Home featured Featured News Retail Featured Shoplifting takes billion dollar toll on retailers Stephanie Zillman November 18, 2013 The problem of shoplifting continues to be a scourge on Australian retail – new figures show nationwide, the bill for stolen goods, stocktaking and till errors comes in at $2.4 billion. The Global Retail Theft Barometer (GRTB) 2012-2013, by Checkpoint Systems and Euromonitor International, found that cost is passed on to shoppers in order to compensate for the losses . In fact, Australian households wear the second highest ‘honesty tax’ in the world, paying some $290 per year in increased prices . Shoplifting has overtaken employee theft as the biggest cause of shrinkage, accounting for 45 per cent, and 27 per cent respectively. Supplier fraud accounted for 7 per cent, and administrative errors and non-crime losses represented for 21 per cent of overall shrinkage. Mark Gentle from Checkpoint Systems Australia believes one reason behind the rise in shrinkage is the increased investment in internal security, to the detriment of traditional security measures – namely closely monitoring customer theft . “The lower employee theft rate has been a result of the focus retailers have had on staff training and security solutions such as radio frequency electronic article surveillance (EAS), making it more difficult for staff to steal from their place of work. Now we are seeing an increase in the rate of shoplifters meaning that some retailers will need to revaluate security measures and look at new security technologies that are emerging,” Gentle