The first dedicated retail crime survey for Australian and New Zealand retailers has revealed a dramatic increase in customer theft, which now accounts for over 50% of the revenue lost from stores from crime.
The Australia and New Zealand Retail Crime Survey from retailers representing over 9,000 stores with an annual turnover of approximately AUD$95 billion in the last financial year.
It was conducted by Aptus Research in partnership with the Profit Protection Future Forum ANZ and sponsored by retail technology company Checkpoint Systems.
The sample represents almost a quarter of the retail industry in Australia and New Zealand.
They estimate that crime-related loss is 0.92% of revenue, revealing a $3.37 billion direct cost of crime to the industry in the 2017-2018 financial year.
The majority of these losses have been attributed to customer theft (57%). This figure has jumped 16% in less than two years.
Smartphones and their accessories, apparel, cosmetics, vitamins and branded fashion goods are some of the most frequently stolen items.
Telecommunication stores suffer the highest average value of theft - estimated to be ‘more than $1000’ per incident
University of London's Dr Emmeline Taylor, lead researcher, said the study unearthed some frightening trends.
“Thieves now tell me that it’s easy to get away with petty theft. Reward greatly outweighs the risk. There are multiple factors that could be contributing to this, including the introduction of self-service checkout, and changes in criminal behaviour.
“Thieves are becoming more brazen. We have seen this in the recent “steaming” technique used by gangs to overpower mobile phone shops in broad daylight, often intimidating staff and pushing customers out of the way to reach the stock,” Dr Taylor added.
“Many people think that retail crime is a victimless crime – that the large retailers build expected losses into their profit margin - but it couldn’t be further from the truth. We calculate that AUD $3.37 billion is enough to employ 85,000 supermarket checkout staff for a year."