Evaluate strategies to prevent error, waste and theft at point of sale.
Q25, 2008
Strategies to prevent error, waste and theft at the point of sale must be followed by store policies and procedures. Error occurs when incorrect pricing of products is done by employees or when incorrect change is given. This may be due to employee tiredness, fatigue, distractions or POS being too busy. Waste includes not maintaining stock up to standard levels, poor merchandising of products and not employing First In First Out (FIFO) principle. Theft may be internal or external. Theft comes under four main categories Opportunists, Medical e.g. Kleptomaniacs, Amateur e.g. Juvenile and Professional.
Prevention of error at the POS can include taking care with data entry. Be cautious and careful when processing sales, refunds/exchanges and counting back change. Double check what you have entered into the system as this may affect sales, profits and customer satisfaction.
Checking customer details as required by policies and procedures involves asking customers for more forms of identification e.g. license, passport. Customers may deceive the sales assistant by misrepresenting who they are for the purpose of obtaining goods or money. Handling cash must be sought out accurately and securely. All retailers must follow store security policies and procedures to ensure no errors occur when accepting payment and counting back change. When receiving money from customers place money on top of the money slots. This deters customers from lying e.g. Saying that they. Always say the amount of change clearly back to the customer and then count the change back to the customer.
At target the change is called back to the customer when the amount of change is shown up on the POS screen and then the change is counted back into the customers’ hand.
Prevention of waste at POS is essential because waste can have an effect on the performance of the store. If a store is untidy and unclean customers...