The security issue retailers have in common is preventing shrinkage. It is estimated that theft contributes to approximately 2% to 5% of shrink to retailers’ annual turnover. Installing a professional security system can control retail theft – both as a detector and as a deterrent. However, focusing on just one element of theft often provides retailers with a false sense of security. Shrinkage is the result of equally important factors: customer theft, employee theft, supplier theft and organisational errors.
In the Retail Systems Research (RSR) 2008 Benchmark Study, "Winning Trends in Loss Prevention", 56% of retailers believe shrink has gained in importance as a retail priority over the past 2 years.
The following are the reasons for shrinkage due to employee theft:
- In the 2008 RSR report, employee theft was the #1 identified source of shrink, trumping customer theft by a significant margin.
- 70% of retailers surveyed believe their employees are stealing merchandise from them, compared to 53% citing light-fingered customers. Even larger retailers, who are under greater threat from organised crime rings, believe employee theft to be their biggest problem.
- 74% of retailers identify an inability to trust their employees as a key business challenge in driving new loss prevention initiatives.
- A combination of refined recruitment techniques, training and increased employee stakeholder ship in loss prevention results may be the nirvana. In the meantime, retailers can take better advantage of both existing and emerging technology to better control internal shrink.
The following are the measures to be taken by retailers to make their store secure:
Electronic Article Surveillance (EAS), CCTV and monitored back to base alarm systems to mitigate both external and internal threats.
The Sensormatic EAS systems use premier Acousto-Magnetic (AM) technology to alert staff of an attempted customer theft. These systems are generally located at the entrance and exit doors.
EAS system components include:
- Label and hard tags, which are electronic sensors that are attached to merchandise
- Deactivators and detachers, which are used at the point of sale to electronically deactivate labels and detach reusable hard tags as items are purchased
- Detectors that create surveillance zone at exits or checkout aisles
The EAS process begins by attaching labels or hard tags to merchandise. When an item is purchased, the label is deactivated or the hard tag is removed. However, if the merchandise with an active label or hard tag is carried past the detector, an alarm sounds.
Strategically positioned CCTV cameras can both act as deterrents and assist in identifying perpetrators for subsequent prosecution.
Point Of Sale (POS) Monitoring systems lets the retailers track activity at every one of their cash registers, virtually eliminating sweet hearting, over-rings, under-rings and other forms of register theft. An ADT POS monitoring system combines event detection, video and text into a single integrated unit, giving retailers a quick and easy way to search questionable activity.
A professionally installed, maintained and monitored intruder alarm system is a significant deterrent to crime and provides a great deal of protection against unwanted intruders. Key to the effectiveness of any internal system is the set-up and communication of stringent protocols to guide staff behaviour when dealing with an alarm event or security escalations.Sensormatic Analytics enables retailers to respond proactively to causes of shrink using exception based reporting.
Following are the products and services from ADT security :
ADT Security offer a broad line of anti-shoplifting solutions centred on Sensormatic EAS systems. Sensormatic pedestal technology is adaptable to all market needs and is customer friendly, not prone to false alarms and has the highest detection rate in the industry.
ADT Security’s system of Complete Inventory Management is built around their unique 4-D approach to retail security, Deter, Detect, Defend and Document. These layered tiers of solutions not only help to protect the property, staff and inventory, but can also help to protect the profits.
Sensormatic from ADT Security protects the world’s top retail chains. In fact, more than 80% of the top 200 retailers and 90% of the Fortune 500 companies around the world rely on ADT security to provide industry leading security and loss prevention solutions.
Retail Analytics is a new product introduced by Sensormatic and is a reporting application designed to reduce cashier and point of sale losses. The Point of Sale feature provides easy-to-create exception rules for identifying and fixing problems before they create shrink and lost sales.
SmartEAS, the next generation in EAS, has end-to-end solutions that furnish retailers with a number of ways to transform their retail devices into a multi-faceted, real-time intelligence system that will improve loss prevention programmes, operations and profitability.
An integral component is the People Counting technology, which can be overhead or built into pedestals and can track traffic to sale conversion rates, delivering actionable operational intelligence to retailers. ADT Security’s next generation Sensormatic Loop Systems offers a completely concealed security system for image-conscious, high fashion retail.
ADT Security’s new Supertag hard tags are 30% smaller, lighter and more robust than the previous Supertag family, allowing retail product to hero on display and still be protected.
Current global source tagging is an increasing opportunity for retailers with over 4,000 suppliers providing source tagged products to more than 400 retail chains globally. In 2006, over 4.2 billion items were source tagged globally. With the right source-tagging solutions ADT Security are helping retailers to reduce shrinkage, while helping to increase sales and profits. This can come from having the security to merchandise goods openly, in high-traffic areas, or by ensuring that merchandise is protected prior to even arriving in the store. This prevents internal theft and further reduces shrinkage.