How Small Retailers Can Save Money on Security Measures

For smaller retailers with a single shop or several distributed in a chain across Exeter and throughout Devon, security is always a concern. Losses due to shrinkage, as it’s sometimes politely referred to in the trade, is a single-digit percentage of sales, but it cuts steeply into profit margins when heavy price discounting is necessary to compete with bigger brands and the rents aren’t getting any cheaper either.

While the idea of spending money on prevention is sometimes difficult to stomach when retail is struggling, avoiding losses and being able to seek recompense from anyone who steals in the shop or break-ins after-hours tends to recoup the investment over time.

Here are a few ideas on how to save money when it comes to security in your shop.

Affordability of CCTV

Not every CCTV installation has to be overly costly. There are now many different packages with a different number of cameras, so you can spend only what you need to cover your requirements. If you only feel you want one camera at the entrance and another covering the cashier till then that’s fine. The cost of easy installation depends on the product purchased. Each camera has a different list of specifications with some offering higher resolution images than others or providing greater frames-per-second to catch the faces and movement of people every second or so.

The better CCTV installers put in the system you need with the minimum amount of business disruption. With these CCTV installers, they are neat and tidy and keep the shop in good condition. Cameras and fittings to the wall are small and discrete these days. So, it’s not an eye-sore either if you care about how your interior looks, as most small shop owners do.

Theft in Real-time

The interesting thing about watching people come into the shop is that while it’s like a Noah’s Ark with how different each next person is, they still have similarities in behaviour. It becomes easier to spot the bad people even as soon as they walk in just by their hairstyle, sense of dress, eye movement and body language. This can be seen just as easily on a CCTV from a distance, just as they can in real-life, once you know what to look for.

Most thieves in shops look for the easy target, usually valuable items near the front door they can grab and run with, no sign of CCTV cameras out front or at the entrance, and a lack of staff on the retail floor walking around checking out the customers. Other people are more opportunistic in their picking up a phone that someone put down “just for a second” on a counter, turned around to look at something, and when they turned back, the phone was gone.

With the help of cameras and learning what to look for, staff can dispel the idea that your shop is an easy ‘mark’. For people who make a living from shoplifting, word gets around quickly where to avoid when hardening the defences with cameras and being pro-active. Financial losses from theft then drop off significantly. 

Keeping a Watch on Employees

We like to think the best of our employees, but in the retail space no one is paid all that much and some staff get sticky fingers. That is why it’s sometimes a good idea to have a camera pointing at the cashier till to see when an employee is putting money in and taking cash out of the till, and where their hands go to once they have.If you’re finding that the till float keeps coming up short and you’re having to make up the difference, then something may be happening beyond misidentifying bank notes or miscounting change given back to customers.

Also, if stock in the back stockroom or items on the shop floor are disappearing but it doesn’t seem to be the customers, then it could be an inside job. Tracking down which employee is the culprit stops the ongoing losses from continuing. You can bet your last pound that if they’ve gotten away with it a couple of times, they’ll get more brazen and the cost will increase dramatically as they lift higher value items and with greater frequency. Catching this early is key here.

The net margins for retailers are facing compression as more people shop online and not at their local shop. All shop owners can no longer afford to avoid spending on security measures or ignore what they could be losing. It’s your potential profits walking out the door and they never return later. Spending a little now, in a cost-efficient manner, puts in place extra measures to avoid future problems. Sometimes just seeing this stops the bad people in their tracks because they don’t wish to get caught. With security, you must spend now to save later, but you’re better off in the long-run.