Retail Bulletin loss prevention summit

The Retail Bulletin's 3rd Loss Prevention Summit 2012 will

help retailers tackle the increasingly complex problem of crime and shrinkage across channels. Expert speakers from a range of high profile retailers including Tiffany and River Island will come together on September 12th in Central London for the third retail summit to talk on best practices of loss prevention.

The interactive day, sponsored by General Dynamics HCM, will focus on the key trends in retail criminal activity which companies must tackle. The ever-growing risk of losses due to change within the economic climate, higher unemployment, growing debt levels, gambling, and those aspiring to higher lifestyles beyond their means are dramatically increasing the number of employees stealing from their employers. Retailers are consequently putting loss prevention further up the corporate agenda, implementing new ways to combat shrinkage and working more collaboratively in deterring both internal and external losses.

“In 2011, shoplifting and organized retail crime made up about 31 percent of inventory shrinkage and point of sale thefts by employees accounted for about 45 percent of all retail losses” said the summit’s Director of Conference Production, Carl Goodman. “This year looks to be the same, if not more prevalent” he said. “Despite advances in technology and tactics to detect theft; stealing by employees is not a problem that’s easy to remedy. Increasingly, there are also challenges in tracking fraudulent activities across channels. Very often this is combined with increasingly used returns fraud. Staff often find themselves struggling to cope with the delicate balance between customer service and loss prevention” says Goodman.