Every year, businesses in the retail sector encounter huge financial blows that exceed billions of dollars. This happens due to a number of factors, like operational errors, fraud, inventory obsolescence, external theft, internal theft, and other mistakes by the employees.
But it can be handled with some basic changes in your store. To counteract these challenges, it’s crucial in wholesale home decor for retailers to implement security and prevention measures, including possible loss prevention tactics for retail. Read thoroughly to know all these strategies, tools, and technologies.
1. Friendly Floor Workers
Shoplifters can easily flee by committing a crime when they are not noticed. That’s why almost every home decor retailer chooses to “customer service” everyone who enters the store to discourage shop theft. In simple words, it means to greet customers at the entrance, say hello near the shelves and offer to help them find the home decor item. This simple approach deters most people from trying to escape with stolen products.
Loss prevention officers (LPOs) are pivotal in your wholesale home decor store. LPOs operate in the store with the only aim of preserving profit. Workers hired for loss prevention make profit preservation their topmost priority and not just one of a long list of regular tasks. While all staff should engage with customers, LPOs make it their primary goal. These employees closely monitor the customer activity and take action when something looks strange.
2. Open Floor Plan
Take some time to remember which home decor item is placed where on the retail floor. Keep an eye on the most expensive or high-theft items, like statues & sculptures stocked without any case or far from staff. Try to showcase all the pricey goods in a locked case or at a spot where you or your workers can easily keep tabs on them (like close to the cash counter).
Ideally, employees should be able to look around the store remotely. If a thief is going to take cover in any corners because of shelf heights, seriously think about redesigning your layout or keeping the products in an organized manner. If you keep the store clean and well organized, it will make it very hard for the shoplifters to hide their motives. A clean store makes it simple for you to see what’s missing from a shelf or display.
3. Staff Education
Employees are a root cause of inventory loss. Although it may not be obvious, staff theft can be intentional. Some of the common types of staff theft are:
- Use of hefty discounts to give price breaks to their family and friends
- Pocketing store resources like candle holders for personal use
- Keeping damaged goods that have to be returned to vendor for credit
Awareness of the staff about the right use of store material helps prevent the aforementioned activities. As well as adding this information in employee manuals (if any), try posting informative posters in store. Posters give workers a friendly reminder of how to effectively handle store inventory.
Basically, you want your workers to foster the values of loss prevention. A culture of loss prevention motivates workers to accurately key sales. Furthermore, it discourages deviation from established policies regarding returns and discounts. In the end, this involves employees at every level, from managers to front-shop workers.
4. Install CCTV Throughout Your Store
One of the most basic loss prevention strategies of home decor wholesale suppliers is to install CCTV cameras in your store. You can keep your inventory safe by monitoring them 24/7 with CCTV (closed-circuit television). These cameras can monitor all the entry points into your store, like the front doors and loading docks.
They record everything that’s going on inside and outside the store to see if anyone’s trying to get in who shouldn’t or any other suspicious activity. The use of CCTV also acts as a barrier for thieves. It gives the illusion of tight security and shows that you take losses seriously.
5. Put Security Tags on Items
Security tags are available in different forms, such as ink tags, spider wraps, and solid plastic containers. They are very useful for protecting often stolen items and serve as a preventative and alarm trigger. For instance, when a customer tries to remove them or exits the store without disabling them from the product like mirrors, it triggers the store’s security alarm system.
In Summary
By now you may have figured it out that loss prevention in wholesale home decor requires a proactive and flexible approach. By using smart inventory management, employee training, and security measures, retailers can protect their business from theft, fraud, and damages.
A merger with suppliers, staff, and platforms like ArtistryBazaar can make a huge difference. As a trusted B2B e-distributor, ArtistryBazaar connects retailers with quality handmade products while making sure artisans receive fair opportunities. So it is not wrong to say that a well-planned loss prevention strategy guarantees long-term success and sustainability.