retail theft - Security Tags

Eliminating opportunity in the fight against retail theft

Kyle Hall — Thu, 03 Oct 2019 05:01:45 +0000

Whether it’s at the self-checkout, a snatch and grab or simply stashing an item under their clothing, shoplifting is always a crime of opportunity.

That opportunity might be spur of the moment, or it might be maximized with pre-planning, but make no mistake, when it comes to every single element of loss prevention, eliminating opportunity is the aim of the game.

Here’s an insight into how retailers eliminate opportunity in the fight against retail theft…

Know your weakness

It’s important to note, in any retail outlet shoplifting is only part of the loss prevention picture. This year, the National Retail Federation found shoplifting accounted for 35.7 per cent of the industry’s $46.8 billion loss, while employee theft equaled 33.2 per cent, administrative and paperwork error accounted for 18.8 per cent, and vendor fraud totaled 5.8 per cent.

That means retailers should take a good hard look at their outlet to examine exactly where and when all opportunities for loss might arise.

Know your loss

Most retail outlets have an area of weakness and the analytics and reporting of retail offer an insight into where that is.

Analytics and reporting help identify trends, such as when an item is out of stock despite being listed as available in the inventory (this indicates items may be subject to theft).

It might also identify more loss occurs when specific staff members are on duty, which hints at the fact better loss prevention training is required, customer service protocols should be reviewed or in the worst case, theft is occurring at the hands of these staff.

Analytics may also reveal loss occurs at specific times, like opening, closing or holiday trading (indicating staff are distracted, perhaps more staff are required, or procedures need to be reviewed).

Analytics and reporting can also reveal that loss is occurring in the supply chain, or perhaps items are not accounted for properly due to paperwork and error.

Eliminating opportunity

Once you know your potential areas of weakness and also your actual areas of loss, reducing loss comes down to eliminating opportunity.

This often involves a multi-faceted strategy that includes the elements of:

Customer service

Research consistently reveals good customer service plays a definite role in reducing shoplifting. Good customer service sees staff meet and greet consumers and being attentive to their needs in store.

Staff training

Staff play a critical role in identifying and preventing many areas of loss. They should be trained in the suspicious behaviour of shoplifting, given clear instructions on what to do if they suspect an act is occurring, and valued for their role within the retail outlet.

Staff should also be educated on repercussions of employee theft, screened prior to employment, and encouraged to be part of the loss prevention discussion.

Store design

From lighting to layout, good store design eliminates areas where a potential theft might take place. It ensures each area of an outlet feels visible. Design also assists with both customer service and inventory by keeping an outlet neat, tidy and organized to ensure products can be found by the customer and accounted for by staff.

Product protection

Whether a product is high-value or high-volume and low-value, it should be individually protected against theft using Electronic Article Surveillance or suitably secured displays.

EAS would see security tags attached to products like apparel, accessories and electronics, while labels would be affixes to lower value items, like non perishable groceries and pharmaceuticals.

Meanwhile, high-value items such as electronic devices and their accessories might be protected using secure displays where the device is locked to a display table or bench and alarmed.

Alternatively, or additionally, some high-value stock might be secured in lockable cabinets which staff assist the interested customer in accessing.

Store protection

As a further level of security, a retail outlet might opt for overall store protection such as CCTV and loss prevention personnel.

This type of security monitors the entire outlet rather than individual products and identifies acts of theft or assists in dealing with them at the time or afterwards.

Store policy

All security measures should be backed up by store policies which can help mitigate theft.

This will include subjects like return and gift card policy, how shoplifters are dealt with, how employee theft is handled and the steps a staff member should take to report suspicious behaviour from customers or other employees.

Store policy will also outline the correct procedures for receiving goods and inventory reconciliation, assisting them to identify errors and inconsistencies in inventory that may indicate supply chain loss.

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Theft at the self-checkout

Kyle Hall — Tue, 23 Jul 2019 07:18:34 +0000

Self-checkouts might be convenient for customers and slash staff costs for retailers, but they’re costing the retail sector billions in terms of shoplifting and theft.

More importantly, the self-service checkout is attracting a new style of shoplifter who wouldn’t normally consider themselves a thief.

