We know that retail crime and risk is not evenly distributed across locations. So how can we determine where to invest finite resources to have the biggest impact?

Most retailers operate with some form of risk model to identify relative risk across the estate. These models might seek to capture and analyse shrink, incidents of violence and aggression, criminal damage, as well as other factors that could signal vulnerability e.g. under staffing / vacancies. Yet the level of sophistication of these models, how they are used, and who has responsibility for them is currently not known.

Despite the range of possible benefits, a well-designed and used risk model can bring to a business, there does not appear to be any standardised best practice or even established knowledge about how to construct, review and use a risk model in the retail sector.

This new research project offers multiple benefits to the industry by shining a light on how the retail sector is using data to inform decision-making and security strategies. The project will seek to understand how risk models are constructed (identifying areas of commonality and difference between businesses), how they are used and by whom, who has operational responsibility for managing the model, and how it is reviewed and validated.

At a time that crime and in-store violence appear to be increasing across many countries, the project will provide a better understanding of how risk models can contribute to data-informed security strategies and solutions. 

The meeting will start with an overview of the research proposal, this will be followed by a discussion with the retailers on the research itself and how they might each like to contribute to this important research.

This meeting is for retailers, brand owners and academics only.