Retail Security Statistics Examined

How can retail security losses be used to justify the use of video surveillance and security systems?

Within the security industry, retail may be the most rigorously quantified market. Unlike many security applications that defend against very high value but rare instances (think government and terrorism), retail security deals with constant security threats that can be measured. This helps in calculating ROI for the use of technology systems such as video surveillance.

In October 2009, the annual National Retail Security (for the US market) was released. The headline was that shrink was up (from 1.44% to 1.51% between 2007 and 2008).

Beyond the shrink numbers and general observations is an excellent 34 page in-depth report. I highly encourage you to read that report (use the registration page to request a copy as they have asked recipients not to redistribute the PDF report).

A main theme from the report is that while video surveillance is considered a 'hot' tool for retailers, it is one element in a larger system that requires other processes and technologies.

Final note, these numbers may be contrasted to a 3rd party report of 22 retailers from September 2008 (premium).