If you own a retail business, you want your store to look attractive to customers. But some of the practices you use to make your products and floor space look good can also help to prevent shoplifting and employee theft. Read on for a few simple ways to use merchandising to help prevent shrinkage.

1. Stock everything in straight rows, lined up along the front edge of Stocking Upthe shelf. That way, it becomes instantly noticeable if an item is removed. Plus, it looks amazing! Train employees to restock constantly if possible, so that there is always the same number of items in each row.

2. Make high-ticket, easy-steal items most visible. These are items that are purse-size and worth a bit of cash, or highly likely to be stolen. (Pharmacies, for example, have a terrible time trying to keep condoms from disappearing off the shelves.) These products get the prime real estate, right next to a workstation or a cashier, or behind a glass case. Hang them in flat rows on a wall, if you can. Be slow to lock merchandise away, however. Many retailers find that items placed behind glass lose their touch-commitment value, so employee attention is better than a cage, if you can swing it.

3. Consider angling rows of shelving away from cashier stations in short, slanting lines, so that the employee is at the center of a wagon wheel. This is a great solution if you only have one or two employees in the store for each shift, because they can see nearly everything in the store from one spot. This configuration also keeps the customers walking the aisles in a slower, more meandering style, especially if you have beautiful end cap displays.

Have you gotten creative with your merchandising in the past? How did it affect your inventory shrinkage rates?