Ministers previously rejected calls to create a separate offence but will now amend the Criminal Justice Bill that is making its way through parliament.
Assaulting a shopworker is to be made a separate criminal offence after a government U-turn following pressure from campaigners.
The government previously said "more legislative change" was not needed to tackle the "intolerable violence and abuse" faced by shopworkers, arguing it did not think it was "required or will be most effective".
But Rishi Sunak is now set to announce that his government will be amending the Criminal Justice Bill to bring in the new offence.
He said: "I am sending a message to those criminals - whether they are serious organised criminal gangs, repeat offenders or opportunistic thieves - who think they can get away with stealing from these local businesses or abusing shopworkers, enough is enough.
"Our local shops are the lifeblood of our communities, and they must be free to trade without the threat of crime or abuse."
The new offence will carry a maximum sentence of six months imprisonment or an unlimited fine, the same sentence for the existing offence of common assault.
Back in October, a parliamentary petition called for abuse or violence towards retail workers to be a standalone criminal offence, but ministers said in response: "The government is committed to supporting hardworking retail workers, who can suffer intolerable violence and abuse, but we do not think more legislative change is required or will be most effective."
Under the plans, repeat offenders, including consistent shoplifters, could also be forced to wear an electronic tag.
However, Stamp it Out Programme Director Kevin Robinson has called for the government to go further and actually guarantee the same levels of protection for all of those in public facing roles including those working on the public highway and across all customer facing roles; he said,
"Whilst I commend the government for the action they are taking to protect shop workers against abuse from customer, what about the others in public facing roles such as train guards, those who work on our public highways and other professions such as nursing and teaching.
"Any role where the workforce have an interaction with members of the public should have equal protection and we should not be creating a two tier system according to profession."
Adding to the sentiment, Louise Cope, Deputy Chair of the Stamp it Out Campaign said,
"Over the last year, increased reporting has led us to find that abuse is something that those who work on the public highway suffer abuse on an almost daily basis."
"Within my organisation it is now an almost nightly occurrence for all traffic management operatives.
"This is completely unacceptable and should be something our people do not have to face.
"As an industry we need to pressure those in the corridors of power to extend this bill to cover not only those within my own organisation but also the sector as a whole."