In its current study on inventory differences in German retail, the EHI Retail Institute reports only slightly declining figures. Despite goods security and staff training, goods worth 4.1 billion euros were stolen in retail in 2021. In the previous year it was 4.2 billion euros.
The inventory differences are made up of four areas. According to expert estimates, most of the differences are based on theft by customers at around 2.1 billion euros, followed by theft by employees at 810 million euros, theft by service staff and suppliers at 320 million euros and organizational deficiencies, which are estimated at around 870 million euros will.
According to the study, coveted theft products are primarily cosmetics, tobacco products, high-quality branded clothing and branded shoes, electronic devices/items/accessories and alcoholic beverages, above all spirits, wine and sparkling wine.
According to police crime statistics, 15.6 percent fewer shoplifters were reported in 2021. According to the EHI, however, this value does not reflect the development of the inventory differences. The EHI study results show a much smaller decline. Although 256,694 (2020: 304,005 cases) shoplifting cases were reported last year, arithmetically 19.8 million shoplifting cases with an average value of around 106 euros remained undetected.
“This means that the shoplifting recorded by the police is only the tip of the iceberg and the majority of all offenses are not recognized when they are committed and are therefore not reported,” explains Frank Horst, EHI expert on inventory differences and author of the study. “The drastic drop in shoplifting reports can only be explained by reduced spending on detective agencies, because they usually report most cases.”
Retailers spend around 0.3 percent of sales to protect their goods from theft. According to this, the trade put 1.3 billion euros in security and preventive measures such as article security, camera surveillance or detective missions. According to the EHI, the total cost of inventory discrepancies and avoiding them is 5.4 billion euros.
A total of 77 companies with a total of 20,178 sales outlets and total sales of around 95.4 billion euros took part in the survey.