How to Design Out Crime From a Retail Store

By Romeo Cliff Richards

When times are hard, businesses such as retail are often the first to get hit. Not only are retail sales affected by customers engaging in belt-tightening measures, retailers also suffer from the rise in crimes such as shoplifting and employee theft.

Why Retailers Must Design Out Crime:

Retail shrinkage resulting from shoplifting and employee theft are the major factors responsible for limited retail profit. There is a direct linear equation between shrinkage and profit. When shrinkage increases; profit reduces and when shrinkage reduces; profit increases.

Consequently, it is imperative that retailers ensure that shrinkage reduction forms a core part of their store design blueprint. To increase retail sales without simultaneously increasing retail profit is a wasted opportunity. The goal of every retailer is to increase profit. The most successful retailers understand that increasing profit is impossible without reducing shrinkage.

There are three fundamental principles that underpin any good store design:

1. Attract customers
2. Entice them to enter the store
3. Persuade them to buy.

Applying these principles will result in:

• Increased sales
• Increased staff productivity
• Reduced shrinkage
• Ultimately increased profit

To achieve the above requires a retail store to be specifically designed with profit and shrinkage reduction in mind. Every retail store design blueprint must contain strategies for profit increase and shrinkage reduction.

How to Create a Crime-Free Store Design

Store design for crime prevention and profit increase must focus on the following areas of the store:

- Location of the till.
- Location of entrance and exit.
- Location of fire exit.
- Location of customer toilet.
- Location of staff cloak room/changing room/staff room.
- Location of staff toilet.
- Location of staff entrance.
- Type of lighting system.
- Type of security equipment.

How to Implement an Effective Crime-Free Store Design:

The following are ways of implementing an effective crime free store design:

Focus on design layout:
One of the first aspects you need to address to ensure your store is safe is the store layout design. This means assessing the physical structure of the place with regards to shelving, displays, counters, windows and exit and entrance points to determine which areas are the weakest or most vulnerable.

Ensure Physical Safety:
Implement consistent safety standards to ensure your retail store is safe. It is vital to also implement measures
such as:

- Installing door locks.
- Strategically locating checkout counter, entrance and exit.
- Installing the appropriate lighting systems which eliminate blind spots.
- Installing CCTV and other security devices to dramatically reduce retail shrinkage.

Proper staff training:
Retail staff training is the crème de la crème of designing crime out of a retail store. Retail staff need to be made to understand their role in crime prevention because they have a pivoted role to play in the process. Staff need to be adequately trained to use store design effectively to minimise incidents of either shoplifting or employee theft