Throughout the years, Black Friday, the annual holiday sales event has increasingly become both dangerous for shoppers and retail employees and a threat to shrink retail security. Customer violence and retailer’s financial impact of loss due to shoplifting, employee theft, administrative errors, fraud, and operational loss call for the betterment of security systems in stores to protect human and physical assets. There are several ways to prevent sales events from becoming mass chaos, particularly when we are also dealing with COVID-19 and many Americans are still expected to hit the stores over the upcoming weeks.
Several advanced technologies offer great capabilities to minimize the possible damage in retails stores during this important holiday. As you become aware of the safety of your store, employees, merchandise, and shoppers, it is worth considering a few solutions that can really make a difference this year.
Live Video and 2-Way Audio
An interactive surveillance system can provide built-in microphones and speakers in conjunction with live footage. Retailers can now see real-time video and talk back to employees and shoppers. This feature can potentially scare off shoplifters and violent customers as well as create a sense that every area of the store is being monitored. Such an interactive system makes easy to send commands to store staff as well as make public announcements, for instance to wear face masks for clients not complying or to remind public of the closing hours.
Face Recognition
Face recognition can help retailers proactively diminish shrink. An effective system can instantly alert retail security the moment someone enters a store who matches a documented retail criminal. This is huge! Identifying shoplifters before they commit a crime enables loss prevention professionals to take a proactive rather than reactive approach, reducing the likelihood of injuries and violent encounters.
Cloud Based Video
Cloud-based solutions allow you to access live and recorded video from multiple camera views and locations and control behaviors that impact profitability with video-integrated transaction reporting. With a cloud-based platform, capturing and monitoring video across all locations simultaneously is possible, in addition you can obtain important insights about operational efficiency, customer experience, and dishonest activity.