In the retail world, shrinkage, or shrink, is the term used to describe a reduction in inventory due to shoplifting; employee theft or administrative errors such as record keeping, pricing, cash counting, and supplier fraud. A common misperception is that retailers absorb shrinkage as part of the cost of doing business. While retailers must factor loss into their bottom line, it’s a costly problem for all.
Within this vast market comes issues and challenges as it has many supply chain security complexities and vulnerabilities. Protecting your supply chain comes down to reducing and mitigating pilferage, theft, and fraud. TydenBrooks has built a reputation for implementing effective supply chain security solutions for these retailer challenges spanning 149 years.
While the security solutions for each area of retail loss comes with distinct challenges, they can all benefit from a multi-layered chain of custody security strategy. Today’s blog will share a variety of solutions for the internal, store front, and external supply chain as we approach the holiday shopping season.
Internal Supply Chain Security Solutions
The internal supply chain covers theft and pilferage that takes place within a company, such as by employees. Shoplifting/organized theft and employee theft together typically account for about two-thirds of shrink each year. There is a difference between pilferage and theft. Pilferage involves taking a few items from a larger shipment to conceal the attack as nothing more than human error, whereas theft consists of stealing large amounts such as an entire shipment.
Theft and pilferage can happen when employees can easily cut into a low security packaging tape, break unmarked tie wraps, and replace them, or in a facility with no security cameras where they use exit doors to get away with a more substantial theft. TydenBrooks offers numerous solutions to these problems that help you build and maintain successful distribution center security strategies.
Pilferage is easier when totes are improperly secured, usually leaving a gap to extract product, or using low security tie wraps with no track and trace capabilities allowing them to be removed and replaced without tamper evidence. Proper employee security seal training is necessary and should be regularly reviewed to ensure the security seals are properly applied to plastic totes to prevent pilferage.
Our adjustable security seals such as the SecureGrip, Tug Tight, All Seal, and Equilok allow tight sealing that, when correctly applied, prevents any openings or gaps that allow pilferage. These seals can be customized with unique barcodes and come standard with serial numbers for improved chain of custody security that makes replacing them once removed near impossible. These seals also help improve inventory control and reduce human error that leads to additional shrinkage.
These adjustable seals should be used in conjunction with our KTC and KT+ Void message security tapes to build your multi-layered security strategy. These security tapes seal a cardboard carton or tote and reveal a void tamper evidence message when cut or removed. Both the KTC and KT+ offer multiple colors, can have custom VOID messages in multiple languages, and as with the KT+ can incorporate perforations in stripes of 6” inches for smaller cardboard boxes. Both tapes fit nicely on a standard 2” hand-held tape dispenser.
For additional internal facility security to prevent theft and pilferage which can be taken through an exit door in the warehouse our MRS2 or MRP2 tamper evident frangible security labels are the top solution. These seals incorporate security petal cuts, which causes the seal to break up on removal, making it almost impossible to re-apply in one piece. Both seals are approved by Fire Marshall’s, so they are safe, and provide immediate visual tamper evidence when a door is opened.
Store Front Security Solutions
In the store where product is sold, many of the same issues arise as with the internal supply chain. These issues can be taken care of with similar layered security strategies incorporating our adjustable length plastic security seals and tamper evident security tapes.
A significant area of risk that exists in a brick-and-mortar stores are point of sale machines. The “pos” machines are vulnerable to attack by “overlay” skimmers, in that they’re designed to be installed in the blink of an eye just by placing them over top of the customer-facing card terminal to steal consumer information. Our tamper evident holographic security labels can be placed on the point-of-sale machine to show immediate tampering evidence from this type of attack.
If an “overlay” is placed over the machine, it will obscure the tamper evident hologram security label and be immediately noticeable by an employee. Should an attack be made to remove the seal it has a VOID message to provide an additional layer of security and tampering. The holographic security label along with our KNR Gas Pump seals, which are used on gas pumps to protect card readers, provide tamper evidence if these machines are breached or if an attempt to insert a “skimmer” takes place. By deploying these security strategies, you protect your brand reputation, and the public by ensuring their personal information is not compromised.
External Supply Chain Security Solutions
When your shipments are on the road, we want you to be able to rest easy knowing they are safe behind well-made, multi-layered, security solutions. One of the biggest threats to a shipment is when it is stopped, “freight at rest is freight at risk.” Truck stops, unattended trucks, and drop ship trailers left in yards are all targets for both full truckload (FTL) and less than truckload (LTL) theft and pilferage.
By utilizing our high-security barrier seals, such as our SnapTracker and ISO Cable seals you will add multiple layers of reliable security to your shipments ensuring they are not easy targets for cargo thieves. Our high-security seals provide a barrier that requires special removal tools, making thieves unable to conduct a quick grab and go job of a shipment when they are in vulnerable areas.
When trailers are left in a shipping or distribution yard, they are often parked back-to-back or up against a wall to prevent intrusion. This is a good physical solution, but a robust multilayered security strategy would also add indicative plastic seals or our high-security barrier seals to safeguard the trailers doors should they be moved.
Additionally, if your yard is not gated its recommended to use our LSA VOID Security labels on truck door hinges which are attached to the exterior frame. The VOID security label will visually identify if the doors have been breached which protects the cargo, but also protects against the insertion of unauthorized contraband material.
For less than truck loads, which are trucks that must make multiple stops at different stores to drop off product, many customers use our fixed length plastic indicative X-Strap security seal which has a patented tamper-resistant acetal locking mechanism. Some customers use it in conjunction with a traditional keyed padlock for an added layer of security.
Whether your shipping (LTL) less-than-truck load with a standard truck barn door or a roll-up door the X-Strap is designed to work with both applications. For standard truck barn door, the 9” X-Strap is the best solution and for a roll-up door we advise using the 12” X-Strap. This seal offers imprinting on three (3) lines of eight (8) characters which is laser etched with company name or logo and consecutive numbering. Bar coding (1D, 2D, QR) is available with extended flag version.
TydenBrooks Stands Out
With many competitors claiming to offer similar products, only TydenBrooks can offer the solution knowledge we have gained over our 149-year history. We offer the largest product selection across all product categories, so our customers have the best chance of solving their problems. We listen to our customers and their specific issues and collaborate to develop security seal strategies around their challenges to protect their brand and cargo.
Operations wise, our global capacity, production and laser marking capabilities means we can serve any business regardless of your business size. Our lead times are the best in the industry, and we are U.S. based headquartered in Atlanta, GA. In the simplest terms, it is our mission to make sure your supply chains are secure from start to finish and we will work hand in hand with you to develop the solutions that fit your needs.
Our full line of security seals supplement and support your loss prevention procedures for retail products. Contact us at 1-800-458-7325 (SEAL) or [email protected] to tell us about your application needs and learn more about how our security seals can make your stores more secure. Learn more or shop for our products on our website at www.tydenbrooks.com
