Theft can have a major impact on the finances of your business. In spite of this, many don’t know how to protect their businesses from this problem.
Thankfully, there are some simple tips you can use to ensure your business doesn’t become a victim of theft.
Keep reading to learn 12 theft prevention tips you can put into place right now. Use these tips, and you can rest assured that the assets of your business will remain safe.
Let’s begin!
1. Invest in Security Cameras
When buying a security camera, you have the option of choosing from a wired camera or a wireless camera.
A wired camera can be more reliable and is also less vulnerable to outside attacks from hackers.
This is helpful if you want to maintain as much uptime as possible. Wired cameras can look a little bit messy due to the wires. You may also need to pay someone to take care of the installation of the wired camera.
Wireless cameras obviously look a lot neater because they’re not making use of any wires. But the lack of wires means that someone can potentially jam the communication and thus hack into the system.
You may still need to spend money on installation if you don’t feel comfortable with drilling holes in the walls so you can fit the cameras.
You’ll also want to select a camera system that’s going to record everything that’s going on. Some camera systems will do this using a local hard disk. But some cameras will allow you to record all your videos to the cloud. This is a good way to keep a solid record of everything that’s happening on your premises.
2. Spend Money on Good Locks
This might sound obvious, to the point you may think this suggestion is a little bit silly. But you absolutely need to audit your existing locks and consider how good they are.
If you’re using the same locks that came with the premises, you don’t know who else has the keys. This means that other people might still have access to your assets. You need to think about hiring a good locksmith to help you deal with this problem.
3. Update the Doors
You’ll find that there are specific doors which are designed to make it hard for people to break in.
Such doors can cost a lot of money, but you need to consider this cost in relation to the costs you’ll face if you lose items because of theft. Yes, it’s worth cutting business costs. But if your cost-cutting measure just makes your business easier to steal from, you may want to reconsider.
Plus, if you own the premises in question, making a change like this could potentially increase the value of the property.
4. Improve the Lighting
Good lighting is a deterrent for people that are thinking about stealing from you.
You’ll want to invest in some lighting that automatically works during the night. If your premises are outdoors, these lights may need to be on all the time.
It’s important these lights illuminate vital parts of your premises. This is because the lighting will also aid the CCTV systems. If anyone attempts a break-in, the lights will make it easy to see who’s doing what.
5. Consider an Alarm
Alarms can work very well in keeping your premises safe. One of the good things about an alarm system is that it can let the police know if there is someone trying to break into your premises.
This will then improve the odds of catching the person responsible. Plus if the alarm goes off whilst someone is stealing from you, it limits the number of items they’re going to steal. They’ll want to get away as fast as possible once the alarm is making a noise.
6. Be Careful Who You Hire
Hiring can also have a big impact on the safety of your business assets.
Employees are often one of the biggest causes of theft for a retail business. Yes, the other measures mentioned in this post can deter employees from stealing from you. But the best approach is to hire someone you can trust.
Before hiring someone, consider getting some references. You’ll then be able to get a sense of how trustworthy they were in their past job.
7. Understand When Shoplifting Is Likely to Happen the Most
No matter what business you run, there will likely be certain times where your premises is more prone to shoplifting. If you can identify these times, you can then take steps to ensure your business is not going to become a victim of shoplifting.
For instance, suppose that 3 pm is peak shoplifting time. If that’s the case, you can then set things up so that more staff are walking around during that time. This increased staff presence can be enough to deter potential thieves.
8. Create an ‘Entry’ Alert
You may set things up so that there isn’t someone always available on the shop floor. This can be a problem as it can give potential thieves the chance they need to come in and steal items.
Thus, you might want to consider installing an alert that will ring off whenever someone enters your premises.
The person in charge of the store is then made aware of this new person’s presence. Following this, the employee can make themselves known and take steps to ensure nobody steals anything.
9. Train Your Staff
It can also be a good idea to spend time training staff on how they can reduce shoplifting.
Taking these steps can help provide your sales associates with a toolkit they can use if they encounter any problems when working.
You might teach them how to spot someone that looks like they’re going to steal something. You might even teach them how to deal with a situation where someone has stolen something.
Without the proper training staff might not know how to deal with these situations. This may lead to the theft of your items. Or worse, it could lead to staff putting themselves in dangerous situations if they’re going to confront a potential thief.
10. Know What’s Most at Risk
Odds are some items in your store are more valuable than others. The people interested in stealing from you probably know what these items are.
You need to take preemptive action and secure these items as much as you can.
This might involve using a security tag that rings if there is any kind of disturbance that affects the item.
Such tags don’t cost a lot of money and can help deter people that might want to steal some of the prized items in your store. Making a decision on which tag you should buy can be challenging. But you can always ask experts like SensorNation should you run into any trouble.
11. Keep Track of Your Inventory
If you own a particularly large store, it can be hard to keep track of all your items.
This means that thefts can take place without you being aware of what’s going on. To prevent this from happening, consider installing a system that’ll keep track of your inventory. Such a system will make it easier to tell if items are being stolen.
For this kind of system to work properly, your staff will need to know how to use it. You’ll need to train staff so they don’t make mistakes when logging items and recording their findings.
12. Hire a Security Guard
Hiring a security guard can be expensive, but they can end up paying for themselves.
Especially if you’ve done everything mentioned in this post but still experience problems. A security guard might be the best option left.
When hiring a security guard, think about hiring someone that has experience working with stores like the one you own. They’ll know how to reduce shoplifting for your store specifically, thanks to their experience in the industry.
During the hiring process, ask them if they have suggestions that’ll help improve the security of your store.
Do You Know How to Go About Theft Prevention?
No matter what store you have and where it’s located, theft can be a big problem. But if you make a few adjustments, you should be able to keep theft to as low as possible.
In this post, we have covered 12 theft prevention tips you can use to reduce the number of items stolen from your premises. You can install CCTV cameras to keep an eye on everything that’s happening. You can even use special security tags that help secure some of the most valuable items in your store.
If you want to take things to the next level, you could even hire a security guard. No one solution is perfect, though, and you’ll want to constantly improve your approach to this problem.
But provided you do everything mentioned in this post, you should be a lot closer to having a store that is secure and less likely to be a victim of theft.
Thinking about applying for a business loan to help cover the costs? Read this post first.
