- Interface Systems’ 2026 Retail Loss Prevention Benchmark Report is based on 1.6 million remote monitoring events across 18,258 U.S. retail locations and 51 brands throughout 2025.
- The report provides operational data at a scale to help retail loss prevention leaders understand when risk peaks, which threats escalate fastest and which intervention strategies prove most effective across thousands of monitored locations.
- The full report is available for download now.
ST. LOUIS — Artificial intelligence-powered security and remote video monitoring provider Interface Systems today released its 2026 Retail Loss Prevention Benchmark Report, an annual study based on 1.6 million remote monitoring events across 18,258 U.S. retail locations and 51 brands throughout 2025.
The report “provides operational data at a scale to help retail loss prevention leaders understand when risk peaks, which threats escalate fastest and which intervention strategies prove most effective across thousands of monitored locations,” according to the company announcement.
“Loss prevention teams are under more pressure than ever to protect people, reduce shrink, and justify every dollar spent on security. This report gives them the data and the confidence to make those decisions,” says Brent Duncan, CEO of Interface Systems, in the announcement.
What Are the Key Findings in the Report?
The key findings in the Interface Systems 2026 Retail Loss Prevention Benchmark Report include:
- Location theft/loss, disturbances and loitering/panhandling are the top retail threats by volume. Other threats tracked included criminal events, battery/assault, theft, property damage, robbery, and medical emergencies.
- Retail risk is predictable. Store opening times recorded a 363% spike in security incidents and peak volume of incidents are recorded between 6 and 8 p.m. Sundays and Mondays combined account for 30% of weekly incident volume while Thursdays carry the highest police dispatch rate of the week.
- Interactive remote video monitoring reduces escalation. 62.4% of high-priority security events were resolved without police dispatch when interactive remote video monitoring was deployed. Voice-down intervention, where a trained intervention specialist communicates in real time through on-site speakers, resolved 99.7% of employee assistance requests without law enforcement involvement.
- Video verification eliminates false alarms. 95% of alarm events were identified as false alarms through live video verification and resolved without dispatch.
- Employee vulnerability peaks at transitions, not peak hours. Of the 1.1 million employee assistance requests logged in 2025, demand was highest at 10 a.m. (97,432 requests) and peaked at 7 p.m. (146,672 requests), aligning with store opening and closing times.
- Loitering and disturbances have higher rates of escalation. Loitering and disturbances have a consistently high dispatch rate ranging from 65% to 82%. Both categories peak daily between 6 and 8 p.m., the same window as overall incident volume.
- The day before a holiday carries more risk than the actual holiday itself. Pre-holiday days averaged 148 incidents versus 138 on actual holidays, representing a 5.5% incident drop on holiday.
AI Perimeter Protection Resolves Perimeter Threats
The report also includes performance data from Interface’s Virtual Perimeter Guard, an AI-powered perimeter security solution that combines autonomous detection with expert human monitoring from Interface’s interactive security operations centers (iSOCs).
Across 29 distributed locations, Virtual Perimeter Guard Units were activated 23,810 times, resolved 96.1% of perimeter threats automatically through a staged voice-down protocol, and escalated 4% of the events to a live intervention specialist. Just one police dispatch was recorded across all 23,810 activations. The full breakdown of the activation stages and resolution rates is included in the report.
The full report includes detailed charts, segment analyses across discount retail and jewelry formats, and actionable takeaways for loss prevention leaders.
Loss prevention leaders can also request a free security assessment to benchmark their incident profile and identify where interactive remote video monitoring and AI-enabled perimeter deterrence can reduce risk at their locations.
