threat of deadly force to get away.
The reason I told this story is to highlight the importance of theft deterrence. Certainly there are some individuals who will stop at nearly nothing to get what they want, but protecting your merchandise is likely to send most criminals to try to steal somewhere else. Had this merchandise been protected properly, the criminals might have been swayed. Not only would this keep the merchandise from being stolen, but it would also have kept the customers and employees out of that dangerous situation. Luckily, after about six weeks of terror, undercover detectives were able to track down the suspect and arrest him. He was carrying a loaded gun when he was taken into custody.
There seems to be an inherent increased risk when it comes to selling liquor. People with alcohol dependencies may be more brazen in their theft attempts, and may even be intoxicated already! The best way to mitigate a good portion of this risk is to use bottle locks. Alpha security produces a variety of bottle lock products like the EASy bottle that will keep the bottles in your store, and the violent criminals out. This type of liquor bottle security allows customers to still handle the bottle and read labels easily so your sales won’t be affected. They are also easily removed at the point of sale, allowing for a quick and enjoyable experience for the customer. The best part is that your bottles will stay on the shelf and your customers and employees will be that much safer.
Liquor bottle security is important to protect your merchandise and your hard-earned profits. Even more importantly, making sure that your liquor is secure will deter criminals from trying to steal the bottles and from threatening the safety of your store’s most important assets: people!
For more information contact us: Bottle Locks or call 1.770.426.0547
When it comes to preventing loss to your business the two main categories that require the most attention are shrink reduction and safety. The importance of shrink reduction needs no further explanation, but safety can affect your profitability in many ways. First of all, you can incur hefty costs from insurance when an accident occurs in your store. More importantly, the reputation of an unsafe store can be very damaging for both hiring new talent and for providing a great experience for customers. If your store sells alcoholic drinks like liquor, wine, and other spirits, those drinks are at risk. A bottle sitting unprotected on a shelf will eventually lead to an attempted theft. Without Bottle Locks, the lengths some may go to take that bottle might put your customers and employees in harm’s way.
I have been working in loss prevention for several years. Recently, I have seen a string of thefts being committed at a local grocery store. At first, two young males came into the liquor department, selected about six bottles of unprotected liquor, concealed them in a backpack, and made their way to the front of the store. When store management approached them, one of the boys pulled out a knife and held it in the direction of the employee. Afraid for his life, the employee backed off. The two offenders continued to come back, week after week, then day after day, each time knowing that they had easy access to unprotected bottles, and that if anyone attempted to confront them, they could use the threat of deadly force to get away.
The reason I told this story is to highlight the importance of theft deterrence. Certainly there are some individuals who will stop at nearly nothing to get what they want, but protecting your merchandise is likely to send most criminals to try to steal somewhere else. Had this merchandise been protected properly, the criminals might have been swayed. Not only would this keep the merchandise from being stolen, but it would also have kept the customers and employees out of that dangerous situation. Luckily, after about six weeks of terror, undercover detectives were able to track down the suspect and arrest him. He was carrying a loaded gun when he was taken into custody.
There seems to be an inherent increased risk when it comes to selling liquor. People with alcohol dependencies may be more brazen in their theft attempts, and may even be intoxicated already! The best way to mitigate a good portion of this risk is to use bottle locks. Alpha security produces a variety of bottle lock products like the EASy bottle that will keep the bottles in your store, and the violent criminals out. This type of liquor bottle security allows customers to still handle the bottle and read labels easily so your sales won’t be affected. They are also easily removed at the point of sale, allowing for a quick and enjoyable experience for the customer. The best part is that your bottles will stay on the shelf and your customers and employees will be that much safer.
Liquor bottle security is important to protect your merchandise and your hard-earned profits. Even more importantly, making sure that your liquor is secure will deter criminals from trying to steal the bottles and from threatening the safety of your store’s most important assets: people!
For more information contact us: Bottle Locks or call 1.770.426.0547
While working in retail loss prevention, you see a side of society that not many people have the pleasure to experience. You come across what seems to be an infinite amount of unsavory characters that come into the stores, and the stories that come out of these encounters are sometimes unbelievable to those not experiencing them first hand. No matter the size of your business, if it doesn’t at least have a basic retail theft prevention plan in place to stop shoplifting from happening, you are just making it easier for the thieves, and making your store a favorite destination for your not so friendly neighborhood shoplifters.
