Recent figures published by the British Retail Consortium (BRC) further confirm the need to protect your profits from retail theft. Your profits are in jeopardy if your products are not being paid for.
CCTV has long been used to combat crime and protect the safety of the public and the surly presence of security guards in shop doorways is a given on any shopping trip. Yet despite these wise, preventative measures the UK is amongst the three worst countries in the world for shrinkage due to retail theft.
The situation would be a lot worse had businesses not opted to safeguard their precious merchandise and in times of recession, spikes in crime are to be expected; but with £4.4bn worth of goods pilfered from shops across the country in 2010, this is not a trend that should be welcomed or seen as simply going with the territory. The British Retail Consortium said items including TVs, computer games and clothes totaling £375,342 were stolen from shelves every day last year and although instances of theft itself have decreased by 5.8% impact is compounded by the types of goods favoured by thieves; namely high-end products with luxury or branded qualities. The shift in criminal culture from lone thieves to more organised gangs further magnifies concern.
Perhaps even more worrying was the rise in staff theft. Over a third of losses in the UK retail industry were due to internal theft, 7% higher than the European average and rendering the UK the highest in the continent. Even an honest employee may be susceptible to temptation and without a deterrent culture instilled in your organisation such avaricious behaviour could go unchecked and unpunished. G4S Security Solutions claim that one in 10 retail employees (10%) has committed a crime or failed to report a colleague’s theft against their employer in the last 12 months. Further to this, the organization estimates 110,000 retail employees have consumed produce without paying for it and a further 30,000 haven’t reported friends or family failing to scan items at a self-scan checkout.
Technological advances in security contend with increasingly sophisticated point-of-sale and backroom fraud and with criminal networks sharing these tricks on line retailers must up the preventative stakes to stay in the game. It is challenge enough for businesses to prosper in a harsh economic climate; where preventative loss measures are available it would be foolhardy not to avail of them.
Contact us to find out how Expolink can help you protect your business from retail theft.
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