LPRC - CrimeScience – The Weekly Review – Episode 49 with Dr. Read Hayes, Tom Meehan & Tony D’Onofrio

Episode Date: March 18, 2021

Protests on the West Coast and Cyber Security is on the Rise! In this week’s episode, our co-hosts discuss these topics and more, including a new survey about Cyber Security for Pharmaceutical Companies, Tips for Securing the Supply Chain, An Analysis of Vaccine Effects, and the Top 6 Changes because of COVID. Listen in to stay updated on hot topics in the industry and more! The post CrimeScience – The Weekly Review – Episode 49 with Dr. Read Hayes, Tom Meehan & Tony D’Onofrio appeared first on Loss Prevention Research Council.

Hi everyone, welcome to Crime Science. In this podcast, we aim to explore the science of crime and the practical application of this science for loss prevention and asset protection practitioners, as well as other professionals. We would like to thank Bosch for making this episode possible. We use Bosch Camera's onboard intelligent video analytics to quickly locate important recorded incidents or events. Bosch's forensic search saves you time and money by searching through hours or days of video within minutes to find and collect video evidence. Learn more about intelligent video analytics from Bosch in zones one through four of LPRC's zones of influence by visiting Bosch online at BoschSecurity.com. Welcome, everybody, to Crime Science, the podcast. This is our latest in our weekly update series. I'm joined by my colleagues, Tony D'Onofrio and Tom Meehan, our producer Diego Rodriguez, and we're going to talk just a little bit about what's going on in the world and how it's affecting retailing.

There's a lot of great things happening, a lot of puzzling things happening, but it's always going to be interesting and quite a rollercoaster in the world of retailing, um, to be specific. Um, of course I'll start a little bit while we're in this, um, horrific global pandemic. Uh, talk a little bit about ongoing research and studies. Last week, we talked about, you know, science and what science is a logic model, uh, some hypothesis or hypotheses that we're, or hypotheses that somebody's proposing their propositions and then based on what they've seen and then maybe collecting more independent data or evidence to see how does the new data support their hypothesis about things and how might they alter then now the hypothesis, the model that we're looking at, the framework. And that's how we all operate, including in healthcare. And that's why,

again, it's been quite a vertical and horizontal rollercoaster for all of us as new scientific research results are put out there. And again, you know, I want to touch on this part two of science, what is peer-reviewed versus non-peer-reviewed or pre-reviewed. And, you know, essentially in academic journals, historically, there have been two or three or sometimes even four peer reviewers. In other words, other scientists are sent by the journal editor if the initial article or paper meets their standards and passes their muster out for review. the piece and look at the body, the logic, the thesis, the argument that's being made, and how well is it spelled out? How well does it reference prior research and prior hypotheses or logic? What was the research methodology? Did it appear to be sound, robust? Does it account for alternative interpretations of what the author or authors

of the research end up saying in their piece? And so, you know, we can talk later, I'm sure, about the robustness or rigor of research. But again, it's typically all about sampling and how robust the sample is. We don't normally test the population, just like in a blood test. You're not going to have all of our, our blood's not taken out of our body, but a representative sample of the blood is taken. So we talked about that population of interest. What are we interested in? What are we studying? Well, we'll take a sample, but is the sample we take, is it a good sampling protocol? Is it randomized? Is it large enough? In other words, does it match, likely, probabilistically match the population?

Does it represent the population? If we're studying all dogs, but we only sample from chihuahuas, we may not have a representative sample of dogs. We may not even have a representative sample of chihuahuas, depending on how we do it. So those are things that are paid attention to, and what we see in biology, in particular, with what's going on with COVID-19. And so the scientists are trying to do good research. They're trying to robustly sample properly. So they'll have, you know, these stratified levels of elderly or different age segments, stratified levels of how we present our genetics. In other words, phenotype, you know, what of our skin color, you know, our presumed race, because we're all fairly mixed at this point in history.

