How retailers could take on shoplifting and shrink in 2024

Solving an issue as complicated and multifaceted as shrink is a task that, on the surface, seems impossible. For many retailers, some shrink and shoplifting is accounted for on a yearly basis, but some are hoping new technology and legislation can curb it further.

As Retail Brew previously reported, some retailers are experimenting with more sophisticated loss prevention technology, which can range from locking up products behind plexiglass to implementing facial recognition tech that can collect customers’ biometric information.

• Retailers such as Best Buy and Home Depot have increasingly locked up more merchandise, while the facial recognition technology has faced scrutiny due to its own security concerns.

“I would assume that at the top of every retailer’s mind is a positive customer experience…that is safe, that is secure, and that is as unobtrusive as possible and easy for the consumer,” David Johnston, VP of asset protection and retail operations at NRF, previously told Retail Brew. “But if there are no preventative methods being used, it allows the thieves to walk right in and take what they want.”

Law and order: Retailers are finding themselves turning to law enforcement and local officials to curb what some have labeled “organized retail theft.” The NRF is a major advocate for the Combating Organized Retail Crime Act of 2023, a piece of legislation in Congress that, if passed, would deploy more federal resources to combat theft and make it easier to prosecute on the federal level.

• In 2022, Congress passed the INFORMS Act, a piece of legislation that went into effect in June and creates more impediments to the sale of products to be resold on online marketplaces.
• Los Angeles is creating a new task force to combat organized retail crime, as the city ranks No. 1 in the country for it, now five years in a row, according to the NRF.