It makes good sense for any business or home owner to use surveillance to prevent the financial loss and inconvenience that is caused by theft – no matter how many employees you have or what type of workplace you operate.

Who Might Be Stealing from You?

According to a study by the National Retail Federation, there are 3 main reasons for retail loss, also known as shrinkage:

1. Your Customers: Shoplifting accounts for around 38% of retail loss. Items can be taken for personal use or resale. Health and Beauty, apparel, and electronic shops are most vulnerable to this kind of theft. Make sure crime coverage is included in your insurance. Insurance costs are reduced with a properly installed and commissioned system by Advanced Overwatch.
2. Your Employees: Employee theft is the number one cause of retail shrinkage. In fact, it makes up about 35% of retailers’ total shrinkage. There are various reasons that employees steal from their companies. Some want to give friends a deal (sweethearting), others are dissatisfied with their employers/bosses, and some steal because they want extra cash.
3. Your Suppliers, Contractors, Management, and Administration: The remaining percentage of retail theft was pinned on suppliers and contractors and management and administrative errors. Suppliers and contractors might overcharge you, resulting in costs for services or products that you never actually received. Small businesses with more informal/less-organised contracts are especially susceptible to this kind of theft. Management and administrative errors, like mismanagement of inventory (ordering too much product, etc.) and pricing items incorrectly would both be examples of errors that will add up to significant losses – all of which can be avoided by implementation of Advanced Overwatch security solutions.

Steps You Can Take to Reduce Retail Theft

There are lots of actions you can take to reduce retail theft.

What’s right for your business will depend the size of your business, the size of your theft problem, and the size of your budget.

Advanced Overwatch provide the steps and solutions to our customers to reduce theft, beginning with the most important step: how to know what’s being stolen. Once you know what’s being stolen, you can decide whether to implement a low-cost solution like adding monitoring or a higher-cost solution like our investigative services or a security guard.