Loss Prevention Solutions: Add to Your Bottom Line

Many things affect the bottom line of grocery and retail stores, not the least of which is inadequate loss prevention systems. According to a National Retail Federation study, American retailers lose billions of dollars in potential sales each year due to “shrinkage” – which is the loss of inventory because of actions such as shoplifting, employee theft, administrative error, and cashier error.

For grocery store managers, IT directors, etc., having effective loss prevention technology and systems in place is crucial to your store’s bottom line. It also protects loyal shoppers while ensuring that all employees are adhering to loss prevention procedures and not adding to shrinkage. Even reducing shrink by a fraction of a percent can significantly improve your store’s revenue and gross margin.

Loss Prevention – A Proactive Approach

Grocery store and retail theft come in many forms: bottom of the basket theft (items at the bottom of the cart that are unseen by a cashier), “sweethearting” (when a cashier gives away items for free to a friend, family member, or employee), self-checkout theft, and more. For example, a self-checkout customer may enter an item code for cheaper produce than the correct code for a higher-priced item.

While the proliferation of self-checkout lanes is expected to continue on a global level, they’ve proven to be a challenge for many stores regarding loss prevention. But prosecuting shoplifters is often a legal minefield and detrimental to customer relations.

So, what to do?  

The good news is that there are technology and human solutions that are effective for loss prevention. For instance, having an employee staff and monitor your self-checkout lanes is one way to prevent shoplifting and customers from incorrectly entering price codes. Of course, thorough background checks of all employees should be mandatory, while proper training of cashiers can prevent confusion – and loss – at checkout. Cultivating and maintaining strong customer relationships is another way of guarding against shrinkage.

Technology Solutions

The bottom line is that loss comes in all shapes and sizes and often happens at the hands of your own employees, intentionally or not. If your store doesn’t have active and consistent monitoring systems or systems that are outdated and hard to maintain, investing in quality technology solutions that have a positive impact on your profits is crucial.

A quality smart technology system will protect against sweetheart theft, bottom of basket theft, self-checkout theft, while also providing online tracking of HR documents, small change and check loss prevention, integrated DVR, and more.

[Related Blog: Seeing is Believing: CCTV Systems Take Care of More Than Just Security]

TRUNO’s loss prevention solutions include more than just security cameras, but also an interface that works directly with your point-of-sale software. This technology provides real-time reporting, analysis while allowing you to monitor and report on cashier and customer activities. We’ll be bringing back even more innovative retail security solutions following the upcoming i3 International Innovision Show 2017 - stay tuned!

In short, technology that protects your store, reduces shrink, and acts as both a marketing and loss prevention tool is an investment with consistent, long-term payoffs.

Use Our Loss Prevention Solutions in Your Store!