No-one can afford to lose stock or money from the till so make sure you take steps to minimising losses.
Factors such as increases in VAT, ongoing job cuts and redundancies, rising fuel and utilities costs etc, are all having an increase on thefts from retail.
In order to limit your losses, follow the quick tips below and put the advice into action.
- In order to reduce shrinkage (loss), you have to know what you are dealing with. Ensure you have systems in place to identify losses and measure your shrinkage at full retail value, not only cost. Never forget that shrinkage is money being lost from your business so do what you can to keep it to a minimum.
- Balance the tills at the end of every day, reconcile credit card transactions every week and reconcile bank statements monthly, quarterly or annually depending on the size and complexity of your business.
- Create a stock take calendar, which ensures a full stock-take cycle for the whole store every three months, with extra frequency on high value items. Adjust the frequency for each category depending on the results of the stock takes.
- Make sure that your team is committed to helping you with the systems aimed at reducing shrinkage.
- Trust your gut instincts – if your intuition is telling you something is wrong, trust it, even if you think that the person should be innocent. An innocent person will understand that you are just being cautious.
- Learn from what other retailers are successfully doing and share information on what steps you are taking so that others can learn from you.
Download our ‘Theft’ fact sheet here.
