Solving organized retail theft starts with better supply chain data integrity

Retail theft is a problem that has grown far beyond store security, as the retail supply chain is increasingly an appealing target for organized crime. According to CargoNet, there were 767 supply chain crime events in Q1 2026 alone, representing more than $131.58 million in estimated losses.^[1] The report also notes that thieves are specifically targeting more items that are less bulky and easier to resell at scale, such as beauty and food and beverage products.

Policymakers have also taken notice of the rising theft and fraud in the supply chain. The Combating Organized Retail Crime Act (CORCA) bill aims to establish an Organized Retail and Supply Chain Crime Coordination Center meant to more easily align law enforcement efforts at federal, state, local, and private-sector levels.

Reducing organized retail theft will require a multifaceted, industry-wide approach, but many of those facets rely on building a stronger foundation of supply chain data integrity. By tracking serialized products, retailers have more information to feed investigations, prosecute bad actors, and recover products so they can be returned to the rightful owners.

Retail theft is becoming a cross-functional supply chain challenge

Loss prevention teams are often the first to see the downstream effects of theft, but many underlying security gaps occur throughout the supply chain, in areas outside their purview. Thefts can occur at virtually any point: during pickups, at handoffs between partners, inside warehouses, when stores receive shipments, and through deceptive returns. Digital tools and AI are making it easier than ever for crime syndicates and individual bad actors alike to forge credentials and impersonate legitimate carriers or brokers.

“There’s an acceleration of theft events,” says Jonathan Gregory, senior director, global standards, at GS1 US. “Criminal networks are becoming more creative. There are ties between theft and counterfeiting and increases in violent crime. The networks that are doing the stealing are described as polycriminals, meaning they do multiple criminal activities. It’s becoming a larger pain point across the supply chain.”

The broad impact on the supply chain creates inventory loss, sales losses, brand erosion, counterfeiting risks, and more. These issues interfere with retailers’ ability to respond to disruptions and address customer expectations around authenticity.

As such, rising fraud and theft are forcing organizations to rethink how they protect their products and cargo. Supply chain integrity has moved from the purview of supply chain leaders alone to a cross-functional endeavor and a boardroom concern. To succeed in this new environment, loss prevention, logistics, retail operations, IT, legal, and external partners all require a shared view of product identities and cargo movements.

According to Gregory, the biggest gaps happen when companies make assumptions about cargo rather than validating shipments when they change hands.

“The verification gaps really demonstrate the need for cross-enterprise data sharing,” he says. “When you have content assumptions that are not validated whenever you change custody, that’s where the issues can happen. Radio Frequency Identification, or RFID, technology lets you validate content as it flows through, so you can have smarter auditing mechanisms.”

To facilitate this level of validation, retailers and their partners need more than a SKU-level understanding of inventory. A Global Trade Item Number (GTIN) can identify what product is being sold or purchased, and batch or lot numbers can support recall and traceability needs. Serialization adds another layer by identifying items at the individual level, which can be especially useful for higher-risk products or supporting investigations.

Building a stronger data layer to support a multi-pronged response

RFID is an important capability within a broader supply chain security strategy. It can facilitate more collaborative security efforts between partners by capturing movement data at key checkpoints without slowing or stopping operations.

“RFID is a technology that gives you automated, precise information in a way that doesn’t have to impact processes,” says Gregory. “The value is found in the data and the ease of data collection — it’s very precise and highly reliable. Just knowing what was stolen and where it was last seen is essential for combatting cargo theft. Those are the capabilities that RFID simplifies.”

Better yet, that increased visibility supports other business goals besides theft prevention. Improved product- and shipment-level data can help to enhance inventory accuracy in warehouses and stores, shorten cycle count timelines, streamline reverse logistics, and optimize omnichannel fulfillment. When a retailer has a more accurate understanding of their available inventory, it can more confidently promise products for store-based fulfillment.

The key to all of this involves putting all partners on the same page. GS1’s Electronic Product Code Information Services (EPCIS) provides a standardized way for all stakeholders to capture and share event data, right down to which specific items were placed in a case, which cases were put onto a pallet, when that pallet was shipped, and where it was received.  A recent innovation in the RFID standard now allows tagged items, such as logistic units, to point back to the shipper’s EPCIS database. This simplifies and automates data sharing, ultimately illuminating blind spots in the supply chain.

While standardization is not a substitute for law enforcement in the supply chain, a trusted, shared pool of interconnected data helps participating stakeholders answer important questions, such as:

• Does this shipment match its expected identity?
• Was it received at the right time and location?
• Did an item appear in a return or resale channel without a verified chain of custody?
• Is a discrepancy isolated, or does it fit a pattern across different stores, facilities, routes, or partners?

Importantly, the same level of control doesn’t need to be applied to every single product all at once. Retailers can leverage industry data to determine where the greatest need is. For example, CargoNet’s report showed that theft of personal care and beauty products jumped 178% year over year in Q1 2026. Another Q1 report on cargo theft from Overhaul shows that electronics account for 17% of theft incidents, food and drink for 15%, and clothing and shoes for 11%.^[2]

This type of risk data can help retailers prioritize investments around their highest-risk handoffs. From there, retailers can map gaps in visibility or incomplete chain-of-custody data. Then, they can determine desired outcomes and track progress toward goals such as reducing unexplained exceptions, speeding up discrepancy investigations, or better verifying returns.

Securing the future of retail supply chains through better data

While CORCA and other policy discussions may continue to evolve, retailers don’t have to wait for legislation or mandates to strengthen the data foundations that support supply chain integrity.

Taking a standards-based approach to product identity, implementing RFID-enabled data capture, and incorporating shared event data can help retail organizations respond to theft more quickly and effectively and, in some cases, prevent it altogether. Beyond retail theft, these measures help retailers create a more accurate, connected, and resilient supply chain, ensuring they can weather whatever disruption comes next.