Retail at Risk in Germany

The todays published Police Crime Statistics of Germany (PCS) for the year of 2016 shows, that although the total number of incidents decreased in the last year, the number of petty crime, like shoplifting, is still on a high level in Germany.

According to last years report of the EHI Retail Institute, the German retail industry lost 4 Billion Euros in 2015, by which consumer theft is held accountable for about 55 percent of that amount which corresponds to a total loss of 2.2 Billion Euros.

Obviously such losses are of great concern for the retail industry, as they come besides burglary, robbery against staff, product extortion or coercion and bomb threads in the day-to-day business of retailers.

It is worth to note, that around 500 Million Euros of the losses in the framework of customer related theft in 2015 is related to organized crime, which are able to counter „classical“ security solutions like the use of CCTV or employment of house detectives, doorman and security staff by an escalation of violence.

For more details about the report please click on the link below:

2017 German BKA PCS Files (in German Language)

DW Article about EHI Retail Institute Report 2016 (in German language)