And so we're trying to represent, or they're trying to represent the population of interest. Who's likely to be infected? Who's likely to be protected in the case of a vaccine or recovered in the case of a therapy, for example. So, well, that's why we keep going. So when we look at prevention and distance, well, distance, we talked about, there's a logic model that the viral particles are transmitted in water droplets and aerosol. So that means what's the distance that it can travel? And is there enough of a particle representation, a large enough inoculum to make somebody sick if they do inhale that on average. So the farther we are away, maybe the more likely we are. So then they do research to understand, does that in fact seem to happen? Same thing again, we've talked about with masking, different types of materials and number of layers and the coverage so the particles don't leak out

through our nose. If we've got our nose hanging out or out the sides of the particles don't leak out through our nose, if we've got our nose hanging out or out the sides of the mask and under the mask, and all these sorts of things, right? What type of material might generate more moisture, and that humidity can help retard the spread of the virus and on and on. So just giving us why we should still stay sane as we hear everything going all over the place. On the vaccine front, I mean, a huge progress now. The world, really about 400 million of us humans have been vaccinated,

received at least one dose, if it's a two-dose protocol, or one dose in the case of the J&J. And there may be another out there that I'm not aware of that single dose at this point. So about in the United States, I mean, really to about 25, 27 million Americans have now had at least one vaccine dose. So it's massive. And the United States has done pretty well. Just in the last 90 days from one, just over 1% of the U.S. population being vaccinated to now over a third, over 30 plus percent, 33% roughly of the overall population. And the good news is that when you look at it, that's all humans, not all Americans in this case that are most exposed or most vulnerable. In the case of those that are most exposed to the virus

and possible infection, or those that are the most vulnerable to getting serious disease from the virus, much larger, as much as two-thirds to 80 percent in some cases have been vaccinated. So that's massive progress since December when the first vaccine was the Pfizer, and then very shortly thereafter, the Moderna were put out. So the United States, despite having 300 plus million humans just dispersed across a massive landmass, a huge landmass, you know, there's been some fantastic progress. So as far as the looking at the Novavax, another vaccine in addition to Moderna and Pfizer and J&J looks better and better, over 90% efficacy against most of the variants, at least 80% to 86%, it looks like, according to the literature, efficacious against some of the more virulent or at least the more transmissible strains that are out there. So good news that you had a fourth maybe on the way in the United States. Not so good news for the AstraZeneca Oxford University. Really the first

one coming out the gate. It's sort of a microcosm of what we all learned, that the first data, the first this or the first that may not be the best. And again, this vaccine may turn out to be fantastic, but it's just a lot of running into a lot of headwinds. And, you know, just recently, you know, the EU and others have started to put a hold on that vaccine. Again, millions have been vaccinated with it with relatively few, if any, side effects, and it appears to be efficacious, but there's some clotting concerns, evidently, and things like that. So in the abundance of caution, some headwinds there. The Pfizer- Moderna continue to put out that they are looking at third boosters, you know, and just in case, or maybe for further efficaciousness, just as a research, that's their obligation, their due diligence. Also, how they can rapidly

work on different strains, even though there are new data out about Pfizer and possibly Moderna working fairly well, in fact, pretty well against some of these strains that are out there. Also that some interesting mechanism actually talking about, well, how does a vaccine actually affect the body and how's the body respond and so on. But that there's more research showing that the lymph nodes are actually activated in some way that, again, this is not my area of research, but with some of the memory B cells. So there's better and better understanding by scientists and physicians around how these vaccines actually activate the innate and the adaptive immune systems that we have, which are very, very, very complex.

But again, there's some exciting news on some of that, as well as the transmissibility seems to be affected. Israeli research or research by those studying Israel rolled out, and they've got well over three quarters of their population now it looks like vaccinated, but learning that transmission, viral transmission seems to go down in the vaccinated areas and the vaccinated people and so forth. So there may be good news there. May not sterilize us if we've got the virus, if we have the virus in us, but may severely limit spreading to somebody else, even if we're vaccinated and not likely to get seriously

sick. Just a quick little bit about some of the terms that are flying around out there too that we thought we could very quickly touch on. And that is, you know, endpoints. We hear people talk about endpoints. And that's what we do again in criminology is trying to understand, well, And that's what we do again in criminology is trying to understand, well, if we implement this countermeasure, this intervention, this treatment in loss prevention or asset protection, what are the endpoints? How do we know if this thing works? And additionally, we're looking at how well do we execute it in the same thing that they do in biology, particularly in medical research. But some of the endpoints you've been hearing is, well, deaths. I mean, how do these vaccines or how can a vaccine maybe reduce the likelihood that a vaccinated person would die from COVID-19, the disease that's caused by SARS-CoV-2 virus? And so it looks like the three that are authorized in the United States and then the potential of this Novavax, the fourth, are highly, highly efficacious.