So how do retailers combat this growing crime as they continue to embrace the latest self-service technology?

The self-checkout

As Loss Prevention Media (LPM) notes, self-checkouts now account for around 40 per cent of all transactions and 20 per cent of all sales. They are also a technology that is rolling out rapidly in retail outlets across the globe.

By 2024 the self-checkout market is expected to exceed $5 billion with a compounded annual growth rate of 10.3 per cent in the coming years.

That means this handy technology is likely to be found in more and more stores and the toll of shoplifting will keep rising unless new theft-prevention strategies are quickly deployed.

Theft at the self-checkout

Concrete figures on how much retailers lose at the self-checkout are hard to come by, but according to a recent article in The Atlantic, the crime is more common than many believe.

They note a Voucher Codes Pro survey of 2634 people recently found 20 per cent admitted to stealing at the self-checkout, with more than half indicating they did so because detection was unlikely.

Meanwhile, a study by criminologists at the University of Leicester also determined self-checkout theft was widespread.

“After auditing one million self-checkout transactions over the course of a year, totaling $21 million in sales, they found that nearly $850,000 worth of goods left the store without being scanned and paid for,” The Atlantic says.

And customers are finding some common ways to commit the crime.

Self-checkout theft methods

Three common methods dominate self-checkout theft and the internet reveals a whole world of new technology to describe the crime.

There’s the ‘banana trick’ which sees the code of a cheaper weighed item applied to a more expensive one, the ‘pass off’ which sees an item not scanned at all, and ‘the switcheroo’ which involves placing the label of a cheaper item over the barcode of a more expensive one.

According to a Loss Prevention Research Council research reported in LPM, a recent study of 24 self-checkout offenders reveals “the pass off” is by far the most common.

They note all 24 offenders indicated they scanned some but not all items, while five indicated they also switched labels, four said they tricked the scales, and three used “other means”.

Critically, 29 per cent of offenders indicated self-checkout theft was “very easy”, a further 29 per cent said it was “somewhat easy,” 29 per cent were “neutral”, and only nine per cent said it was “somewhat difficult” while just four per cent claimed it was “very difficult”.

Meanwhile, the National Retail Federation’s Stores Magazine notes checkout theft is often a crime of opportunity.

The National Association for Shoplifting Prevention’s Barbara Staib told Stores, shoppers who may otherwise not steal can find it easier to rationalize taking things at the self-checkout.

“Many of these offenders don’t view it as theft and more as a deserved discount for standing in line too long or spending a lot of money at the store.

“These are people that normally aren’t shoplifters or inherently criminal. But for whatever reasons, they decided they’re doing to dip their toe in the waters, or they feel entitled to something.”

Methods of preventing self-checkout theft

As self-checkouts continue their rollout, research into ways of reducing the theft also increases. At present there are a series of common techniques retailers use to combat self-checkout theft and new anti-theft technology is also in development.

Methods include:

Surveillance – Surveillance is widely used in grocery stores and is increasingly employed at the Point of Sale to monitor customers going through the self-checkout.

Store associates – An attentive attendant at the self-service checkout is proving one of the most effective ways of preventing theft.

LPM explains interviews with self-service shoplifters indicate “many offenders interviewed recognized the associates as a deterrent before perceiving the surrounding technologies”.

“Some offenders even reported that an attentive self-checkout associate is more effective at deterring theft than advanced technologies.

“One offender even commented on the importance of an attentive associate in deterring shoplifting: ‘A lot of stealing got by because of lazy employees—employees are not paying attention, or are on their phones. It’s all about the employees. If the store has employees who are more attentive, then self-checkout theft would be hard’.”

Artificial Intelligence – Machine learning and artificial intelligence are also becoming useful tools in the fight against self-service theft and as the technology improves that role will likely increase.

These systems are designed to recognise a customer’s items before they even reach the self-service area, reducing the onus on humans to declare the items they have.

You can learn more about the latest findings on shoplifting here, or contact our friendly staff for more information on the security tags and labels that can help protect your store.

