U.S. Retail: A Strategic Pillar in a Multidimensional Risk Environment

03th of March 2026

According to the National Retail Federation (NRF), the retail sector in the U.S. contributes $5.3 trillion to national GDP and includes around 55 million jobs. This makes it the sector with the highest number of private-sector jobs in the country.

In recent years, the U.S. retail ecosystem has ceased to be solely a commercial environment and has become a multidimensional risk scenario. Thus, the sector in the country is facing a systemic crisis that affects the sustainability of the business model and its social role as a provider of essential goods.

The concentration of large volumes of merchandise and cash, the combination of physical and digital channels, and a value chain structured around an extensive territorial network make retail an attractive and preferred target for organized crime.

In addition, a range of contextual factors may be added which—depending on the characteristics of the sector in a specific territory—act as a multiplier of its attractiveness to organized crime: broad inventory with low unit cost, availability of multiple channels or lenient return policies, among others.

Overall, the sector’s profile makes it a privileged channel for the deployment of organized crime’s illicit operations. Among these, while in-store theft is the most common, organized crime is linked to the sector primarily through activities such as extortion, money laundering or trade in fraudulent products.