Technology has long been deployed to help retailers in the field of crime prevention and security. One of the top areas of investment for retailers across the UK is CCTV, with new solutions coming to the market at a dizzying pace. However, even this well-established piece of kit is getting an upgrade, with facial recognition and even artificial intelligence (AI) technology beginning to play a role, according to the latest Crime Report from the Association of Convenience Stores (ACS).
Veesion offers a system that checks customers for suspicious behaviour, films them, and alerts staff through an app within 20 seconds. The staff can then show shoplifters the film as evidence if they don’t pay for what they have taken. The system picks up when shoplifters put products inside their jacket or trousers, when products are placed in a buggy, when suspiciously large numbers of a single product are taken from shelves, when someone opens a packet and eats something in the store, and when a shoplifter places products in their own bag rather than a basket or trolley. “Retailers are saving a lot of time which would have been spent sitting in the office, looking at CCTV screens for hours on end, rewinding footage and hoping to catch someone in the act. Also, they are not having to call the authorities or fill out endless batches of paperwork. With Veesion, they can catch them in real time, on the premises and are able to obtain items back before they leave the store,” says Sean Ward, senior account executive at Veesion.
Body-worn cameras are increasingly popular within the retail sector to protect employees against violence. “Body-worn cameras are increasingly popular within the retail sector. First, they act as a deterrent. Secondly, they help diffuse potentially volatile situations. The reason is simple – people tend to be far less aggressive if they know they are being recorded. When confronting someone who is exhibiting antisocial behaviour, staff can be trained to inform them that they will be filmed, as part of a de-escalation process. Finally, they provide compelling evidence with high-resolution video and audio recordings of the situation,” says Chris Allcard, lone worker services director at Reliance Protect.
Payroll and labour management are becoming increasingly prevalent with packages such as those provided by S4labour. The system offers full control of rota costs with day or weekly views before the money is spent. Customers using S4labour are seeing a reduction in their labour costs and hours of people management time.
Technology is even beginning to impact the food-to-go category, an area that is becoming increasingly important to independent convenience stores but does come with high labour costs. One solution to this could be self-service food-ordering kiosks, such as that developed by Bludot Technologies especially for the convenience and forecourt sectors. “Self-service is no longer the future; self-service is now. Queue reduction, spend maximisation and footfall inflation is only the beginning. Self-service checkouts provide a seamless service, displaying product details including nutritional and allergen information that could otherwise be missed, and enable fast, secure payment,” says Frank Kilpatrick, founder and chief executive of Bludot Technologies.
