Whether it is customer or staff theft, credit card fraud or products damaged in the supply chain, shrinkage is a major blight on the balance sheet of all retailers.

No doubt technology is the front line in the war on shrinkage, but there is no substitute for strict corporate policies and training staff to be vigilant in the quest to cut shrinkage.

According to Jorge Salgado-Reyes, Regional Director of Allied Detectives an investigative company specialising in corporate investigations, retailers continue to be stung by staff simply dipping their hands in the till or engaging in sweethearting. “Sweethearting is where members of the public and members of staff in retail collude. Typically, one item is scanned and several items are not,” says retail fraud investigator Jorge Salgado-Reyes.

Another major problem is fraudulent refunds of products. Jorge says: “The natural assumption about refunds is that someone is coming back into a store to ask for a cash refund. But when a member of staff fraudulently refunds an item, that staff member is telling the stock control system that one item has come back into stock when in fact nothing has come back in. He then steals the money from the till that the item is worth. The till will balance and it will not be discovered until there is a stock audit.

Ultimately, human nature dictates that retailers will never stamp out all forms of fraudulent activity. What they can do is to keep striving to integrate new technology with a culture of zero tolerance and stringent refund and stock control policies with a method of auditing the same.