The results from the 32 countries surveyed show that global retail shrinkage (stock loss from crime or waste expressed as a percentage of retail sales) cost retailers U.S. $98.6 billion, representing an annual 'tax' on honest consumers of U.S. $283.61 and U.S. $195.05 per household in the world and Asia-Pacific respectively.


At the same time, the global costs of retail crime (the cost of theft by customers, disloyal employees, and suppliers and vendors, plus the cost of loss prevention) were US $108.1 billion. The largest source of shrinkage was customer theft (shoplifting), responsible for 42.0% of losses, or U.S. $41.5 billion. Employee theft accounted for 35.2% (U.S. $34.6 billion), while 16.5% (U.S. $16.2 billion) of the global cost was caused by internal errors and administrative failures (e.g., pricing or accounting mistakes). Supplier or vendor theft and fraud are responsible for the remaining 6.3% (U.S. $6.2 billion). In the U.S., Canada and Australia, retailers reported that employee theft was higher than theft committed by customers.

Retailers have apprehended almost 6 million store thieves during this year, and 87.5% of these thieves were customers. North American retailers apprehended the largest number of employee thieves, while the majority of customer thieves (3,481,490) were caught in Europe. In Asia-Pacific, there were 119,649 retail thieves apprehended and 90.9% of them were customers.

"The results show that in all countries there are retailers who have managed to reduce shrink, while shrink has risen for others, regardless of regional location," explains Joshua Bamfield, Director of the Centre for Retail Research. "This suggests that lower rates are the outcome of
strategy, policy and investment, not of factors related to the national environment."

"The phenomenon of shrink must be taken seriously in the context of a global economy," notes George Off, CEO, Checkpoint Systems, Inc. "Shrink cost has an immediate impact on the margins of the global retail industry - an industry on which the world's economy, particularly in many developing or recently developed regions, depends for growth and stability. Retailers worldwide are coming to the same conclusion: investing in shrink management solutions is seen as a priority and can provide a significant return on investment."

North American retailers apprehended a larger total and proportion of employee thieves than retailers elsewhere. The number of retail thieves in North America was 2.3 million (28.6% were fraudulent employees). Asia-Pacific retailers apprehended 110,000 thieves (9.1% of which were dishonest employees) and European retailers apprehended 3.55 million thieves (only 1.9% of which were dishonest employees). The average cost of admitted or proven theft for shoplifters in North America was U.S. $622. In Europe and Asia-Pacific, it was U.S. $112 and U.S. $54 respectively. However, the average employee theft incident in Europe cost U.S. $5,145 (reflecting large financial frauds), compared with U.S. $206 for employee thieves apprehended by Asia-Pacific retailers. During the survey period, theft and fraud by employees (internal fraud) cost U.S. retailers U.S. $18.33 billion and Canadian retailers U.S. $1.6 billion.

Responses from Asia-Pacific retailers indicated that 33.1% of internal theft was believed to take place at the checkout or cash desk, 33.6% on the sales floor, and 33.4% in the back office, delivery bay or stockroom.

Security Costs

Global loss prevention costs were U.S. $25.6 billion, or 0.35% of retail sales. Loss prevention spending in North America was U.S. $12.77 billion, equivalent to 29.3% of total shrink. U.S. operating expenses dedicated to loss prevention (LP) were U.S. $8.2 billion, while capital expenses were U.S. $3.67 billion; in Canada the figures were U.S. $0.7 billion and U.S. $0.27 billion, respectively. U.S. retailer spending on loss prevention represented 0.45% of retail sales and 0.40% in Canada. These figures exceed LP spending in most other countries - for example, European loss prevention spending was 0.34% of retail sales.

Asia-Pacific retailers spent U.S. $1.3 billion on revenue costs (payroll and services) and a significant percentage of their security budget went to capital costs (security equipment, IT and other long-term assets) of U.S. $877 million. As a percentage of sales, revenue spending was 0.11% of sales, with capital spending representing 0.07%.

Merchandise Protection

By the end of the decade, 69.3% of large retailers in Europe, 68.7% in North America and 47.3% in Asia-Pacific are expected to source tag merchandise. This is a dramatic increase from the percentage of retailers in the survey who currently use source tagging technology: 45.2% in North America, 39.7% in Europe and 27.4% in Asia-Pacific (including 40% in Australia).

The average number of product lines that were source tagged was 396 in North America (accounting for 21.3% of retail sales), 219 in Europe (15.9% of retail sales) and 97 in Asia-Pacific (6.1% of retail sales).

Eight hundred and twenty retail companies, operating 138,603 stores with sales of U.S. $948 billion, provided the data used in this study. The
retailers taking part represented 16% of total European retail sales, 13% of North American retail sales and 5% retail sales in Asia-Pacific.