Despite major advances in technology and security systems, retail theft problems continue to remain a serious dilemma for the industry. Retail theft can cripple a business’ profit margins while putting employees and other shoppers at risk. Therefore, we discuss the importance of retail security’s effect on loss prevention, providing tangible next steps in protecting your business.
What is Retail Security?
Before applying loss prevention tactics to your retail store, it’s best to define the purpose of retail security. Generally, retail store security refers to the protection measures and techniques that retailers adopt to secure their store and merchandise. Such measures are established to prevent and protect retail stores from theft, vandalism, and other shoplifting crimes. While first responders may only be a few minutes away, you can feel better about the time between dispatch and arrival when retail security systems are in place.
Why is Retail Security and Loss Prevention Important?
It is rare to hear a retail store owner express carelessness in how they secure their store and merchandise. How would they plan to keep their business open otherwise? The importance of retail security is not debated. Below, we explore three reasons a reliable loss prevention system is absolutely crucial.
Minimizing Product Loss
This is the highest priority an excellent security system could have. The key to finding the right loss prevention equipment is discovering a theft deterrent system specifically designed for your unique application. There is no point in installing a security system that doesn’t fit your needs. Though you can find a surplus of security systems that effectively minimize theft, you may wonder how well they display your merchandise and ultimately affect customer engagement.
Profiting from Aesthetic Appeal
The right theft deterrent system for your retail store will maximize your profits while minimizing losses. Though theft prevention automatically stabilizes your profit margins by preventing a loss, retail security can also add positive credit to your profits. How? The best theft deterrent systems also work to maximize profits via aesthetic appeal, largely through improved satisfaction in customer experience.
Uninterrupted Customer Engagement
While focusing on minimizing product loss and profiting from aesthetic appeal, innovative security systems add to a customer’s satisfaction and product purchase by providing an uninterrupted experience. Theft-deterrent systems that allow customers to have a great experience with aesthetically displayed products target the three most important purposes of retail security.
Steps to Keeping Your Retail Store Secure
Having discussed retail security’s effect on loss prevention, here are some tangible next steps to take involving security protocols and technology systems.
Train Your Staff
Having a plan in place for an attempted robbery will help your employees respond to such situations. Therefore, perform quarterly meetings to train and practice with your staff how to handle various scenarios.
Additionally, if you want to protect your retail store from robbers, never have fewer than two people working at any given time. Though having an extra employee on shift during a slower season may increase your operating costs, the protection is worth it.
Install the Right Security Systems For Your Business
It’s impossible to have an eye on every customer who walks into your retail store while assisting someone else at the register or counting stock in the back room. Installing security systems help monitor and flag any potential theft. Granted that your retail business may fit a niche market, you need to decide which anti-theft prevention components best suit your retail security needs. You can create a customized combination of hardware, software, and additional security systems.
Hardware Security
Many products, especially expensive technology, are displayed for customers to touch, hold, and try while considering a purchase. Therefore, selecting the right hardware is imperative to elevate the display’s engagement, consumer dynamics, and profit margins. In order to securely display products without interrupting customer engagement, you need the following:
- Mechanical display solutions create a user-friendly customer experience by providing a realistic idea of how the merchandise operates while effectively maintaining loss prevention.
- Cordwinders, cables, and ends securely tether your products to a designated shelf or table, allowing you to display expensive merchandise for customer interaction.
- Alarm and sensor solutions immediately notify you of any theft attempts.
Software Security
Depending on your offered products and services, your retail store may require additional software to secure your merchandise. Software not only secures your merchandise but also provides crucial data and statistics that track customer engagement. This is a key component to effectively improving your sales strategy. Therefore, your retail business will benefit from the following:
- Wireless security with data analytics allow your customers to carry merchandise around the store for experimentation and comparison purposes without tethers and cables. This software also provides accurate customer engagement data to direct your advertising strategies and sales goals.
- Theft prevention software requires no hardware; the product effectively prevents shoplifters from using a device once removed from its power source or taken outside a specified radius. While protecting the device, this software still allows customers to test the product with easy interaction while in the store.
Additional Retail Security Applications
After selecting the hardware and software solutions that best suit your retail security needs, you can continue to explore additional technology for added security. Implementing a Smart Shelf into your retail store’s design can serve as a multi-purpose tool. If you display a high volume of the same product and want video monitoring and anti-sweep alerts, the Smart Shelf allows retailers to track sales, monitor theft, and always detect items running low in stock. Additionally, you could add to your pre-existing security system by utilizing a mock surveillance camera, or Dummy Dome, to give the illusion of live monitoring.
Sennco Solutions: Customized Retail Security
As a store owner, it can be hard to decide which retail security systems work best for your store! That’s why our experts can guide you in finding the right loss prevention components for you. At Sennco Solutions, we work alongside our clients and listen to their concerns, ideas, and retail marketing goals to fully represent them and their priorities. We dedicate our efforts to creating innovative, secure, and consumer-friendly retail security systems suitable for multiple industries. If you are looking for an innovative and un-invasive security system to boost your loss prevention plan, contact us today to learn how our experts at Sennco can help.