(Bloomberg) -- The little guys and big guys -- shoplifters and organized crime -- account for the lion's share of “shrink” at U.S. retailers.
Criminal activity along with bookkeeping errors canceled out an average of 1.33 percent of sales in 2017 versus 1.44 percent in 2016, according to the National Retail Federation and the University of Florida.
Cause | Frequency |
| Shoplifting and organized retail crime | 36% |
| Internal employee theft | 33% |
| Administrative paperwork errors | 19% |
| Vendor fraud or mistake | 6% |
| Other | 6% |
At the same time, six in 10 retailers said shrink was less of a problem last year versus four in 10 in 2016.
For the years ahead, cybersecurity is a top concern and many retailers have introduced online incident response plans.
“Criminals continue to become more sophisticated in this area,” said Richard Hollinger, a University of Florida criminology professor and the lead author of the report. “This is a growing threat that will require more resources going forward.”
To contact the reporter on this story: Alex Tanzi in Washington at atanzi@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Kristy Scheuble at kmckeaney@bloomberg.net, Vincent Del Giudice
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