Retail loss prevention (also known as Retail asset protection) is a set of practices employed by retail companies to preserve profit. Profit preservation is any business activity specifically designed to reduce preventable losses. A preventable loss is any business cost caused by deliberate or inadvertent human actions, colloquially known as "shrinkage". Loss prevention is mainly found within the retail sector but also can be found within other business environments. Retail loss prevention is geared towards the elimination of preventable loss. Most companies take this traditional approach by either having their own in-house loss prevention team or using external security agencies. Shrink Items that are unaccounted for compared to what the inventory system believes the store should have are losses or "shrink". Shrink is caused by operational errors, internal theft, and external theft. Retail loss prevention is responsible for identifying these causes and following up with training, preventing, investigating, responding to and resolving them. According to the 2018 Federal National Retail Security Survey, the average Shrink % for US Retailers is 1.33%. Global Shrink Rates Average global shrink rates as table by region, ranging from a high of 1.85% in the US to a low of 1.75% in Asia Pacific. Types of loss Operational errors Operational errors are inadvertent human errors. Operational errors occur when associates do not follow existing business best practices and policies or a company lacks the proper best practices and policies to ensure work is performed with minimal human error. Operational errors also occur due to a lack of proper training for associates. External theft External theft is when customers intentionally cause shrink by theft, fraud, or vandalism. Also known as Shoplifting, thefts that occur in retail settings are done during business hours and involve the lack of security and prevention measures. Theft prevention can be done by reducing the opportunity to steal in the store through placing prevention mechanisms in place. Internal theft Internal theft is when company employees intentionally cause shrink by theft, fraud, vandalism, waste, abuse, or misconduct. Since associates have access to the entire building and during non-business hours, they are capable of costing the company substantial losses over a longer period of time. Internal theft is typically identified by reporting systems, first-hand visual/CCTV surveillance or tips from coworkers. It frequently occurs via dishonest operation of the Point Of Sale (POS) system. Internal theft traditionally causes more loss to a business than external