THE GLOBAL RETAIL THEFT BAROMETER 2008

Key Findings from the Global Retail Theft Barometer

[Bamfield, J. (2008) Global Retail Theft Barometer, Nottingham: Centre for Retail Research.]

The latest edition of the Global Barometer covers 36 countries in North America, Europe, Latin America, Africa and Asia-Pacific. We collected data from 920 of the largest retail corporations with combined sales of $814 billion.

• Total global shrinkage (stockloss from crime or waste expressed as a percentage of retail sales) cost retailers in the 36 countries US$ 104,529 million, equivalent to 1.34% of their retail sales.
• Globally, shrinkage and crime fell slightly from 1.36% to 1.34%. 20 countries suffered shrinkage increases and only 14 managed reductions.
• Retailers in most countries thought customer theft (shoplifting) was their biggest problem, responsible for 41.2% of shrinkage ($43,064 million), apart from the US, Canada, and Australia, where employee theft was thought to be larger than shoplifting.
• Across the 36 countries, disloyal employees cost 36.5% of shrinkage or $38,150 million, internal error and administrative failure (e.g. pricing or accounting mistakes) was 16.5% ($17,223 million), and supplier or vendor theft and fraud was 5.8% of shrinkage ($6,092 million).

• Retailers apprehended 5.3 million store thieves in 2008.
• Global loss prevention costs were $25,478 million, 0.33% of retail sales. Operating/current costs were $17,737 million and capital costs $7,741 million. Security employees accounted for 54.8% of loss prevention spending, while spending on security equipment was 31.6%.

• The most-stolen items of retail merchandise within the 36 countries included branded and expensive products: cosmetics and skincare, alcohol, womenswear/ladies' apparel, perfume and fine fragrances, and designerwear. Other highly stolen lines included razor blades, DVDs/CDs, video games and video consoles, small electric items, and fashion accessories.