Stock shrinkage in the retail business is a real threat. It is more attractive for retailers to learn about the latest trends, strategies to drive sales and focus on new customer acquisitions than to think about shrinking stocks. In fact, by creating a theft prevention strategy, you can find benefits that have been missing without you knowing it. 

To help you recover your profit from stock shrinkage, you can look at some loss prevention strategies to help reduce stock shrinkage in your retail business below.

Improve the return process

One of the main causes of stock shrinkage is fraud when returning products. Therefore, to keep the scammers from coming back, you can take the time to create an official product return policy, especially if you don't have one yet.

To overcome the risk of return fraud to be minimized from irresponsible people, you can do the following things:

• Place the price tag in a clearly visible area, so that buyers will not be able to use the item without opening it.
• Make sure that the label cannot be replaced without being detected.
• Consider offering credit that can only be spent at your store instead of a full refund.
• Check the condition of the items to make sure they are not overused before being returned.
• Record the return transactions every day so you keep track of which items are being returned in stock.
• Pay attention to customers who return products frequently. Save the transaction history in your POS and add a note to the customer profile each time they make a return.
• Change the returns into new sales opportunities. Ask what problems caused them to return the product.

Involve the existing team

The team can directly monitor the movements in your retail business buying and selling transactions. Thus, they must be equipped with knowledge about what things are suspicious to reduce any risk. In addition, your team must also be careful in carrying out operations on goods that are sold in your retail business. Your team must ensure that the items being sold are not lost or damaged. 

Also, consider the conditions of the place of business

Take into account the layout of your shop, display, and the location of purchase to make it easy to monitor. Apart from reducing the threat from theft, the appearance of the condition of your business premises must also be neatly arranged. This is intended so that the storage of your merchandise is not careless, so the merchandise is not damaged and has its quality reduced. 

Increase the use of technology

In some cases, the use of technology in a retail business has been shown to be able to provide significant benefits. Stock shrinkage can be reduced by using good and correct technology. You can use inventory management software so that the organization in the supply of your merchandise can be recorded properly.

Perform regular inspection

Performing regular inspections of every merchandise you sell can reduce the risk of stock shrinkage in your retail business. In that case, you can create a checklist of existing loss prevention policies and procedures. After that, you can conduct an evaluation in performing regular audits of your retail business.

Key Takeaway

Having a retail business is very profitable. However, there are also some risks that can come to the business. Regarding this, you can evaluate several aspects above so that your retail business does not experience stock shrinkage. As a result, your retail business can get significant profits.

Leverage digital checklists such as Nimbly to digitalize the inspection process in your retail business and reduce stock shrinkage.