German retailers noticed a gaping hole of missing merchandise worth €4.95bn when they completed their inventories in 2024. That's according to a new publication by the country’s EHI Retail Institute, based on a survey they carry out each year.
And while the overall loss is 3% more than in the previous year and a new record, the nearly €5bn is not entirely due to crime. The report estimates that approximately €4.2bn of losses are linked to theft, and the rest can be blamed on companies’ own mistakes, such as incorrect price labelling, and recording and valuation errors.