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How to protect your new store using EAS

Kyle Hall — Tue, 07 May 2019 05:46:44 +0000

The shop fit out is complete, the stock on order and the Point of Sale in place…but what about the electronic article surveillance (EAS) that will guard your store against theft?

Make no mistake, once you flip that door sign to open, it’s not just authentic customers who will be excitedly perusing your wares, and EAS remains the most effective way of protecting individual products against shoplifting.

In this guide, we walk you through the top things to take into consideration to protect your new store using EAS.

Why EAS?

There are a number of ways to protect a retail outlet, and often the best loss prevention comes down to employing not just one strategy but a few simultaneously.

However, at a product-based level, EAS is the most widely utilized and effective tool to protect individual items against shoplifting.

Used by 73 per cent of retailers globally and reducing theft by an estimated 60-80 per cent, it sees each individual product monitored by tags or labels that communicate with surveillance antenna at the entryway to the store.

So, what do you need to consider when implementing EAS?

Types of EAS systems

There are two widely used types of EAS systems available, with the difference being the frequency at which they operate. Known as Radio Frequency (RF) or Acousto Magnetic (AM) systems, the differences between the two are as follows:

RF systems – The price of RF systems can range from very low cost for more basic RF systems through to high cost for advanced RF systems. RF offers the potential to upgrade to RFID with some RF antenna systems, and it’s available from a host of manufacturers.

On the downside, RF can offer a limited range of detection systems often restricted to pedestals, and the systems can be more susceptible to electronic and metallic interference.

AM systems – AM systems tend to offer a larger detection area, so antenna can be positioned further apart. This is ideal in retail scenarios where the entrance to the store is wide. These antennas can also be concealed in door structures or under the flooring. Meanwhile, AM is less susceptible to interference.

On the downside, the cost is often higher than RF, and antenna are not as easily upgraded to RFID.

You can learn more about the difference between RF and AM here, but once you have selected an antenna system, it’s time to consider the tags or labels you will use to protect your products.

Security tags and security labels

Hard security tags and security labels for both RF and AM systems come in a range of sizes and strengths with some incorporating additional benefit denial features like ink dye to make products less attractive to thieves.

Here are the major examples of the different types of products, the tag or label type generally used to secure them, and the factors you need to consider:

Clothing – Clothing is generally secured using hard tags which are available in a variety of strengths, shapes and with different operating mechanisms, and each of these factors adds up to improve the security of your items.

In today’s highly savvy shoplifting era, retailers need to arm themselves with security tags that cannot be defeated by detachers readily available online.

At a minimum, retailers should ensure their security tags include a large pin head and have either Hyperlock or Multipolar tag locking mechanisms that require special and hard to source detachers to unlock.

Fashion accessories – When it comes to fashion accessories such as handbags and shoes, they are most often secured using a cable tag or lanyard, rather than having a pin head pass through the actual product. Lanyards should incorporate high-strength cables that cannot be cut readily or pulled off by a thief. Meanwhile sunglasses can be guarded using purpose-designed optical tags.

Electronics – Due to their high resale value, electronics are one of the most frequently targeted items for theft. If on accessible display, electronics are usually secured to a stand complete with alarm, charger and lockable cable.

Electronic accessories – The accessories that accompany electronics are also some of the most frequently stolen items, but there are a host of ways to secure them. These include display hooks, multi-function tags, and stop locks.

Bottles – Whether it’s top-shelf liquor, or a rare bottle of red, there is a range of tags designed specifically for alcohol bottles, with straps, caps and secure locks available.

Small items – For small items like groceries or hardware, adhesive security labels are the best option due to their affordability and disposability, but you will need to factor in whether flat paper thin labels are preferred or small two dimensional labels.

It’s worth noting that pharmaceuticals often have a high foil content, so AM based systems are better suited to their security.

Detachers and deactivators

All tags require detaching and all labels require deactivation in order for a product to exit the store without setting off an alarm. Security tag detachers are often specific to the make or strength of tag your store utilizes.

Meanwhile, detachers are highly desirable items for any would-be thief so should be adequately secured at the point of sale, while still being readily and conveniently available to staff.

You can learn more about how EAS works and why it’s the preferred method of shoplifting prevention here.

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