Research by Retailers: Understanding Loss and the Effectiveness of Loss Prevention Strategies

Abstract

Many retail companies may conduct research on various aspects of retail theft or loss prevention but because of the proprietary nature of this research, it may not be reported in academic or trade journals. As a result, we know little about the focus or analytical techniques retailers use to conduct research. The data for this study were collected from a diverse group of retail companies. The study examines retailers' conduct to better understand theft in their stores and technologies to reduce theft. The findings indicate that retailers use a variety of analytical techniques to study retail loss and loss prevention, and are more likely to conduct research to understand the nature of loss when they believe that they have a severe loss problem. A substantially higher percentage of companies conduct research on loss prevention technologies than they do on understanding the sources of loss.