It doesn't look like anybody died after receiving the vaccine in the phase one, two or three trials compared to where there were some that were placebo arms. But certainly hospitalizations, very serious disease is reduced to almost zero as well, if not zero in the testing by all of these three vaccines. Symptomatic infection where you're infected and there are one or two or more symptoms like fever and dry cough and so on. Those types of disease and symptoms. And then finally, the asymptomatic infections, which we all know or know about. In fact, I have a good friend who just found out through antibody testing while he was donating blood that he had the COVID-19 disease and he never experienced a single symptom. And he's just over 60, I believe, and so on.

So, you know, you just don't know how you're going to respond to disease. But so those are the endpoints. So does a vaccine, are people that are vaccinated less likely to have asymptomatic infection, symptomatic infection, to be hospitalized or on death, almost on that scale. And most were looking at the end points where the research was on symptomatic infection and hospitalizations and of course deaths, but not really looking at asymptomatic infections. It's very, very exhaustive research that have to be carried out with ongoing routine and maybe multiple types of infection testing to determine if the virus is present or not and if you are in fact infected by the virus. So anyway, a little bit about endpoints. I don't

know if that makes it clear or not, but the idea is to see if something works versus not doing something or a placebo arm in that case. That's what's very, very important. So we can talk about more of the technicalities if anybody would like later, but it's very, very important. So we can talk about more of the technicalities if anybody would like later, but it's very, very relevant to what we do in criminology. So with seven around the world vaccines approved, with closing in on half a billion humans being vaccinated, we also see that the likelihood of getting sick or infected or, you know, God forbid, dying from a vaccine seems to be almost non-existent. We're looking at, well, all of us have seen, well, a young lady, relatively young woman who seemed healthy, did pass away shortly after her second dose. Is that coincidental or causal?

You know, or is there some interaction in between there? The initial results coming from the pathology, at least in public statements, seem to be, we don't think this is actually related. In fact, her father in his grieving state went and got his first vaccine dose after his daughter's death. So we don't know, you know, these things are tragic, but one thing that some of the epidemiologists have been studying is if the vaccine after the second dose, or even after the first was, is created the same problems that the, that the actual virus is creating for us, then we would have already experienced over 40,000

deaths at this point from vaccinations, of which they're having a difficult time accounting for even one. So for whatever it's worth, it's not for me to put out whether something is safe or not safe or even recommend something. But rather, this is what's out there in the literature. Everybody has to make their own decision. In fact, you know, I know I'm getting vaccinated here pretty shortly. So let's keep moving on here. I think what we want to talk about is move over to LPRC. And we are now in deep planning for another cluster call. Those LPRC members that might be tuning in are aware of the cluster calls where we

have a curated agenda that is what we're all want to mostly talk about going forward. And the reason I talk a lot about these vaccines are and talk about masking other preventive measures and what the logic and all behind the evidence that support those is that going forward, we're hearing Dr. Fauci and others talk about, we need to still mask up even if you're two, three, four weeks out from your second dose. Let's say if you've had the Moderna or the Pfizer vaccine, just an abundance of caution. You still could be virulence. We could be spreading, still transmissing the virus. Research is showing that's probably not very likely, but there could be contrary research or the research is as well done as we talked about a few minutes ago. But regardless, let's talk about what this means, the implications for the

retailer that right now we've all seen, and some of you listening know or have personally experienced, know of someone that has a personally experienced, somebody who breaks bad, somebody who very verbally or even physically resist the suggestion that they wear a mask to protect others and themselves if they're going to shop in the establishment in the same way we do with others like you know no shoes no service so um what about now if we now have a vastly vaccinated public or an individual who's been fully vaccinated according to data they should be uh robustly immune and probably not likely transmissing what does that mean for the retailer who's now still being asked by local ordinance, by state or federal level to, if not enforce, reinforce mask wearing in that establishment? Or you've got other customers in

there that have not been vaccinated or still feel vulnerable or could in fact be vulnerable regardless of the vaccination status. So could it make it more and more, more difficult to enforce what's already been very difficult to reinforce? So that's going to be a topic as well as what we're seeing in the news with the, you know, we saw a anniversary of the Breonna Taylor, I believe Tommy and my colleague will talk about in a minute here about some of the, where she was killed in the crossfire. And, and, uh, there was a one year anniversary that, uh, in some, there were demonstrations, some, which, uh, apparently turned violent, um, and where retail establishments were affected as, as per normal, I guess.

