The Age newspaper last week reported on a surge in theft.
A study of over 9000 Australian and New Zealand retailers has revealed the cost of theft in-store has now reached a “crisis point” for companies as shoplifters have become more brazen in recent years.
While the report focusses on shoplifting, in my experience working eityh retailers, employee theft has a higher cost. This paragraph is telling…
The majority of respondents were large fashion, grocery and department retailers with 300 or more stores. For the 2018 financial year, those companies estimated crime-related losses of $3.37 billion, or 0.92 per cent of the region’s total retail revenue for the year.
The average cost of theft in small to medium business is 3% and more. This, considering the .92% noted above indicates the focus of the report is narrow. But then the report goes on to say employee theft was 22% of overall theft.
Maybe the disconnect is because the report pulled data from medium to large businesses whereas all data I have seen over the years has been from small businesses, single store businesses. In those, in my experience, employee theft costs around 70% of the total cost of theft.
Regardless of this latest report, theft is retail is a high cost for which retailers, customers and others in the supply chain pay.
Read the report. It’s got useful information for any retailer.
Our POS software company helps small business retailers cut the cost of theft. We have proven facilities in the software that achieve this. Better still, we back these facilities with experts who can make a real and positive difference in theft outcomes for small business retailers.
