If you are a boutique owner or manager, then you are likely to have a personal investment in the store. This makes retail theft prevention even more important because things that are stolen can directly hit your wallet. Small businesses like boutiques can quickly go out of business if they suffer a particularly hard loss. This is why preventing theft is so important. Unfortunately a lot of retail theft is internal. Employees feel safe and have the time to determine the best ways to get away with taking something that they either want for themselves, as a gift, or to sell. Use these ideas to help minimize your losses.
- Investment in a highly technical alarm system may sound like a great idea. However, this is not usually within the grasps of financial possibility for many boutique owners. There is a solution, though. You can actually purchase new or used security tags for your boutique clothing. Simply having the tag clipped to the garment will turn most thieves away. You don’t necessarily need the alarm at the door to keep people from stealing. Most people would not think that they could get the tag off without damaging the clothing. Or, they just aren’t sure if you have some sort of security device that will leave them caught red handed if they try to take something.
- Invest a little in decoy cameras. This can be one of your biggest deterrents for employees and shoplifters. Camera domes are also very effective and are nothing more than a dome shaped piece of plastic on the ceiling. Mirrors on the ceiling and around the store also make thieves nervous enough not to steal.
- Use your employees to keep thieves on their toes. Thieves want to fly under the radar or be so overly friendly that you would never suspect them. Don’t let your customers get too comfortable. Employees should greet, talk to, and repeatedly help customers being careful not to cross the line of being annoying, of course. If your employees see someone take something from agarment rack, then have the employee offer to help, take the item to the register, or hang it on a dressing room door.
- Lighting and your store set-up will make honest customers have a more pleasant shopping experience, but will let shoplifters know that you are not making it easy for them. Avoid cramming garment racks full or putting them close together. Use spotlights to make thieves uncomfortable with trying to hide between items to slip something up their sleeve or into their other shopping bags. With just a few tweaks to your store and your staff’s behavior, you can prevent as much theft as you could with an expensive inventory control system.
About the Author: John Garvey is on the staff of Only Garment Racks, a leading online source of garment racks including clothing racks. Find a high quality garment rack or clothing rack at http://www.onlygarmentracks.com.