Also, we know the jury selection and other issues are coming out about around the George Floyd trial, upcoming trial, uh, where there was a settlement evidently with the city and some of the family of Mr. Floyd. But what is that trial? How is that trial going to go? weekly twist and turns of any trial that make it out in the public. The details affect people's responses and, in our case, the implications for the retailers. So we'll be talking about that on cluster calls. Tony, I'm going to ask you if you're comfortable to mention the LPRC Europe initiative a little bit about that and what's going on around that, if you're open to do that. So I think with no further ado, let me go over to Tom Meehan.

Tom, enlighten us, if you will, on all the array of threats and what people are doing about it. Well, I'll start with just to kind of piggyback off what you said, some of the rallies slash protests surrounding the anniversary of Breonna Taylor. And, you know, while there were certainly some more protests or riot type in certain hotbeds, predominantly these were what I would say were rallies or gatherings with numbers that were reasonable. I hate to use the word hotbed, but for this, it seems to be kind of a common topic is in certain markets, Portland, Denver, Seattle, LA, Northern California, there were more civil disturbance than

others and arrests were made specifically in Portland and Seattle. Actually in Portland, there were several arrests made where guns were recovered during rioting or looting. Although I would say it was much smaller scale than what we've seen in the past, it was definitely still an event. And in some of the reporting that I saw and some of the video I saw, you were talking about groups that were dozens or hundreds, unlike in the past for thousands. That's not to say that there weren't larger groups because there were, but I think the larger groups were relatively peaceful and really rallying around and trying to send the message of unity. I think it's important to state for all of us that, you know, that when we talk

about the LPRC and the FusionNet, which is kind of our communication portal for these type of events, that the more information that the listeners can share, the better we all are, because the whole idea of the FusionNet is kind of a social platform. It isn't a place where we're, you know, as the LPRC, necessarily scraping a whole bunch of news sources and putting it in. We're really looking for human input and validation between and then to share some concerns. Social media was a buzzing, you know, from really late evening into early hours of the morning with a lot of photos there. I think the police departments also use social media in a much wider fashion than I've seen in the past with these. For instance,

Seattle police department, you know, made, made a point to, there was a Starbucks broken into, there was a whole posters that actually take pictures of them and talk about it and use terms like group versus large group. And really everybody from the law enforcement side and from the community side was using social media this time in a different fashion. I did see some live video from LA. I don't know where it was in LA to be quite honest with you. And where there was tear gas deployed. One of the things that I was finding interesting on the threads that while I have seen this in the past, kind of hasn't the Philadelphia market, there were meetups to get respirators. So one of the challenges today with civil unrest is masks are, you know, predominantly are required, right? Because of COVID in the past, masks would, in most jurisdictions during a protest or would immediately lead to an arrest. Today, what I saw that was interesting is

these groups were getting respirators that were resistant to tear gas and the pepper spray, and basically were saying, come meet here, look for this van, this truck, and they were handing out respirators to help combat some of the tactics that law enforcement uses. So in an already very difficult environment, that creates a much greater degree of difficulty in one market. And it was somewhere in the Northwest. I don't actually looking at my notes here. I think it was Portland as well. They were also handing out helmets and riot gear. That's a, you know, those are organized. I call them agitators. Those are generally the people that go in the smaller group. The one thing that I thought was relatively absent here is the mention

of far right or far left groups. There wasn't a lot, as much information with the exception of a couple of markets where there was chatter on specific groups meeting, I would again say in the Northwest, there was some of that, but predominantly wasn't. So I think we have to all be prepared and continue to be mindful of what some of the things that are occurring in Minnesota, and Reid talked about it with the George Floyd case, But, you know, with the George Floyd case and what some of the things that are occurring there, this civil reward has posed a challenge to potentially have to seek a new jury. It also opens the door for potential mistrial when the trial starts. So I think we really, really need to pay close attention to that.

