Thieves cause damage worth billions
Although they again invested billions in prevention and security measures in 2019, retail companies in Germany have to put up with large inventory discrepancies. "In 2019, retailers lost 4.4 billion euros due to theft and organization-related losses - that's around 5 percent more than in the previous year," says Frank Horst, EHI security expert the results of a recent study.
"From a purely statistical point of view, each person in Germany steals a merchandise value of just under 30 euros per year," comments Frank Horst, security expert from the EHI Retail Institute is a research and consulting institute for the retail industry and its partners the results of a recent study.
Damage due to theft
Behind the high figures is one thing in particular: theft. Of the 4.4 billion euros in inventory losses (industry-weighted extrapolation for the entire German retail sector), 3.75 billion are caused by theft, as the EHI writes. Goods worth 2.44 billion euros were stolen by customers, 950 million were stolen by the company's own employees, and 360 million were lost through theft by suppliers and service staff. 660 million euros in losses would result from organizational deficiencies, for example incorrect price labeling. The state suffers an economic loss of 510 million euros a year as a result of VAT losses.
Prevention costs
For retailers, inventory discrepancies significantly weaken the return on investment. If the lost sales prices are set in relation to gross sales, this would correspond to a value of around 1 percent of sales. Together with the expenses for theft prevention and security measures, the retail sector would lose around 1.32 percent of its turnover, emphasizes the EHI.
Less ads
Even though the topic of theft is a perennial issue: in 2019, reported shoplifting decreased by 3.9 percent to a total of 325,786 cases (previous year 339,021), according to EHI police crime statistics. While the number of simple shoplifting cases has fallen almost continuously since 1997, serious shoplifting cases have almost tripled in the last thirteen years, according to the media release. Due to the high number of unreported cases of over 98 percent, the statistics are only of limited value. Based on the average loss of all reported thefts and the actual loss in the retail sector, it is calculated that more than 22.2 million shopliftings with a value of 110 euros each go undetected every year. "Klaurenner" vary - depending on the retail sector and company - from rechargeable batteries and alcoholic beverages to toothbrush attachments and cigarettes.
Data basis: The current survey involved 81 companies or sales channels with a total of 22,849 outlets generating total sales of around 102.1 billion euros. The average sales area of the participating stores is 1,220 m2.
Source: EHI
