A NEW study by the NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research, shows shoplifting by consumers has soared by 5.8% while theft by employees is going down.
Through an online study, Loss Prevention 2010: Retailers Battling Shrink in Tough Times conducted by the Retail Systems Research (RSR) and sponsored in part by ADT Security and its Sensormatic Retail Solutions group, revealed retailers are far more concerned about employee theft of merchandise.
“Traditionally employee theft has been the largest portion of the retail crime pie and it still is, but we believe we are seeing a shift in employee theft as retailers get better at spotting it,” ADT Security Sensormatic national retail manager, Phil Brown says.
As part of the study, retailers were asked to name their top three sources of theft. In 2009, 68% named employee theft of merchandise as one of their top concerns which is down 12% from the previous year.
At the same time, 62% of retailers listed shoplifting by customers as a top concern, compared with 52% in 2008.
According to Brown, retailers have improved at identifying employee theft. Still, the economy presents more opportunities for shoplifters because in addition to there being fewer watchful employees on the store floor, there are more opportunities to resell discounted stolen items online or at flea markets to bargain-hungry consumers.
“Deterrence is the name of the game in retail theft and today’s technologies are making employees think twice,” ADT Security’s Brown says.
“We are continuing to work with our retail customers to help them maximise and add technologies like cameras, video analytics and anti-theft tags to target shoplifters and organised retail criminals.”
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