As information becomes more available, it can and probably will incite some folks and upset them. Some of the medical examiner reports are coming out, some autopsies are coming out, and there is a ton of chatter on some of the, what I would say, the offshoot social media groups, Telegram, there are just tons of groups. One of the interesting things in the Minnesota, Minneapolis market proper is that there was also a ton of, and vigilante is not the right word, but it reminds me of the garden angels of back in New York city in the eighties and nineties of groups saying, you know, on the same side of counter-protests saying, you know, let's meet up and make sure that damage is not done to this area, let people protest, but not damage, you know, the stores we

need to, you know, we need to recover. So very, very interesting kind of thing that's specific to that market, where there are several groups of community members that have really taken kind of the approach of counter protest or counter riotriot. So definitely more to come. We'll continue to update folks as information becomes available on the podcast here and also through the FusionNet. And I would encourage everybody who's listening, who is a member who's not participating in the FusionNetwork to participate, whether that be just to see the information, but also to share information and by all means, reach out to any of the folks at the LPRC or myself, and I'll be happy to direct

you on how to get onto that. Switching gears a little bit, and I'm going to go fairly quickly because a lot of this feels like this is repetitive because of COVID. We continuously see some of the same things, but there were, you know, some really interesting reports coming out. And I think we touched on a couple of them last, you know, in the last few podcasts. So I won't go too far in depth, but PwC did a pretty thorough survey on cybersecurity and how it relates to COVID, as well as there were two other pretty recognized surveys that went out. And in one of the surveys, there was kind of this first, if you can,

for this type of survey where 96% of the participants in the survey, that's nine, six, said that they are now taking cybersecurity into almost every business issue they make based on some of the learnings from COVID-19. So when you talk about security, whether it be physical security, cybersecurity, espionage, IP security, any of the security pieces out there, education and awareness is what really drives the programs forward. And the LPRC is a perfect example of that. And this is a great example of where COVID-19 has really opened people's eyes to the cybersecurity risks. And it was somewhat alarming

in one of these surveys when it talked about pharmaceutical companies, where more than half of the pharmaceutical companies in this report reported a breach in the last three years. And in the respondents that had a breach, 93% of them said they had a repeat breach. And that was one survey. Another survey said 78% of pharmaceutical companies had a breach. And so, and again, directly related to COVID, but to think that, you know, that level of activity exists. And yeah, it's definitely heightened because of COVID, but it was really there. And then, you know, I'll kind of wrap up

with this. There was a really great, interesting report around cybersecurity and how you can protect the cybersecurity supply chain. And I think that directly relates to what we're talking about here, because a lot of retailers are in there too, is there's a couple of different tips. And I think we've talked about some of these tips before, and they are cybersecurity related. One is just prioritize your privileged access across the supply chain, making sure the right people have access to the right things, but limiting the people that don't need access. Access and opportunity obviously opens it up. So if you take access, opportunity, and human error in a cybersecurity world, it is the recipe for disaster. You will certainly have a challenge. Supplier security readiness and supply chains really taking

through and going and making sure that the standards are in place and that there's a model across all of your enterprise. A zero trust-based approach. We talked about that very, very early on in COVID and taking that approach that no one should be trusted and working your way backwards. So you start with locking all the doors, all the windows and keeping everybody out and then identifying who can get in is kind of that piece. And then extending that zero trust framework across the entire supply chain by implementing endpoint security and then transitioning to that physical security world. Physical security and cybersecurity overlap dramatically. We don't talk about it much, but we need to talk about it more, how the two go hand in

hand and also some of the education awareness stays the same. Something I talk about all the time, everybody who's listening, if you don't have multi-factor authentication turned on, everything, turn it on. It's free. Your bank, your social media, your Gmail, your email, and that multi-factor works really in a couple of different ways. It'll either send you a text message or an app-based authentication. But basically, when you put your password in, you got to do something else.

