SINGAPORE: Singapore retailers incurred more than S$220 million in inventory losses last year.
According to a study conducted by retail security experts Checkpoint Systems, customer theft accounted for 53 per cent of the losses.
That is the third highest percentage in the region.
Employee
theft accounted for about a quarter of total losses, while internal
error as well as supplier or vendor theft contributed more than 20 per
cent.
The study said customers end up paying for the losses as an "honesty tax" of about S$65 per head on average.
It added that small but expensive "mobile" items tend to have the highest risk for theft.
The most commonly stolen items were from the cosmetics category, including shaving products, perfumes, lipsticks and tweezers.
- CNA/al