How to Deal with Customer Theft in Retail

How to Deal with Customer Theft in Retail

Business management advice from Tower Systems.

If you have items that you know are regularly stolen through regular spot stocktakes consider these tips for managing to reduce the cost of theft.

  1. Ensure all staff know about the problem.
  2. Spot stocktake weekly. Record the number stolen somewhere for staff to see. This sets a target for all.
  3. Place a portable work table near the often stolen products and move most tasks there such as product pricing, invoice checking or other tasks that could be easily done on the shop floor.
  4. Ensure you have camera coverage of the location.
  5. Place the stock so there are no blind spots that make theft easy.
  6. Try other locations and see if theft declines.
  7. Watch the location or stand from outside your business to see how shoppers interact with it.
  8. Act based on your business data.
  9. Involve the police if you get any actionable evidence.

The alternative is you complain about the problem and do nothing and that is not good management. Theft is something to be managed.

Reducing customer theft is all about understanding the problem and developing a plan to reduce it.


    • Related Articles

    • How to Reduce Employee Theft in Retail

      Business management advice from Tower Systems Theft is something to be managed in any retail business. Retailers are stolen from by employees. Good management is about reducing the opportunity for and instances of theft. Consider this advice and the ...

    • Employee Theft Prevention

      Employee theft is serious and more common than people think. It’s not easy to accept, but employee theft is worth considering as the cause of suspicious cash flow activity. These tips will help you erase employee theft from your business. Pay Above ...

    • Change the Customer for a Quote

      For any customer quotes that are done in the Quote and Invoice Management screen, as they are not final, they can be switched to a different customer. This may be needed if the wrong customer name/account was placed against it, or they've arranged ...

    • Setting up add customer screen

      You can customize the screen when adding new customers to remove any information that isn't needed for your customers. Click on Customer > Search > Add This will bring up the New customer details screen. Click on the settings cog at the top right. ...

    • Change Customer Barcodes

      If required, you can change the barcode which is automatically generated when a new customer is created. This might be because you have got pre-printed customer cards \ loyalty which have their own barcode on them. Click HERE to learn more about ...