2009 Global Retail Theft Barometer Spotlights the $115 Billion Shrink Challenge

Learn what this means for retailers and how they can meet this challenge

Event Date: November 10, 2009 11:00 AM Eastern Standard Time

The last 12 months’ global recession has had a marked impact on retail shrink, according to the Centre for Retail Research’s third annual Global Retail Theft Barometer. This one-of-a-kind annual survey indicates shrink is now almost $115 billion, up 5.9 percent over the previous 12-month period representing a record increase in shrink over prior years. Professor Joshua Bamfield, author of the study, will shed light on this year’s findings, and will offer his insights as to what this means for retailers’ loss prevention strategies. Among the key areas of interest to be covered in this 30-minute Webinar are a breakdown of shrink trends both globally and regionally, such as sources of theft, high-theft product areas, theft levels in vertical markets, costs of retail crime, and the impact of the economic slowdown on loss prevention spending. Professor Bamfield's remarks will be followed by a live question-and-answer period enabling attendees to gain an understanding on the way this impacts retailers and how they can improve their future loss prevention initiatives.

Professor Joshua Bamfield
Executive Director of the Centre for Retail Research

Professor Joshua Bamfield is an acknowledged expert on retail crime and publishes annually the largest survey on retail fraud in 42 countries, the Global Retail Theft Barometer. He was previously the Head of the Business School at Northampton University and has published books and journal articles on crime and fraud. Professor Bamfield has been the Director of the Centre for Retail Research for ten years and pioneered the use of civil recovery against staff fraud on behalf of 75 major UK retailers in the late 1990s. He is a member of the Worshipful Company of Security Professionals, Fellow of the Royal Statistical Society, Chartered Member of the British Computer Society, Professor of Management at Nottingham Trent University and a member of the editorial board of The Security Journal. His new book Shopping and Crime will be published by Palgrave-Macmillan at the end of 2009.