Many individuals may steal for their own use. Others steal to resell to others or are part of organised gangs. In the latter case they may steal to order by style, size and colour, and there can be supply networks of semi-professional criminals trying to find out what ‘clients' want and meeting these needs. While the occasional shoplifter may steal items costing €20 to €60 mainly for his or her own use, frequent offenders may steal up to €1,500 per day.

A major concern of retailers now is fraudulent refunds, involving refunds given against goods that were originally stolen, thus creating two sources of loss. For the criminal who steals a dress costing €90, the refund value is €90 instead of the €30 that the dress might fetch when resold in the neighbourhood as stolen property.

Security and the costs of crime
Retailers have spent large sums of security to combat crime, and total security spending in 2006 was €7,989 million. They have spent large sums on CCTV and have invested in electronic article surveillance (EAS). There is a current focus on the use of source tagging, where suppliers apply EAS tags when the goods are produced. An estimated 44 per cent of retailers (according to the Theft Barometer) are now using source tagging. As many of the companies applying source tagging are themselves Indian, introducing this among Indian retailers may not be so difficult.

Staff dishonesty is another focus area, and retailers are using staff training and a range of technologies including CCTV and detection software to combat this.

Protecting against crime
To fight retail crime, businesses need to set adequate budgets and to implement policies, procedures, plans, security equipment and security staffing. For crime, retailers need to work closely with each other: few criminals exclusively target only one store, so ‘my criminals' are likely to be ‘your criminals' as well. And they need to work closely with the police and the criminal justice system to ensure that crime against retailers is seen as a serious national concern rather than a lesser problem mainly caused by retailers ‘tempting' customers.

The long-term importance of Indian retailing in the world economy has led us to include India this year in the Theft Barometer. The survey now becomes the Global Retail Theft Barometer and will include India, Australia, Japan, the United States, Hong Kong and Singapore as well as Europe. This survey, with all company data treated in strict confidence, will allow Indian retailers to benchmark themselves against the best not just in their own country, but also in other major countries in the world economy.

The major changes affecting Indian retailers over the next five years will have many effects, one of which is likely to be a sharp increase in the level of crime. As India becomes more successful and attractive commercially, this is seen as an opportunity for criminals elsewhere. The Centre for Retail Research has more than 20 years' experience of retail anti-crime policies. It has partnerships with other companies giving it a deep understanding of retail crime issues. The Centre is in a unique position to assess the current and potential crime problems facing retailers in India and to provide support for them in combating crime.

No one knows whether the crime problems in India are primarily customer-based or staff-based, or indeed what the pattern will be like in five years' time. Accurate information is critical. Retailers have to be alert to the fact that there are a large number of potential sources of loss. The war against crime and loss is a war of constant attrition where the enemy is constantly probing to find weaknesses: the retailer needs to get right many small things rather than implement one or two major policies.