The British Retail Consortium's (BRC) annual Retail Crime Survey reveals that UK retailers are fighting a rising tide of theft in store, with 2013 seeing the highest level of theft for nine years.

The average value of theft increased by 62 per cent to £177 per incident, indicating that stealing is becoming more sophisticated and well planned.

BRC director general Helen Dickinson, says, 'Far from being victimless, we all pay for this increased stealing through higher prices and, increasingly, shop closures and damage to town centres as safety is reduced and communities are blighted.'

Last year the BRC also saw a dramatic increase in fraud and e-crime with eight in ten retailers reporting a rise in fraud and the majority of retailers reporting that cyber-attacks pose a critical threat to their business.

The BRC survey recommends that there should be a single, national, definition for business crime in the UK to help measure and solve these problems, and that police forces should routinely publish business crime data, share it with retailers and work in partnership to combat crime.

It is estimated there were 2.7 million offences in 2012-13 against retailers, directly adding £511 million to retailers' costs.

Robberies were up 48 per cent, but burglaries fell by 49 per cent compared to last year. Despite the number of burglaries falling, the cost of each incident rose from £1,730 to £2,067.

The average cost per incident of criminal damage jumped by 114 per cent in 2012-13, from £962 to £2,062.

Technological development may help many small retailers react to crime while it is being committed. Improvements in Electronic Article Surveillance (EAS) systems, in-store and local CCTV and other technological advances are discouraging criminals and helping managers better allocate human resources.

Ikea's new collection is a hipster's dream.

IKEA has unveiled their PS 2014 collection in Brooklyn last week and the massive retailer is hoping the new furniture collection will grab the attention of hipsters world-wide.

The collection, available in stores this August, features 51 designs from 20 different artists around the globe who focused on making the furniture multi-functional and lightweight.

A rechargeable lamp-meets-stool, a freestanding bookshelf, a stackable storage table, a mobile greenhouse, and an expanding lamp that closely resembles an alien were just some pieces of the new collection. At a Red Hook preview last week, Head of Special Collections Peter Klinkert said the new assortment was a nod to a young, urban crowd "on the move."

"For this particular collection, the discussion was started by asking what is relevant for the people nowadays. What's rather obvious is that most of the people on this planet are living in cities," Klinkert said. "There is less space, smaller apartments, and space getting more expensive. That will have some radical consequences on home furnishing and this creates specific needs."

The new collection includes a portable greenhouse.

Many pieces of the new furniture are space-savers and include more than one function. Brooklyn designers Theo Richardson, Charles Brill and Alexander Williams, for example, created a stool with a chargeable lamp inside, which can be used indoors and outdoors. The Brooklyn bunch (THEY) also designed a coffee tablewith removable parts used for storage or stackable trays.

"The way people are always moving, the pieces need to have easy mobility from moves, and also be able to move around the apartment," Klinkert said.

Designers also took inspiration from the culture of their country. Japanese designer Keiji Ashizawa, for example, designed a small, wall-leaning bookcase and corner cabinet resting on three legs, since renters in Japan are not allowed to drill holes into their walls. Henrik Preutz, a Swedish designer, took inspiration from Germany's beer-bench culture to design a light and foldable wooden kitchen bench. A multi-functioning kitchen tool set that could be used as a storage jar, vase, or drinking glass was created by British designer Mathias Hahn, since many things "in the kitchen need to be used for more than one thing," according to Klinkert. Hahn (HE) also created a dining room table made of pine that includes drawers on the side for storage space.

A wall-leaning bookshelf removes the hassle of drilling holes in walls. Photo via IKEA.

The collection also features some practical takes on previous IKEA designs. French designer Matali Crasset took the standard Ikea wardrobe and recreated it with an open, wire design so clothing can be hung inside or on the wires. The wardrobe also comes with 170 colorful plastic chips customers can pop on to create their own exterior design.

The price of the new collection range from $4.99 to $189. Assembly, of course, is very much required.