Amongst the range of interesting and varied topics for HTA Regional Events I’ve attended recently (if you haven’t been to one yet, you’re missing out and they’re FREE to membershta.org.uk/regional-member-events), most enlightening wasthe subject of retail theft. It’s a subject in the news with the Office for National Statistics reporting incidents have reached their highest level since records began. The British Retail Consortium estimate more than 55,000 incidents every day with a cost to retailers exceeding £2.2billion.
So, no wonder the problem occupies a disproportionate amount of managers’ time and keeps many awake at night with worry of financial damage to their businesses, let alone the physical and mental health of the staff who must deal with the perpetrators! As we learned from one leading garden centre group, more than 40% of all retail theft is accounted for by staff. And 10% of all shoppers are potential shoplifters, 10% would never dream of stealing and the remaining 80% would if they thought they could get a away with it!
Others are ready to point the finger at their local constabulary and vent their frustration at a lack of timely response andprosecutions in all but the most serious cases. But surely, it’smuch better to prevent the theft in the first place? Prosecuting shoplifters is tricky and time consuming with no guarantee of success or a recovery of the value of the goods.
Amongst the solutions explored at this week’s event were AI-driven technologies that integrate with existing CCTV to identify suspicious behaviour and send real time alerts to staff,as well as facial recognition to identify repeat offenders. Of course, these and other solutions need investment, and to evaluate the cost benefits, we need a clear understanding of the existing losses associated with retail theft.
A quick straw poll amongst attendees revealed that manydon’t accurately record incidents of theft unless they are referred to the police. Whilst they have a broad understanding of losses from their general auditing processes, they have no detail on how much of their shrinkage is attributable to shoplifting or employee theft. Which makes it impossible to establish a return on investment in new preventative technologies.
So, I want to make the case for a renewed focus on identifying and recording losses in garden centres so that we can work out exactly how much this surge in shoplifting is really costing us.
What gets measured gets managed.