The Retail business landscape will be very different in 2021 as you must be aware by now after reading our Retail Risk 2021 Ebook. The Ebook provides you in detail the challenges that your retail business will be facing in 2021 and what are the possible solutions to these problems. But knowing these challenges is not enough. Your business needs to know and identify the root causes of these challenges and make provision to ensure that they are prevented before they occur.

A quick recap of the challenges that retail businesses will face in 2021:

• Product Recall
• Sustainability
• Inventory Damage
• Staff & Customer Safety

Why Are Pests the Main Reason For Retail Risk 2021 Challenges?

If you have read the Ebook then you know that pests such as rodents are one of the main reasons for a lot of the challenges mentioned and their presence puts your business at risk.

This article aims to help you identify why pests are the reason for concern, how these pests are entering your retail business premises and provide you with the necessary information to prevent these creatures.

1. Pests Cause Product Recalls –  Pests such as rodents and flies cause product recalls by cross-contaminating your food sources. This will lead your products to be contaminated and have to be recalled for your customer safety and brand reputation.
2. Sustainability Impact – Pests also have an impact on the sustainability of your business, but a lot of businesses are not aware of this impact. To eliminate pests from their premises a lot of businesses use standard pest control products that use rodenticides. This is harmful to the environment and causes a negative impact on your sustainable goals.
3. Inventory Damage – Pests such as rodents, stored product insects (SPIs) and flies are known to find ways of entering buildings to find food sources. Your inventory is at risk of such infestations at all times.
4. Staff & Customer Safety – Staff and customer safety is an important responsibility of your retail business. Pests can compromise the safety of your customer by contaminating the products you sell to them. Your staff is also at risk by working in a business environment that is unhygienic and infested with pests.

How Do Rodents Enter Your Retail Business Premises?

If you are able to understand why and how rodents are entering your retail premises, then the action plan to prevent it becomes easier to implement. Rodents are extremely invasive species of pests and they can squeeze through tiny compromised gaps in your premises to enter and infest it.

The threat of rodent infestations is both internal and external. Internal areas of your business are the area inside the store where your staff and customers interact with each other. External areas are the outer sections of your business premises that your customers use to access your business, for example; parking lot, entrances etc.

Both internal and external areas of your business are at risk of pests but they both require different products and strategies to keep your business safe.

The following are the top areas from which rodents can enter your premises.

1. Through The Roof – Rats can enter your premises from cracks and compromises in the roof of your building. Cracks, even if they are tiny give enough room for rats to squeeze through and make their way into your business and start creating problems.
2.  Via Air Vents – Your retail business would have the best air ventilation system for optimum airflow. But these vents also act as a path for rodents to enter and make way into the different parts of your property. Your ventilation system is interconnected to various parts of your building and rodents can use this to their advantage.
3. Drains – Rats are known for their amazing swimming ability and hence they are able to survive and enter your business premises from any damaged parts of your drainage systems.
4. Pipes – Damages pipes anywhere in your business gives rodents easy access to travel throughout your property. These creatures are able to squeeze through tiny gaps in your pipelines and use its connectivity to travel to different parts of your business.
5. Open Doors – Sometimes the most common area that your customers use for entering your business premises also allows rats to infest. Doors that are open for long periods of time can be a perfect entrance for rats.
6. Open Windows – Open windows in your business is a very common entry point for rodents to use when they are looking for areas to enter your property. Rodents are excellent climbers so they are able to reach even the most difficult open windows in your business.

What Can You Do To Stop Rodents From Entering Your Property?

Now that you are aware of how rodents can enter your property, you must decide on what you will do to stop them from entering. Luckily Rentokil Pest Control is here to help you with this challenge.

Rentokil Pest Control has been able to design a solution that is able to predict pest behaviour and help you take action to eliminate the possibility of an infestation before it occurs.

PestConnect

PestConnect is the innovative technology by Rentokil that provides 24/7 monitoring and rapid response to effectively eliminate rodent pests in your retail premises. The PestConnect range consists of a series of interconnected products that are designed to help you solve the challenges before they become a big problem.

Our devices directly inform the Rentokil technician of a rodent problem in your premises and only then they will come to your premises to reduce any unnecessary visits.

Dual Autogate Connect – This innovative and flexible solution is perfect to control rodents in external areas of your business. Dual AutoGate Connect provides essential early detection, whilst ensuring legal compliance (under the EU product authorisations) and delivering immediate, targeted external protection against rat and mice infestations before they find entry to your premises. It is our unique and innovative solution that provides strategic external rodent baiting. 

The Dual Autogate also follows CRRU( Campaign for Responsible Rodenticide Use) which is a campaign for responsible rodenticide use, aimed to reduce exposure of rodenticides to wildlife and non-target animals. Autogate puts a barrier between the bait and the environment; this barrier only opens during an active rodent infestation, which means it can control mice and rats whilst minimising risks of exposure to wildlife and non-target animals. 

RADAR Connect – The RADAR Connect is designed to be used as a non-toxic mouse trap for areas such as the retail space where the use of toxic rodenticide is not an option. The device is directly connected with our myRentokil online portal where you can get 24/7 pest monitoring and alerts in case of a rodent infestation. 

Non-toxic Rat Riddance Connect – Rat Riddance Control is part of Rentokil’s award-winning PestConnect system, which includes RADAR Connect and AutoGate Dual Connect. An innovative and unique rat snap trap developed to meet the needs of businesses that require a non-toxic solution to protect their premises from internal rat activity.

How PestConnect Solves All Your Retail Challenges.

•  PestConnect offers 24/7 monitoring to eliminate rodents before they become a serious issue.
•  Our digital technology reduces the need for any unnecessary visits from our technicians to promote social distancing to keep your staff safe.
•  Prevents Cross-Contamination and inventory damage by eliminating rodent pests in both inter and external areas of your business.
• Protest both internal and external areas of your business to offer complete protection.

Bonus Tip: Another Pest Apart From Rodents That Is a Very Serious Threat To Your Retail Business.

Flies are another pest that is known to cause serious damages to retail businesses. From cross-contamination to compromising overall business hygiene, these pests must be managed to keep your retail business safe.

Lumnia by Rentokil Pest Control is an innovative fly control device that is designed to eliminate flies from your retail premises using energy-efficient LED technology.

This device is available in 3 different models to fit the needs of businesses of all sizes.

• Lumnia Standard – The Lumnia Standard is a highly innovative, energy-saving LED fly killer with a modern design and optimised fly control catch rate suitable for businesses of all sizes.
• Lumnia Ultimate –  Lumnia Ultimate is comprising all the features available in Lumnia Standard, but bigger and more suited for high-dependency business environments and large-scale industrial operations. Discreet and effective fly control
• Lumnia Compact– Lumnia Compact is the latest addition to Rentokil’s Lumnia range. It is both a highly effective unit and also at the same time one of the lower energy consumption units in the market.

How Lumnia Solve Your Retail Challenges.

• Effectively attracts, eliminates & encapsulates flies hygienically to reduce contamination in your business
• Automatically adapts power output from day to night to reduce energy consumption to help you achieve your sustainability goals
• Discreet design reduces the visibility of caught flies to make sure that your reputation is not compromised in front of your customers

What Are You Waiting For?

Now that you know what exactly are the major reasons for the challenges your retail business will be facing in 2021, it is time to act to ensure that your business does not get impacted by these challenges and functions smoothly in the coming months.

To know more about our range of services that will help your retail business in 2021, get in touch with our experts now.