annual loss, accounting for 1.45 per cent of global sales.


The study further notes that while worldwide retailers boosted overall funding to loss prevention and security measures by 5.6 per cent from 2010 levels, amounting to a $28.3 billion expenditure, the quantity allocated to loss prevention actually decreased by a small amount; thus, fewer shoplifters caught around the world as compared to the year before. “Of the top 50 global retailers who re- sponded to the survey, the ones which re- ported a decline in shrink from the previous year did not construe loss pre- vention merely as a matter of theft, but worked across their operations to system- atically combat shoplifting, employee theft, vendor loss and administrative er- rors,” says the study’s author, professor Joshua Bamfield, director of the Centre for Retail Research.


Rui Rodrigues, the loss prevention di- rector at Staples Canada, agrees with the tenor of the report’s findings. He believes an increase in organized crime thefts is the biggest concern for Canadian re- tailers, especially with the bulge of holiday shoppers this time of year. “We’ve been dealing with it for a number of years,” he asserts. “We’re seeing a migration back to a higher level of traditional retail daylight booster theft targeting specific products like electronics and clothing.”


Rodrigues credits technologies, such as chip-based credit and debit cards with shutting down easy access for card fraud- sters, but cautions that closing one av- enue can sometimes lead criminals to return to previous modes of operation, such as old fashioned shoplifting. Unfortunately, retailers may potentially be caught unprepared to deal with types of crimes that seemed to be on the decline. “If the organized groups that make a living off retail theft had a portfolio that was diversified around fraud, theft, rob- bery, they get accustomed to a certain level of income. If the fraud income is de- clining, then the traditional retail box theft tactics – coming in and grabbing products – go up,” he explains.


With security and loss prevention playing such an important role in the overall financial success and viability of


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Canadian retailers, industry experts started to think about how they can better work to- gether to combat the threats that most, if not all, retailers face on a daily basis. Hence the creation of DataShare. De- veloped in 2009 by the Retail Council of Canada (RCC), Enabl-u Technologies and a committee of industry stakeholders, DataShare is a secure national retail theft database that allows retailers to share se- rious incidents of theft with each other and police. The web-based tool gives users the ability to analyze data in a myriad of ways. With Canada experiencing a consider- able increase in attempted and successful shoplifting incidences, Rodrigues praises DataShare as a means for retailers to per- sonalize a broad range of data from stores across the country, allowing for a unique store-by-store loss prevention plan. At Staples, the loss prevention depart- ment has a specific investigator who is re- sponsible for analyzing the data from DataShare to come up with patterns and trends vital to preventing shrinkage. To give an example of how vital such infor- mation collecting is to combatting shrinkage, Rodrigues says that just from internal data they know that the hours of 11am to 3pm are when shoplifters are most active in Staples stores. “There’s interesting data you can pull out of DataShare,” he explains. “You can start to see that in a certain geographical area, they’re going after ink. In this other areas they’re going after tablets. It helps us shape our message to our stores by ana- lyzing the data based on attempts and what’s happened to educate our stores in specific pockets on what to focus on in- stead of sending a general message to everybody.”


The RCC, headquartered in Toronto, believes DataShare is one solution to growing shrinkage issues as it gives loss prevention departments the ability to re- spond proactively by preparing for future events in advance, using patterns gleaned from previous retail crime incidents of a similar nature.


“The initiative was born out of the shared need by retailers to come together and try to address a growing concern that was impacting their stores,” says Theresa Rowsell, director of international business development at Enabl-u Technologies, a


provider of advanced data management and training solutions.


She says that a major concern is the targeting of multiple retailers by organized theft rings based on geographic location, closeness to large highways, lack of secu- rity and resale value on the black market. “The concept and application of a ‘datashare’ system has been successful in other industries and countries to date and continues to grow momentum,” she says, noting that DataShare has “dynamic report capabilities as well as mapping and alert features to assist in the trending, analysis and awareness of the types of crimes coming into the system.” West49, a Canadian specialty fashion and apparel retailer, has been partici- pating in DataShare since the beginning of the year, regularly reporting incidents to the network and keeping an eye on in- formation about trends impacting stores. Jennifer Drake, West49’s director of re- source protection, insists DataShare plays an important role in the company’s overall loss prevention strategy.


“When we have a trend emerge, we reach out to get more information and share prevention information through our company intranet, in Alert Bulletin for- mats for store management, who then communicate to our full-time and part- time sales force,” she says. “We have gained valuable information about organ- ized crime groups with this tool and have been able to give stores in certain regions a heads-up to the activity and alert them to persons of interest to local police.” With crime being a prime concern for retailers this holiday season, DataShare is proving to be the technology of the future, a method for loss prevention professionals to combat shrinkage without having to have a physical presence in every store. “It gives us flexibility. The more we ana- lyze the data [we can] really customize our message,” says Rodrigues. “That is very unique right now. If you pull the data, you can see your trends. Therefore, you can make your message and communication very sectorized rather than just creating a na- tional campaign which I don’t think is going to be anywhere near as effective.”


Dan Verbin is a freelance writer in Thornhill, Ont.


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