Millions of cell phones are stolen every year, plenty of them directly from retailers. Is your wireless store the land of opportunity for potential thieves, or are you doing everything you can to protect your merchandise? Especially during the busy holiday season, when your store is more crowded and sales associates have their hands full, remembering these five tips for loss prevention can be a financial lifesaver in your wireless store.

1. Review your store layout

There are ways to arrange your overall store design and visual merchandising to make your store more inviting to genuine customers and uninviting to potential thieves.

2. Use technology

Industry experts say installing security cameras is the single-most effective thing you can do. Obvious cameras often deter would-be shoplifters – why take a chance when they can go to another store where the pickings are easier? Budget-minded small retailers often find faux cameras work quite well. On the other hand, live surveillance also makes it much easier to successfully prosecute shoplifters. 

Cameras also enable you to monitor your cash register and backroom areas, to deter employee theft. Unfortunately, employees are responsible for nearly half of shrinkage in wireless stores. Learn the red flags that indicate you may have a problem.  

You can even take video to the next level, incorporating sophisticated software that allows you to study patterns of customer movement around your store. This information can help you make more profitable merchandising decisions.

One of the biggest challenges for retailers of wireless devices is that customers want to play around with the products before they make buying decisions. Traditional tethers make that difficult. However, the Palmer CELLMATE is cleverly designed to secure devices while enabling plenty of customer interaction.

3. Go low-tech

Post signs that clearly state your intention to prosecute shoplifters. Be very blunt, or use softer language or humor if that fits better with your type of store and clientele.

4. Track your inventory carefully

Shrinkage happens especially in stores where employees know tracking is lax. You need to be able to follow every item from the time it arrives on-premise until the time it’s sold. Tips for loss prevention won’t help you if you don’t know what you’re losing.

5. Smile

This is one of the best tips for loss prevention. Greeting every customer with a friendly hello should be a daily best practice for every store, because you want shoppers to have a positive, welcoming experience. But personally engaging with customers is an excellent loss prevention technique, too. You don’t have to stalk customers to let them know you’re aware of their movements. And noticing where shoppers are and what merchandise they’re examining enables you to further personalize their experience.

Finally, speaking of people, if you’re located in a high-crime area or feel you don’t have enough cameras or staff to keep an adequate eye on your wireless store, consider hiring a uniformed security guard for your entrance/exit.

Palmer Retail Solutions strives to offer our clients the absolute best combination of innovation, quality, service, and value for our diversified custom store fixtures and merchandising displays. For more information about our designs, retail fixtures, cash wraps, kiosks, or point of purchase displays, visit our website at: http://www.palmerretailsolutions.com.