Use this handy holiday preparation checklist to prepare your retail store for the busy sales season.
Environment
Decor
- Assure your holiday decorations aren’t blocking surveillance cameras or creating blind spots
- Tape down cords to avoid tripping hazards
- Don’t create new hiding spaces with your décor. Fake gifts, empty boxes, or sleds all make easy depositories for stolen merchandise or abandoned packaging.
- Monitor your holiday window displays
Surveillance
- Clean and focus your surveillance cameras on cash registers, front and back doors, and areas of high theft
- Make sure your NVR or recording device is functioning properly
- Create signage letting customers know you look for and prosecute shoplifting
Policies
- Secure back doors, receiving doors, and private offices. Create proper policies for entry and exit.
- Put proper trash policies into place
Staffing and Training
Hiring
- When hiring seasonal employees, conduct backgrounds checks and check references
- Emphasize that customer service is the number one deterrent to shoplifting and theft over the holiday season.
-Greet guests immediately
-Make eye contact
-Check in with guests often
Training
- Schedule a mandatory training meeting for ALL staff which covers:
-Credit card sales and credit card return process
–Gift card sales and redemption
-Coupons and sales procedures
-Key management
-Opening and closing procedures
-Emergency action plans
Policies
- Test your technology, including your POS integration, EAS, traffic counters, etc.
- Maintain proper levels of staffing, especially on the sales floor
- Create strict protocols for making deposits
- Have a safe policy for employees who leave the store after hours