It is the simplest, easiest, cheapest way to eliminate the low hanging fruit. It is not foolproof, but it will, in some cases will eliminate that, that first run attack. And it is the reason I'm harping on it is because it is the, one of the easiest things to do. So everybody is listening personally and professionally turn it on, go in, you know, on anything that you use. And it is widely available. There really are no financial institutions that don't offer it, no social media organizations that don't offer it. Most financial institutions actually require it, but really, really run through. you know, one of the other things is look at your, your budgeting. And this is something I think you're here for retail security as well.

Loss prevention is really take a deep look at that and make sure that you're understanding what the risk is and making the appropriate investment in technology and people. And then, you know, really the diversification between human and technology, you know, where, what, what role does AI play versus what role does humans play in the mix? It's not one or the other. It has to be both. In the supply chain world, if there's a retailer that is helping move vaccines, which I know some people are storing them, making sure that you have correct endpoint management and physical security in the way. And this is the one that is so interesting to me because it plays perfectly into what we talk about.

Tony and I talk about it all the time and Reid and I do as well. Track and traceability is essential in vaccine supply chain and any supply chain. You know, the availability to track and trace what you're using. RFID is growing exponentially. Part of it has to do with COVID. And this is another kind of example of where a technology that retail has been using for several years has been really flushed out to show the value. It'll help us all deploy that in our environments in the future. So without further ado, I'm going to turn it over to Tony. Thank you very much, Tom and Reid. Great information

as usual. I'm going to switch to some industry data and I will conclude an update on LPRC Europe. So let me start with the Wall Street Journal from this weekend, an article from March 13, 14. The article was titled, Attention Shoppers Will Never Buy the Same Again. And it was a good analysis on the state and the trends that emerge out of COVID-19. They see six trends. Number one, holiday shopping will not be the same. Black Friday is not dead, but it's changing. Promotions will start a lot earlier and will last longer. And that was the case in 2020.

We started the holiday season this year in early October with Amazon Prime Day. Number two, malls will be back, but will be different. 25% of U.S. malls are projected to close. According to Corsair Research, roughly 40% of more square footage by comparison, for example, in China, are devoted to food and beverage compared to just 11% in the U.S. So expect the configuration to be different. There will be a pent-up demand for experiences like theme parks and side malls. Number three, retailers will rely less on discounts. What that means is you're going to see

a lot more personalized promotion coming up as we go forward post-pandemic. Number four, a store is no longer just a store. Stores have morphed into fulfillment centers like Amazon. Targets set a cost on average 40% less to ship from store compared to ship from the warehouse. Major chains closed 8,700 stores in 2020 after shuttering 9,800 in 2019.

Number five, curbside won't get kicked to the curb. For consumers, it's about convenience. The retailers have figured out a curbside that saves them money. Target estimates, again, that it costs 90% on average less when shoppers pick up those orders at the curbside. In other words, that last mile. And number six, shoppers will become a virtual reality. What's happening is e-commerce, the blur between e-commerce and physical is blurring, and that will continue. E-commerce will account in 2020 for about 21.2% of total retail sales,

2% of total retail sales, which is up from 18% the previous year. But it also tells you that physical retail is not going out of business. 99%, 80% is still being done in physical stores. So physical stores will still be there. Some very interesting data coming out of this report from the Wall Street Journal. In February 2020, pre-pandemic, mall food traffic was actually up 10%. Then the pandemic hit, and by April, the lowest we got to was, it was down, April 2020, it was down to nearly 96%. 2020, it was down to nearly 96%. As of February 2021, so just last month, it is still down. Mall traffic is down 38%. For U.S. and brick and mortar stores, in Q4 2020, sporting leisure sales were up 16%. In Q4, for all of 2020, they've been up 5%. Furnitures and homes were up 4% in Q4, down 6% for the year.

General merchandise up 3% in Q4 and up 2% for the entire year. Apparel is the one that got hit really hard in Q4. It was down another 14%. And for the year, apparel was down 26%. For North America, we did buy more clothes online. So e-commerce sales pre-pandemic were expected to be up 28%. They were actually up 39% for sporting and leaders. Pre-pandemic, the projections were for that to be up 19% online. It was actually up 38%. General merchandise, pre-pandemic forecast, 20%.

