Transforming retail operations through video surveillance and analytics

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Meanwhile, inflation, rand/dollar volatility and load shedding — which costs the industry hundreds of millions a year — are eroding operating profits.

This all unfolds at a time when weak consumer confidence and poor economic growth have translated into lacklustre retail sales growth in most segments.

The need for retailers to simultaneously mitigate the costs of crime, improve customer experience and improve efficiencies is more pressing than ever.

Embracing digital platforms

Modern video surveillance technology is one of the most powerful tools retailers can use to achieve these business goals.

Those that are still using legacy analogue systems can gain near-immediate benefit from putting in place IP-based digital cameras, which offer a step improvement in video quality and scalability.

Digital cameras provide a myriad of advanced features and benefits, including improved video quality compared to analogue cameras.

This enables retailers to capture clearer images and videos for more accurate identification of individuals, products, and incidents.

Low-light cameras for poorly lit areas and fisheye cameras for large areas like storerooms further improve surveillance.

These systems can be accessed and monitored from nearly any location with an internet connection.

This allows retailers to keep an eye on multiple store locations in real-time, improving security and operational oversight.

Video can be stored and backed up on the cloud. This protects against data loss due to theft, vandalism or hardware failures.

Harnessing data-driven insights from video

A digital camera environment clears the way for retailers to integrate their video cameras with other systems as well as turn video streams and recorded video into a source of data to support advanced analytics and better decision-making.

IP-based cameras include features such as motion detection, object tracking, facial recognition, and people counting.

These analytics can provide valuable insights into customer behaviour, traffic patterns, and security threats, helping retailers make data-driven decisions to optimise operations and enhance safety.

Such rich analytics tools and advanced artificial intelligence solutions have applications in security and beyond. They are solutions that can alert the security team if someone is loitering, for example, or use facial recognition to notify them if a known shoplifter has entered the store.

Sharpening customer experience

Video-fuelled insights can also help retailers to improve efficiency and customer experience. Examples include leveraging data to identify peak times, traffic patterns, queuing times, and high occupancy zones.

This can help a retail business to optimise product and staff placement as well as improve flow of customers through the store.

IP-based video systems can integrate seamlessly with other business systems, such as point-of-sale (POS) systems, access control systems, and inventory management systems.

This enables retailers to correlate video footage with transaction data, access logs, and inventory records, enhancing fraud detection, loss prevention, and operational efficiency.

In the face of mounting challenges, modern video surveillance technology has an important role to play in running a secure and efficient retail operation. IP-based digital cameras not only enhance security but also unlock a trove of data-driven insights.

This enables retailers to optimise operations, fortify against losses, and ultimately improve the customer experience in trying times.