My boss/ director

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Miss Lee: "Good so today we will learning about identify and respond to security risks can anyone tell me about what is this.. yes Ava."

Ava: "Is it isn't you are protecting yourself and other workers."

Miss Lee: "Yes it is now let get started Retail loss prevention

'Retail loss prevention' or 'retail theft control' is the practice of monitoring and

implementing measures to prevent the loss of merchandise, cash and non-cash assets

through unaddressed security risks such as theft or fraud. It is an important aspect of

working in any industry which has merchandise, cash and non-cash assets which may be

subject to risk.

Potential risks to merchandise, cash and non-cash include:

• employee theft

• shoplifting - amateur and professional

• fraud

• vendor theft

• armed robbery

• cyber attacks

• break-ins

• damage to merchandise.

Let us have a closer look at each of these potential risks.

Employee theft

Whilst an employer always has a high level of trust in their staff, unfortunately, the evidence

shows that employee theft is very common. The Australian Retailers Association reports that

employee theft (internal theft) is the cause of 40% of shrinkage that retailers in Australia are

experiencing.

Employee theft tends to fall into three categories as to why they steal from their employer:

• need

• revenge

• thrills.

To limit opportunities for employee theft, it is very important that all staff (including

management) follow store policies and procedures that are in place to limit theft

opportunities. Examples of actions that can be taken are:
having two staff enter the store together prior to opening

• limited staff having access to keys for the store and registers

• staff unable to process their own it transactions (must be done by a supervisor)

• staff not to process transactions for family and friends

• bag-checks to be conducted on all staff before they leave the store

• banking to be checked by two staff every time.

Shoplifting

Sadly, most people are aware of a friend or family member who has stolen from a store at

some stage. This may be as simple as a packet of chewing gum or a piece of fruit from the

supermarket, or as complex as targeted items that the thief is able to re-sell.

Australia and New Zealand Retail Crime Survey (2019) reports that shoplifting is the largest

cause (57%) of the estimated A$3.37billion loss in the 2017-2018 financial year. The most