New Delhi: India, the fifth largest retail
destination globally, is also the most susceptible to menaces
such as shoplifting and employee theft among others, said a
survey.
India has the highest country-specific retail shrinkage
rates-- reduction or loss in inventory due to shoplifting,
employee theft-- across the world for year ended June 2009,
according to the Global Retail Theft Barometer.
"While North America and Europe make up 40 per cent and
38.4 per cent, respectively, of global shrinkage, the highest
country-specific rates were found in India, Morocco and
Mexico," the survey added.
During the period under review, the level of global
retail theft reached USD 114.8 billion, a significant increase
of 5.9 per cent over last year's total of USD 104.5 billion.
The survey that covered 41 countries was conducted by
Centre for Retail Research and funded by Checkpoint systems.
"While most businesses have suffered as a result of the
recession, few have been as hard-hit as the retail industry,"
Checkpoint Chairman, President and CEO Rob van der Merwe said.
The survey further highlighted that the global costs of
retail crime (the charge that crime imposes on retailers) was
a whopping USD 120.5 billion including loss prevention costs.
Out of this shoplifting losses accounted for 40.5 per cent,
employee theft (33.8 per cent), supply chain losses (5.3 per
cent) and loss prevention costs (20.3 per cent).
The survey further highlights that the increase in
shrinkage was largely due to recession.
"There is some criminological evidence that crime rises
as unemployment rises and there are indications that crime is
a much more important issue for retailers now than two or
three years ago," Centre for Retail Research Director Joshua
Bamfield and author of the study said.
Amid recessionary environment, shrinkages saw an increase
in all regions surveyed, with the greatest rise in North
America (8.1 per cent), Middle East-Africa (7.5 per cent),
Europe (4.7 per cent) and Asia Pacific (4.2 per cent).
Out of the 41 countries surveyed, 38 saw an increase in
losses of retailers, the survey which covered North America,
Europe, Asia-Pacific, Latin America, Middle East Africa,
China, Morocco, Taiwan and Turkey said.
While shrinkage has increased, security spending has
decreased almost everywhere. In developed markets, like North
America and Europe, loss prevention expenditure tends to be
higher than emerging markets.
For Asia-Pacific the average for security spending was
0.17 per cent, lowest among all the regions surveyed. Whereas,
the average amount stolen or admitted by shoplifters was USD
69.27, average employee theft was USD 376.15 compared to USD
1,889.02 of global figure, the survey added.
Bureau Report