Retail crime reaches a turning point as Kiwi retailers record drop in violence and weapons

New Zealand retailers have recorded a significant reduction in violent retail crime this year, with a fall in events involving violence, assaults, weapons and threats, according to global retail crime intelligence company, Auror.

The Auckland-headquartered company, which provides reporting software used by the largest retailers in New Zealand and in more than 50,000 stores globally, showed violent events were trending down for January to October 2025, compared to the same period last year.

Across New Zealand, the use of weapons fell by 12%, while violent events dropped by 6%, and threatening events by 5%.

The figures demonstrate significant progress by retailers and police in getting on top of this issue, compared to the data from retailers overseas. 

Across the ditch, Australian retailers recorded an increase in the use of weapons by 12%, rise in violence by 17% and threatening behaviour increased by 20%.

Auror co-founder and CEO Phil Thomson said “while both violent and non-violent crime targeting retailers remains a significant problem, we are now seeing retailers record fewer incidents involving weapons, violence and threats of violence”.

“This is an important milestone in the work being done to get on top of this issue as a country, and shows New Zealand is leading the way,” he said.

“The challenge now is to drive it down, including for smaller retailers, through continued policy, policing, and focus on technology.

“These figures have been achieved through early adoption of technology by Kiwi retailers’ and Police to surface the historically underreported issue of retail crime and the fresh focus from government and Police on dealing with retail crime.”

Meanwhile, Auror retailer data continues to show about 1 in 5 retail crime events involve verbal or physical abuse, intimidation, threats, violence or the use of weapons. Meanwhile, the top 10% of offenders cause over 60% of all retail crime, and those repeat offenders are 6 times more likely to be violent.

“There is still much more to be done - violence in retail is still a huge challenge and is impacting frontline workers,” Phil said.

“But, we can see green shoots - Auror’s mission with our partners is to reduce violent retail crime by 50% in 5 years, and these trends are fantastic to see as we work to turn the tide on this issue.

“There is no substitute for the incredible work police do in our communities, or the work retailers do to keep us all safe when we shop, but through technology and strong collaboration, we can help them be as effective and efficient as possible, and drive these rates down further.”