As retail theft figures spike amidst the cost of living crisis, what solutions do retailers have to fight back?
Finding a way to keep shrinkage down in a negative economy continues to challenge retailers
A recent Freedom of Information request by newspaper The Daily Telegraph has found that shoplifting from British supermarkets spiked by 16% in the 3 months to December, with Sainsbury's and Tesco accounting for 40% of overall cases. The figures coincide with data showing food inflation reached a 45-year high in October at 16.2%
Also, more than 20 police forces were called to 10,019 shoplifting cases in October, a substantial increase from the 8,602 cases reported in July.
It's well known that many customers like the convenience of self-scanning, packing and check outs, but for retailers the bar for trust in customers to be honest is a high one. Research has shown that theft from stores with self-service checkouts is 52% higher than stores with manned, traditional check-outs. Unlike a staffed checkout, the downside of this self-service principle is obviously the ease with which a customer can skip some items without scanning the barcode, or switch barcode stickers of high value items for those of lower value.
And with annual losses from shrinkage of over £5 billion retail corporates are increasingly looking at how to balance customer experience with the harsh reality of all but having to swallow exponentially bigger losses.
Technological solutions to the problem are looking increasingly sophisticated, and surprisingly unobtrusive. Security tagging systems, retail CCTV systems and display cabinet locks are all common enough and the presence of high visibility tagging on some items, whether clothing or alcohol, goes some way to deterring a would-be thief, but developments in technology are giving retailers some clever new systems in their fight to reduce shop theft.
The growth of sophisticated anti-shoplifting technologies is encouraging for retailers. Solutions such as retail face recognition systems, electronic lockable display cabinets, Smart Dome retail dwell speaker-systems, track cameras and enhanced high definition CCTV security cameras for video surveillance are all helping to make a big difference. We're also seeing the development of AI-based analytics that use behavioural algorithms to detect shoplifting in real-time and machine-learning ‘concealment’ detection to alert in-store security guards to the covert pocketing of stolen items and diagnostics to direct intelligence back into store security operations are all transforming how shops can fight back against retail theft.
AI-based analytics that use behavioural algorithms to detect shoplifting in real-time and machine-learning ‘concealment’ detection to alert in-store security guards to the covert pocketing of stolen items and diagnostics to direct intelligence back into store security operations are all transforming how shops can fight back against retail theft.
A key factor in these new retail anti-theft solutions is that they don't impinge on the customers' in-store experience. The surveillance and monitoring systems are discreet and subtle and most customers won't really know they're there.
In a world where increased surveillance is increasingly the norm, it certainly seems to be the way forward for retail security solutions. As the eye-watering figures in the Daily Telegraph research showed, there is a lot at stake for supermarkets, and indeed all operators in the retail space. Let's hope that the enhanced capabilities of the new technology we're seeing coming through gives us all some really effective new shrinkage solutions to add to our loss prevention arsenal.
“Shoplifting from British supermarkets spiked by 16% in the 3 months to December, with Sainsbury’s and Tesco accounting for 40% of overall cases.”