What's Inside

Retail crime is escalating. Cargo theft has surged across North America, causing millions of dollars in losses, while shoplifting and in-store violence in the UK have hit unprecedented highs. As retailers navigate this crisis, they must strike a balance between loss prevention and maintaining a seamless shopping experience.

Part of our monthly Retail Shrink and ORC (organized retail crime) series, this research report presents the latest developments in retail shrink in the US and Europe. We uncover:

• The 27% increase in cargo theft across the US and Canada, and its resulting losses
• First-party fraud rates during the recent holiday season and the business costs of chargebacks, returns fraud and promotional abuse
• The 24% year-over-year rise in retail crime costs in the UK
• New loss-prevention capabilities and employee safety solutions from selected technology vendors
• Retailer commentary on loss-prevention strategies from major retailers, including the impacts of AI-powered self-checkout
• The retailer sectors that are better positioned to mitigate retail shrink and those that risk losing advantage

This report covers developments from the start of January to mid-February 2025. From 2025, we are publishing this series on a quarterly basis.

We help you understand the scale of the retail shrink challenge and stay ahead of the latest security innovations to effectively strategize around tackling evolving retail crime.

Companies mentioned in this report include: Albertsons, CVS, Groupement Mousquetaires, LiveView Technologies, Poundland, Sensormatic Solutions, Socure, Walgreens

Other relevant research:

• More reports in the Retail Shrink and ORC series
• RetailTech: Leading-Edge Loss Prevention—Tackling Theft and Fraud Through RFID, Video Surveillance and More—a free report, sponsored by Sensormatic
• Retail Challenges Drive Edge Technology Investment—a free report, sponsored by VMware
• Retail-Tech Landscape: Loss Prevention
• Visit the Coresight Research Retail Technology Hub to explore reports, data and competitive landscapes on technology.