It was actually up 29%. And DIY, pre-pandemic, was projected to be up 11%. It was up 25%. So we were fixing a lot of stuff and that was validated. Also interesting this past week, Rila and McKinsey issued a report called Retail Speaks, seven imperatives from the industry. And four of these imperatives were focused on consumers. Number one, become omnitined and on omnichannel. So consumers will choose retailers based on ease and richness of end-to-end

experiences. Number two, this time and all the time, it's personal. So again, expect a lot more personal experiences. Number three, turbocharged delivery. So a lot more delivery and e-commerce at the curb. Number four, take a stand or take a seat. Consumers are finally voting with their wallets on sustainability and a broader purpose for shopping. The other three imperatives were focused on what retailers are doing to invest for growth. And number five is recalibrate talent strategies. So winning the war for diverse talent, next-gen skills, and embracing a fluid marketplace will give retailers a performant advantage.

Number six, pursue an eco-friendly strategy. So, winner will embrace the network economy to win consumers' mindshare and accelerate capabilities. And finally, number seven, take productivity from foundational to transformational. Analytics and automation will enable labeled as step-changing, productivity needed to fund the other impediments. So same as the Wall Street Journal, this report, I would encourage you to read it.

It has a lot of good data, especially on personalization and the importance of personalization. So, for example, if you personalize a shopping experience, you'll see a potential uplift in 10 to 15% in revenue and retention, a 10 to 30% more efficient marketing and cost savings, 3 to 5% increased customer acquisition, and 5 to 10% higher satisfaction and engagement. So lots of good data. Read the report from Rila and McKinsey. Also this week, some really good data on what's happening with global wallets. So we're doing a lot more mobile shopping or mobile using our mobile wallet to pay. Globally, it will reach

$2.4 trillion this year. Because of the pandemic, it grew a massive 24%. As a point of comparison, it was $755 billion in 2018. The number of people globally choosing mobile wallets to manage their payments was 901 million people in 2019. It is projected to grow to 1.5 billion this year and nearly 2 billion by 2025. China, again, is leading this charge. Half of all mobile payments in China will be mobile wallets by 2023. For 2021 mobile transactions for this year they reached already 1.3 trillion as a comparison it gives you an idea how far ahead they are the usa market this

year was only for mobile wallets of 465 billion but uh the market is expected to go 49% to nearly $700 billion by 2023. The third largest mobile wallet or mobile payment market is actually the UK. Those are the top three in the world. And all this data is from Finadia, Italy. And let me close with what Reid was mentioning. This week, we have the great pleasure of launching Law Prevention Research Council Europe. Nearly 50 people have already signed up.

They joined two U.S. retailers, Macy's Joe Cole and Laxatica's Mike Jesse, who will give the U.S. perspective on what they see and how they work with LPRC. Both are board member, advisor members. So we're looking forward to their input. They joined Reid and myself and a much larger European group to begin the creation of Loss Prevention Research Council Europe. to begin the creation of Loss Prevention Research Council Europe.

It's exciting, especially when I saw the list of retail from Europe that have signed up. I'm looking forward to this key next step to help take LPRC into Europe and join that crowd in terms of science-based research loss prevention. All right. Thank you very much, Tony. Thank you, Tom. And I want to thank all of you for dialing in here on the Crime Science Podcast. Remind you again, please, your comments, your suggestions, your questions are very welcome here at the LPRC. And you can reach us at operations at lpresearch.org, operations at lpresearch.org, and tune in. Remember, we've got about at least 100 crime science episodes available, a lot of in-depth interviews and dialogue with practitioners,

with criminologists, a lot of neat content. Recommend you all get involved, engage in that. If you're not a member of LPRC, please again, reach out to us on the website, lpresearch.org. So everybody stay safe. Take care. Thank you, Diego Rodriguez. Thank you, Tony D'Onofrio. Thank you, Tom Meehan.

Everybody stay safe. Thank you. Thanks for listening to the Crime Science Podcast presented by the Laws Prevention Research Council and sponsored by Bosch Security. Thank you, Tom, Mia. or other advice. Views expressed by guests of the Crime Science Podcast are those of the authors and do not reflect the opinions or positions of the Office of Prevention Research Council.