Retail Crime: International Evidence & Prevention

1 RETAIL CRIME: NATURE & TRENDS 9:15 International trends in retail crime & prevention practices, Joshua Bamfield, Centre for Retail Research, UK The aims of loss prevention, however articulated, are to protect the assets of the company, protect staff and customers, and to preserve the company’s reputation. Protecting assets and reputation requires the company and loss prevention manager to perform a variety of roles including risk management, audit, compliance and interact with a range of criminal justice and police organizations. Defining goals including ‘shrinkage’ (loss) is naturally essential, but measurement can be inaccurate and unreliable. Recent trends in loss prevention have involved loss prevention taking on risk, audit, compliance, safety and standards roles, ensuring the business is resilient if subject to terrorist or crime attacks, and greater involvement with the police and criminal justice system to ensure that low-level crime and major organised crime issues are handled appropriately. 9:45 Characteristics of frequently-shoplifted consumer products, Brian Smith, New Heaven University & Ron Clarke, Rutgers University, USA. This study examines shoplifting rates of everyday products known as fast-moving consumer goods (FMCGs). Using descriptive product data, the objective is to identify the variables that are significantly related to higher theft rates in products. The vast majority of research on shop theft uses “shrinkage” as a proxy measure for theft. However, this measure combines all retail losses, including theft, into one figure. While the utility of shrinkage might suit the purposes of retailers, there are validity threats when estimating the nature and extent of shoplifting broadly, as well as for individual products. This study, however, utilizes data that provides a more valid measure of product theft rates. A Fortune-500 retail supermarket chain, based in the U.S.A., provided access to a specialized data-set in which extraordinary steps are taken to differentiate shoplifting losses from all other losses (i.e., shrinkage) for a select number of non-perishable products. From this data-set, a cross-sectional sample of products (N=7,468) was drawn. The results have implications for retail loss prevention—for both stores and manufacturing designers of FMCGs. Additionally, the findings may be helpful for other retailers, as these products are also sold in several types of stores (e.g., drug, convenience and mega-stores). Implications for research and policy are also considered. 10:15 Consumer-oriented payment systems: mobile technologies, self-service checkout and the rise of the SWIPERS, Emmeline Taylor, The Australian National University, Australia. Retailers and suppliers are facing the challenge of reconfiguring systems to accommodate increasingly mobile customers expecting multichannel options supporting quick and secure digital payment. The purpose of this paper is to examine current trends in retail solutions and how they impact on the RETAIL CRIME: INTERNATIONAL EVIDENCE & PREVENTION School of Architecture & the Built Environment, KTH Date: 15 September 2015, Time: 9:00-18:00 Venue: Drottning Kristinas väg 30, Room L1, Kungliga Tekniska Högskolan, Stockholm, Sweden