National News
Weak Global Economy Contributed To $112 Billion Loss From Retail Theft
November 20, 2013 posted by Steve Brownstein
According to the Global Retail Theft Barometer released on Nov. 12, the retail industry lost more than $112 billion worldwide last year due in part to increases in employee theft, organized crime, and shoplifting.
Those loses, which also included loses from administrative errors and supplier fraud, represented 1.4 percent of retail sales.
Overall, industry losses grew 0.1 percent on average between 2011 and 2012 across the 16 countries covered in the study, with Brazil and Mexico having the highest shrinkage rates.
The report found that the weak global economy was a key contributor to the increase in retail theft.
Though the most popular products for thieves included Apple products, electronic games, fashion accessories, footwear, and lingerie, retailers reported an increase in the number of criminal gangs looking to steal large quantities of baby formula, cosmetics, razor blades and non-prescription drugs.
Retailers agreed that a combination of loss prevention methods was the most useful, including staff training, radio frequency identification (RFID) tags, source tagging, data mining and analytics.
Though spending on loss prevention was found to be nearly flat, retailers who reported strong spending in this area saw lower than average loss rates
