Violence and abuse against retail workers fell by a fifth from 2,000 incidents a day in 2023/4 to 1,600 last year, according to the latest findings in the British Retail Consortium’s (BRC) Crime Report.

While the BRC described the fall in incidents as welcome progress, it warned levels of retail crime remain unacceptably high, with instances still the second highest on record.

While overall levels of abuse against retail workers fell year-on-year, incidents involving physical violence were largely unchanged at 118 per day, including 36 instances a day involving a weapon.

Violence remains endemic

“This drop in violence and abuse has been hard won, but the job is far from done as numbers of incidents remain almost four times [higher than] pre-pandemic levels,” said Helen Dickinson, Chief Exec of the BRC, adding that “violence remains endemic.”

Chris Brook-Carter, Chief Exec of the Retail Trust, which ran a high profile Let’s Respect Retail campaign during Peak Trading 2025, said that “while any fall in abuse is welcome, there are still far too many retail workers being threatened and attacked.”

“We must turn this hard-won progress into long-lasting change. The entire retail industry now needs to step up and get behind these efforts if we’re to stand any chance of restoring respect to our High Streets,” Brook-Carter added.

Tech investment to tackle crime

The report, published in partnership with Sensormatic Solutions, showed that retailers have been investing heavily to improve security. In the last five years, retail businesses have spent over £5billion on improved safety measures – from CCTV to technology, security staff and improved data collection.

“Technology is one of the most important tools we have to tackle retail crime and the increased investment in this area looks to be paying off,” Sean Lee, Regional VP & GM EMEA at Sensormatic Solutions, commented.

Last year, Currys announced its biggest ever annual investment in store safety measures to safeguard colleagues and deter shoplifting, including deploying VoCoVo headsets. Some supermarkets like Asda have piloted Live Facial Recognition in response to rising crime rates, while other brands, including M&S, Boots and Greggs, are feeding into a shared national crime database, powered by loss prevention platform, Auror.

“Retailers are redesigning their loss prevention strategies, integrating connected technologies for a more resilient retail environment,” Lee continued. “Yet more must be done to protect retail staff. By working together, supported by intelligent technology, we can continue to build safer stores and a stronger future for retail.”

Stamping out shoplifting

Theft also remains a significant challenge according to the BRC report, which said there were 5.5million detected incidents of shoplifting last year.

These thefts cost retailers an estimated £400million – but, with many incidents going undetected or unreported, the true cost is likely to be much higher.

“Theft remains a huge issue,” Dickinson added. “Retailers, the police and government must continue to work together, focusing on consistent enforcement, better data and intelligence sharing and targeted action against prolific offenders and organised gangs.”