Address Challenges with Retail Surveillance Service

The retail industry’s major season for making sales is coming up, the festive (or holiday) season. During the period from Thanksgiving to Christmas in the west or Diwali in India, retailers make the most profit, sometimes more than the rest of the year. Increased footfall also increases security risks and the need to deploy more staff to handle customers, where a retail surveillance service could be of great help.

Shoplifting, a major problem for retailers, causes them to lose billions of dollars worldwide due to both internal as well as external thefts. Along with the increased market pressure due to competition from e-commerce sites, the last thing that retailers need is the financial loss to theft or shoplifting.

However, a managed video surveillance service can help address the security challenges along with several others faced by retailers.

Challenge 1: Proactive Theft Prevention FailureTraditional surveillance systems, installed in most of the retail outlets are a good source of evidence of the crime that has happened already. Advanced surveillance systems available today can help in retail theft prevention before it occurs, with real-time alerts. In restricted areas, smart cameras with motion detection can be installed to get notified of any unwanted motion. Additionally, audio communication feature can be used to scare away the intruder or engage him till the security staff arrives on the spot.

Challenge 2: No Notification of Off-hour ActivityBurglars are more active during the nights or non-working hours in case of stores. A conventional CCTV camera installed at the store provides no notification of any activity during these hours, either by staff or an intruder. Modern retail surveillance service allows scheduled monitoring of stores during day & night, with notifications & alarms raised for any suspicious activity detected.

Challenge 3: Difficulty in Managing Store OperationsIn large retail stores, where there are a large number of employees, managing them becomes difficult. Along with this, monitoring staff’s behavior as well as keeping an eye on the store hygiene and inventory placement is also a challenge. This is where e-surveillance support for retail comes in and helps store owners optimize operations and manage staff better.

Through video audits of the retail store, managers can tell whether the staff is assisting customers in a timely manner or not. This also helps track the cleanliness of the store and inventory, along with notifications for any area that needs attention. Thus, a managed surveillance service allows proper utilization of store staff and resources.

Challenge 4: Understanding Customer BehaviorLarge retail stores with heavy footfall find it difficult to track how the customers behave, and the areas where they spend the most and the least time. However, using e-surveillance service, tracking hot zones of the store becomes easier in order to allocate staff as per the need.

Further, retailers can also know what promotional offers attract more customers using the video audits for retail. E-surveillance helps compare the foot traffic and promotional offer success across multiple stores within a city, state or even country.

Thus, investing in a professional and reliable retail surveillance service is essential for retailers to address all such challenges and reap multiple benefits. This is the reason why outsourcing surveillance services have picked up pace recently.