IP video will reach a global tipping point in retail sector across EMEA during 2015. Why are so many retailers making the switch? asks Henrik Høj Pedersen, Business Development Manager, Retail, EMEA and APAC at Milestone Systems.
IP video will reach a global tipping point in retail sector across EMEA during 2015. Why are so many retailers making the switch? asks Henrik Høj Pedersen, Business Development Manager, Retail, EMEA and APAC at Milestone Systems.
One of the key reasons for recent evidence of an increased investment in open standards and IP-based video management systems by the retail sector in EMEA has been the fact that technology providers are now able to demonstrate rapid return on investment (RoI). Put simply, a new breed of video management software (VMS) offerings (including XProtect product line by Milestone Systems) can integrate very effectively with retail point of sale (PoS) systems to deliver high resolution video recordings on-screen, alongside known ‘high risk’ transactional events. This makes discovery and analysis of irrefutable evidence much easier than it used to be.
Rapid ROI can be achieved in this market because, frankly, there are a lot of losses to prevent. On average 1.49 per cent of retailers’ sales turnover is lost in retail shrinkage, or $119 billion globally, according to Global Retail Theft Barometer 2011. The largest source of loss, 43pc of total shrinkage, comes from theft by shoplifters.
However, employee theft is not very far behind at 35pc and yet, until recently, it has received a much smaller share of loss prevention resources and attention. It is worth noting that if you look at the number of thieves apprehended, according to this same study, 85pc of them were shoplifters, while only 15pc were employees. Is retailers’ lack of focus on catching employees with their fingers in the till, the main reason why retail shrinkage remains stubbornly high around the world?
Take the UK as one example. The latest UK retail crime figures (2012-13), published by the Centre for Retail Research, reveal that UK retail shrinkage losses actually rose last year by 6.8 per cent to a total value of £4,699m. Over a third (35.77pc) of that loss was due to employee theft.
We now know our software can reduce employee theft considerably, having devoted research and development (R&D) to developing a series of sophisticated investigation tools to help retail customers to search known ‘fraud scenarios’ and find evidence of such events very quickly. Milestone has helped one of our customers to reduce its shrinkage from 0.81pc to just 0.44pc within the first two years after installing the system and in so doing, the number of employees caught in the act improved fivefold. How is this accomplished?
Read the full article about how to reduce shrinkage and theft in retail stores.