I remember hearing stories about one shoplifter in particular that would just not give up stealing, no matter how many times he was caught. This guy had a serious problem, which was a drug addiction that caused him to steal large amounts of high dollar products to support his habit. His method of operation was usually to load up a shopping cart full of electronic gadgets and just push the cart out the door. Other times, he would actually cut a hole in the lawn and garden department’s fence before coming into the store, and bring the merchandise out there to push it right through the fence. He would then climb through the fence himself and get into a car that was already waiting for him to make his getaway.
This shoplifter had been apprehended several times for committing the same types of thefts. If that wasn’t enough, each time he was stopped for shoplifting he would struggle with the employees and then warn them that he would be back by saying, “see you next time”. Even more bizarre, is the fact that he wasn’t lying. He would actually go back to some of the exact same stores where he had been previously apprehended for theft, and steal again with the same method of operation. You would think that he would go somewhere else after getting caught a couple of times and going to jail, but no, he just couldn’t get it together and stop shoplifting.
The only thing that was slowing this guy down was the fact that he had to defeat the anti-shoplifting devices that were attached to the merchandise, because he didn’t want the alarm sounding at the door when he pushed out the stolen goods. If it wasn’t for that, he would have been in and out of the store much faster. Most of the merchandise he was after had devices like Checkpoint security tags attached to them, which meant he would have to stop and remove all of the tags before he exited the store if he didn’t want to attract any extra attention. Some of the times he was caught, it was because the staff saw him pulling the tags off of the items that were in his shopping cart.
Do yourself a favor and have a good retail theft prevention strategy that works for your business, because if you don’t, you are basically advertising that your store is an easy target for shoplifters. Having a strong plan in place is the only way you will have even the slightest chance to stop shoplifting from happing in your store, or at least reduce the chances. The shoplifters aren’t going to make it easy to protect your merchandise, so you should do everything you can to make it as tough as possible for the ones that are stealing from your store.
While working in retail loss prevention, you see a side of society that not many people have the pleasure to experience. You come across what seems to be an infinite amount of unsavory characters that come into the stores, and the stories that come out of these encounters are sometimes unbelievable to those not experiencing them first hand. No matter the size of your business, if it doesn’t at least have a basic retail theft prevention plan in place to stop shoplifting from happening, you are just making it easier for the thieves, and making your store a favorite destination for your not so friendly neighborhood shoplifters.
I remember hearing stories about one shoplifter in particular that would just not give up stealing, no matter how many times he was caught. This guy had a serious problem, which was a drug addiction that caused him to steal large amounts of high dollar products to support his habit. His method of operation was usually to load up a shopping cart full of electronic gadgets and just push the cart out the door. Other times, he would actually cut a hole in the lawn and garden department’s fence before coming into the store, and bring the merchandise out there to push it right through the fence. He would then climb through the fence himself and get into a car that was already waiting for him to make his getaway.
This shoplifter had been apprehended several times for committing the same types of thefts. If that wasn’t enough, each time he was stopped for shoplifting he would struggle with the employees and then warn them that he would be back by saying, “see you next time”. Even more bizarre, is the fact that he wasn’t lying. He would actually go back to some of the exact same stores where he had been previously apprehended for theft, and steal again with the same method of operation. You would think that he would go somewhere else after getting caught a couple of times and going to jail, but no, he just couldn’t get it together and stop shoplifting.
The only thing that was slowing this guy down was the fact that he had to defeat the anti-shoplifting devices that were attached to the merchandise, because he didn’t want the alarm sounding at the door when he pushed out the stolen goods. If it wasn’t for that, he would have been in and out of the store much faster. Most of the merchandise he was after had devices like Checkpoint Security tags attached to them, which meant he would have to stop and remove all of the tags before he exited the store if he didn’t want to attract any extra attention. Some of the times he was caught, it was because the staff saw him pulling the tags off of the items that were in his shopping cart.
Do yourself a favor and have a good retail theft prevention strategy that works for your business, because if you don’t, you are basically advertising that your store is an easy target for shoplifters. Having a strong plan in place is the only way you will have even the slightest chance to stop shoplifting from happening in your store, or at least reduce the chances. The shoplifters aren’t going to make it easy to protect your merchandise, so you should do everything you can to make it as tough as possible for the ones that are stealing from your store.
For more information contact us: Anti Shoplifting or call 1.770.426.0547
