According to the National Retail Federation-NRF organized retail crime costs the retail industry approximately $30 billion each year. 97% of the retailers surveyed admit to being victims of organized retail crime in their stores, and the problems of organized retail crime, employee theft and shoplifting do not seem to abate. The solution to this devastating problem seems to elude retailers, law enforcement, and communities across the country.
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How to Build a Loss Prevention Program in a High-Risk Store
Integrating an effective loss prevention program can yield dramatic improvements when it comes to mitigating inventory shrinkage. But aligning an LP department appropriately within the structure of an existing company is not an easy thing to do. It is crucial to ensure that the LP team becomes an essential component of the entire store process.
Which Stores are High-Risk?
It makes sense to target the stores with the highest amount of loss risk first in order to make the greatest impact from the very beginning. When Stage Stores decided to realign its loss prevention department in the early 2000s, for example, the LP corporate manager worked with regional managers to rank stores based on shrinkage performance and its change over time.
Other attributes that were factored into the grouping evaluation included geographic location, internal and external theft history, and employee turnover rates. They eventually landed on a bundle of 50 stores that could be designated as “high-risk” and decided to focus their attentions on these stores.
Employee theft cited as largest cause of retail loss
Crime cost retailers £2.34 billion last year, according to a recent survey conducted by conference series Retail Risk London, and the UK Retail Fraud Survey 2016.
Employee theft was identified as the single biggest cause, with 68% of retailers citing it as their top area of loss.
Published by Retail Knowledge and sponsored for the second consecutive year by WIS International, the survey is the most extensive report into the systems, processes and strategies of the UK’s top retailers available, and covers retail transactions accounting for some 32% of all UK retail sales online and offline through 34,950 stores across the UK.
Shrinkage rates vary by retail sector from mass merchants and department stores at 2.68% of sales to a low of 0.25% of sales for hospitality and leisure retailers. However, mass merchants and department stores have seen a massive increase in shrinkage rates since last year, of 58% whereas hospitality and leisure retailers have seen a decrease of 38%.
Employee involved in retail theft ring that stole $11,000 from Clinton outlet store
CLINTON–Police are trying to find a group responsible for stealing $11,000 in merchandise from a store at Clinton Crossing.
A group that was connected to an employee at the POLO outlet in the mall was able to steal the merchandise between January and March 2016. The scam worked by having the employee, who was a cashier, void large transactions but still place the merchandise in shopping bags for the customers. The customers were involved in the scam, and left with the stolen merchandise.
The same “customers” were involved during all the transactions.
The employee at POLO admitted to the scam, but she refuses to name the other suspects. Police are not yet naming her or saying if she’s been charged.
The suspects may be from the New London area. If you have information please call Clinton Police at 860-669-0451 or email [email protected].
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