Getting to Know Your Shoplifters

If you look at the economy in the United States, you probably realize that there's a trend for the last generation or so where the income gap in families is getting bigger. This creates a divide between the haves and the have nots, making a significantly increasing number of the population more susceptible to committing crime to make ends meet. Accelerating since Covid, retail has had to rapidly evolve to consumers ever-progressing just-in-time needs.

It seems like an opportunity most people have in the world is to remember that nobody is perfect. Some result to stealing... whatever their reasons. I'll leave it to others to judge. I've found it's more productive to focus on what I can control. There's a lot of different approaches to fighting retail theft. Looking at the root cause, and thinking about the best solution, there's also a whack-a-mole, snowball effect you should take into account.

If you're a retailer and confused about the way forward, you're not alone. It's difficult to know what the right balance is for consumers. It depends on a number of factors e.g., your format, labor model, loyalty program, etc. You just need to have faith that there's solutions available if you're ready to make the move for your customers and employees. The sad reality is that products have to be secured in retail because there are a lot of bad actors in the world. This group of peoples' goal is to be anonymous, vs. everyone else who is willing to provide some identification in good faith. Resist the temptation to make your store a prison and make it more like a TSA Precheck golden ticket experience for your best customers and employees.

In order to know how best to prevent (external) theft, it's best to understand how each category is approached.

"Smash and Grab"

The more secure your display, the less risk to your employees (and customers). Criminals migrate until they find stores that are the softest target. If you have the most secure displays, people will eventually stop trying and steal from another retailer. You don't need to lock products up all the time, there are so many options where you can have devices to experience on display, without the temptation for someone to steal it.

Secure Displays can win 100% of the time so your employees can focus on helping customers and less worrying about policing. They can enhance your display and make each device look thoughtfully placed. Best part, these devices do all the work, so everyone can relax. Most don't even have alarms, because they don't have to. After all, what does an alarm do??... Shame a person with noise to put something back? I think we are past that point in the United States, so it seems an alarm calls attention to the crime inviting employees and customers to be a hero (or be critical) which is probably doesn't advance your goals.

"Flash Rob"

Also known as "multiple offender crimes" who use "flash mob tactics..." Feels like that's way too pleasant of a description of an event that can be traumatizing. The goal is to quickly overwhelm and outnumber employees. The act would be closer to "looting," but with employees (and customers) present, there's implied threat of violence if they intervene. Unlike "flash mobs," often the participants know each other. The offenders are usually younger as the penalty is less severe for juveniles, and they are harder to identify. Many times, they are enlisted by organized retail crime rings for these very reasons.

This style of theft is one of the main reasons why retailers are locking up items. Few categories are immune. Each has their own appeal to criminals... It's way too easy to fence health and beauty products, electronics, Lego, tools, high-priced commodities, etc. online. No doubt a lot of people just do this for income, but it's more disappointing to see when it carries over into category like baby, infant. One could assume that greed is still the driver, but if it's more out of desperation and survival, it just feels worse. This is amplified when there are shortages.

Retailers can easily profit from taking action here. There are 3 massive tranches you unlock when you move from traditional keys and embrace technology / mKey. 1) Reduced internal theft. Physical keys don't provide you any data. mKeys tell you who accessed a case, at what time, how many times, etc. 2) Making it easy for any associate to assist a customer vs. having to find someone with keys. and 3) Optimizing labor from associates assisting customers, to fulfillment and delivery teams becoming more productive, to best customer unlock.

If that hat-trick of growth wasn't enough, the icing on the cake is that everybody in the value chain satisfaction goes up 10x with more advanced technology. People just want access! If you give every employee the tools to help customers, they will be happier. If a customer sees a retailer implementing technology to secure products, they are more likely to prefer that store over others that use ancient locks, cages, etc. Everyone's time is precious, so they are able to translate that into it not taking as long to get assistance, hence they aren't thinking "...if they don't come and help me in 3 minutes, I'm never coming back, and buying online..."

Note that the conversion to sale is a lot higher for items in cases than other products. In other words, if someone requests assistance to access a product, odds are they are buying it.

"Sweeping"

This where a shoplifter comes to a store (any format) and focus on displays where people can grab a bunch of small items at a high ASP, in a very short amount of time. Sometimes they conceal it, sometimes they are more brazen. The faster they can grab a great deal of items the better. This behavior usually throws retailers into a vicious doom loop where they think they only have 2 options: 1) Lock everything up; or 2) Deal with high shrink. The latter often results in displays that are not (confidently) filled with product.

Retailers are moving toward formats where there's more space dedicated to warehousing and omnichannel fulfillment. This requires a different approach as you need to balance higher security, but you also can't waste any opportunity to maximize on-shelf-availability on the salesfloor. The more, high velocity products you have, the more traffic you'll draw.

There is a path forward. There are solutions available where customers can't grab mass amounts of products at a time. Pegs that have timed / 5-second pop-releases, allow retailers to maximize the planogram, and return to the profit centers they once were. Often times operators see their choices in terms of "or," as they prioritize security in higher risk locations. Timed released displays is more of an "and." They work great preventing sweeping, but they also drive a more organized "top shelf" aesthetic, drawing more eyeballs to the display, and thoughtful fulfillment of the product, vs. grabbing product and putting it back anywhere.

Your Move

The best thing you can do is digest what we're dealing with and make a longer-term plan to move to the experience you want for your stakeholders. Even if it's part aspirational, the market is moving so fast, you don't want to lose sales... or worse, relevance. Retailers don't need to achieve nirvana overnight, but you should be investing heavily into modernizing your security and establish goals and milestones to hold you accountable. In doing so, ask yourself questions like... is it better for your brand and the experience to drive deterrence or prevention? What role do you want your employees to play in stopping criminals? What's your view on locks in your own home? How secure do you want your family and property? How convenient and accessible do you want it to be for trusted users? Do you have different views for why security and locks at work should function any different? Price is certainly a variable to measure, but the value of the ROI on a scalable, smart solution, is priceless, compared to 1-trick pony, old timey locks. It's not what you spend, but the security and sales it unlocks.

Hopefully some of this was informative and sparks some ideas. Know that you're not alone on this journey. If you have any questions or would like more detail on specific solutions, don't hesitate to reach out. Lastly, if there's any specific type of retail you'd like to know more about, let me know, and I'll try to cover it next. For example, every type of retailer is moving to best customer unlock, but it is critical for retailers in Dollar, Drug channels due to their labor model.