If you sell a product that can fit in a pocket or a purse, someone will steal it. That’s a pretty simple fact. Thieves are the worst kind of opportunists. They spend most of their time just looking for something to steal in your store, simply because they don’t want to pay for it. New research has found that those who actually steal for sustenance are an incredibly small minority. Most thieves are financially comfortable people who get a thrill out of stealing. For some stores, shoplifting accounts for significant losses every year.

A recent survey found that shoplifting costs stores in the United Kingdom about £4.5bn per year. The numbers for Australia aren’t as readily available; however, it is known that companies adjust their prices to account for the amount of money they lose from shoplifting. Due to these inflated costs, the average Australian spends an extra $290 per year over the price goods should cost. If you are the owner of a physical store in Australia, you’re also a consumer in Australia. So, as a consumer, you are spending almost $300 more than you should have to every year. You can do your part to reduce your prices for your customers as well as yourself by investing in some security seals.

Cost

The cost of sealing up your products is actually pretty low. Sophisticated 21st-century polymers allow companies to manufacture seals that are lightweight, flexible, and very strong. When you’re looking for seals, be sure to invest in some strong ones. The price of the seals is determined by the length of the seal and the tensile strength. If you have large products, you might need very long seals. Also, you’ll have to determine how much tensile strength you actually need. For something inexpensive, five or six kilograms of tensile strength might be enough. But if you’re trying to secure something large and/or expensive such as a television, you might need a much stronger seal. The stronger and longer seals are going to cost you more money, but that’s where the benefit comes in.

Benefit

The cost of seals varies based on their length and their strength. However, you should calculate how much money you lose to shoplifting every year. You also lose about $300 as a customer to shoplifting every year. When you look at how much you lose, it’s very likely that you are losing much more than the price of some seals. If you are losing more money in shoplifting than the price of seals, the cost is negated. Eliminating or greatly reducing shoplifting will pay for the seals. Since that lost product was written into your budget anyway, quality seals are basically free. When you look at it that way, it’s blatantly obvious that you would invest in quality seals to keep your products safe.

While it might seem like an added expense, seals actually could end up saving you money in the long run. If you can reduce shoplifting, you can save yourself and your customers a lot of money.