Inventory loss is a problem that affects a wide range of businesses, to the point that it’s practically expected in any retail setting. However, you shouldn’t consider it an acceptable part of doing business, nor should you focus on reactive measures to fight it. Prevention and protection should be the key, and here we’re going to look at what steps you can take.
Get your eye in the sky
When it comes to business security measures, CCTV is widely recommended for a range of reasons. It acts as a great deterrent to theft since cameras tend to be visible for precisely that reason. However, it also ensures that you’re able to keep an eye on the area, whether it’s live and at the moment that someone makes an attempt at theft, or after the fact, so you can identify not just the perpetrator, but the security failures that allowed them to get away.
Secure your most valuable items
Whether it’s stock, tech, cash, or something else, you should make sure that you give extra attention to how you protect the most valuable and important assets on your business property. For vehicles, this might mean investing in wheel locks as well as GPS trackers, but for smaller assets, specialist vault installation and dismantling services can help you create the high-security storage space that you need. If losing a specific asset would put you in serious financial trouble, you need to make sure it gets extra protection.
Track your inventory’s movements
An inventory management system might not exactly be able to stop someone from lighting your stock, but it does play an important role in helping you get to the bottom of any thefts that do happen. If you have a system that tracks the movements of each good, then you can more easily how much you lose each month when you compare sales numbers to the actual number of stock and find discrepancies. This can help put you on high alert to prevent it in the future.
Control access to your goods
Aside from tracking your inventory and how it is moved, you should also consider tracking and controlling who gets access to it in the first place. Having a digital lock for the store room, complete with a sign-in to show who went in and when can help you narrow down the question of who had access to your inventory at any given time.
Turn your team into security assets
You might not (and should not) train your average employee to act as a security guard. You can, however, give them loss prevention training lessons that can encourage them to be more watchful and mindful of the signs that theft has occurred. This way, you’re not just worrying about it yourself, you know that your team is keeping an eye out and able to raise the alarm when necessary.
It may well be impossible for any retail business to completely prevent loss, but the more measures you take against it, the greater you can reduce it, which helps you keep more money in the business.
