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Meeting the challenges of modern retail

Retailing today is a tough business
and store owners face many challenges. The most obvious of these are theft and inventory shrinkage which eat into the stores’ profits.

Retail surveillance using network video solutions is an excellent weapon in the battle to protect your business. By deterring crime, it reduces losses and creates a safer environment for staff and customers.

Cross functional usage

This versatile technology can make numerous other positive contributions to the store’s operations besides loss prevention. For example, it can help store owners manage queues, count people and monitor flow control.

It can provide information to support the development of better store layouts - via heat mapping and dwell time applications. Outside the store itself, network video can be connected to access control systems, or used for general surveillance of the building’s exterior and parking lot. License plate recognition is also possible, thanks to the high quality of the images generated. All of these cross functional applications make retail stores safer for visitors and more profitable for the owners.

For these and many other reasons, network video is today regarded as a vital part of any successful retail operation, regardless of its size.

Integrate different applications

Modern retail businesses often employ a variety of technologies to facilitate business in the stores – such as electronic cash registers, alarms and people counting applications. One of the major advantages of IP-surveillance is that it complies with open industry standards, and can therefore be easily integrated with these other applications. An IP-surveillance system can also be triggered by another system, so e.g. surveillance footage is always captured in connection with an alarm, or whenever the electronic cash register system is activated.

Surveillance of multiple locations

The key difference between traditional CCTV and network video surveillance is that a network system is IP-based. In other words, surveillance images are captured and distributed over an IP network. Shop owners, managers and security experts can therefore monitor these images from their desks – or indeed any location with an Internet connection. They can even monitor several retail outlets at the same time. Recorded images are usually stored remotely or in the shop itself.