Preventing theft in the retail industry using invisible inks

Posted by Paul Housego on 21st Sep 2014

Preventing theft in the retail industry using invisible inks

Every day in the retail and wholesale industry billions of dollars are lost due to theft.

Having staff trained in loss prevention and employing trustworthy staff is a good start but what about delivery drivers and truck drivers dropping off stock at your warehouse or retail shop?

Do you trust them? I would think most people trust people that are friendly and kind but sometimes these could be the same people stealing from you. It does not matter if someone is young or 80 years of age they could still be a thief. The problem with theft is that retailers and wholesalers have to increase there prices to cover the costs of lost profits.

To protect your products from being stolen you could mark your products with invisible inks. Invisible inks are inks that dry clear and cannot be seen until revealed by a uv black light. You can also stamp expensive merchandise with your store name and logo. If an offender steels an item from your shop or warehouse you can prove the item belongs to you by revealing the invisible ink on the item with a black light. If the police recover your stolen items you can show them the hidden information with your UV black light.

Below is a method used to mark boxes with invisible ink that are being delivered to a shop or warehouse. The idea is to mark boxes you currently have at your shop or warehouse and when items are being delivered say 11 boxes of beer you can use your black light to check that you have received all 11 unmarked boxes of beer.

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A black light showing up a hidden message on a box

The above image shows a message being revealed on a box using a handheld UV black light. For larger areas we recommend using a 41-21 black light torch.

Invisible ink hidden on a box

The image above shows a box that has been marked with invisible ink.

To read more about invisible inks click here

To read more about invisible ink markers click here

To read more about UV black light torches click here