Shoplifting cost retailers £400m last year
British retailers lost out on nearly £400m last year due to shoplifting, despite falling numbers of violent theft and abuse.
Violence and abuse against shopkeepers occurred 1,600 times per day on average, down 20 per cent from 2,000 last year, according to a crime report published by the British Retail Consortium (BRC).
The Crime and Policing Bill is expected to be implemented this spring and will deliver new protections for retail workers, but the BRC is calling on Labour to extend the law to cover delivery drivers.
Cyber crime threat growing
The BRC said cyber crime is rapidly becoming a top concern for retailers, following multiple high-profile cyber attacks against top firms including Marks & Spencer and the Co-op.
Brits’ increasing use of apps, social media and AI tools for shopping leave consumers and retailers more vulnerable, the BRC said.
Cyber threats were named by 32 per cent of retailers as their top crime concern, and the report notes companies have been piling extra funding into training and technology to counter attacks.
Delivery theft costs £100m
Theft and damage resulted in a £583m total cost for retailers last year, across over seven million incidents.
Bosses spent even more preventing retail crime, with £923m spent on physical and online loss prevention.
Delivery theft, which the report investigated for the first time, cost the industry over £100 last year and often involves organised repeat offenders.
Despite the 20 per cent fall, last year still marked the second-worst year on record for violent conduct towards retailers, and saw rates of abuse far higher than the 455-per-day average before the pandemic.
Helen Dickinson, chief executive of the BRC, said: “This drop in violence and abuse has been hard won, but the job is far from done as numbers of incidents remain almost four times pre pandemic levels. Violence remains endemic.
“Theft remains a huge issue, with an increasingly concerning link to organised criminal gangs, who continue to systematically target one store after another, stealing tens of thousands of pounds worth of goods in one go.”
The report noted police responses to retail crime are improving, and hailed the government’s plans to remove a £200 threshold for “low level” theft, which carries a maximum six-month sentence.
Chris Brook-Carter, chief executive of the Retail Trust, said: “The government and the police are treating this problem more seriously than ever before.
“The entire retail industry now need to step up and get behind these efforts if we’re to stand any chance of restoring respect to our high streets once and for all.”