By Jason Burrows, Senior Sales Director, IDIS Americas

Video surveillance has long been a staple for brick-and-mortar retail operations, providing the foundation for monitoring, recording, and post-incident investigations. Yet, a passive approach is no longer adequate to tackle the growing and more sophisticated problem of retail crime.   

The latest figures from the National Retail Federation (NRF) show that inventory shrinkage has surged to over $110 billion annually. The findings also revealed a sharp increase in organized retail crime (ORC). External theft, such as shoplifting, accounted for 37% of total losses, with employee theft accounting for nearly 29%. The challenge may be even greater, as the NRF highlights underlying issues with accurately collecting data. Many retailers are reluctant to report lower-level crime incidents to law enforcement, leading the NRF to evaluate whether there are better methodologies to conduct and publish crime reports in the future. 

At the same time, retailers are focusing increasingly on protecting staff, as violence and threats during theft surpass all other contributors to inventory loss.

Crucially, what is fast becoming an epidemic affects not just retailers but also the overall U.S. economy and community safety. Retail is the nation's largest private-sector employer, contributing $3.9 trillion to the annual GDP and employing around 52 million Americans.

Urgent Need for a Proactive Approach

Retailers urgently need a more proactive and comprehensive detection, verification, and response framework in this rapidly evolving threat landscape. For example, AI-powered real-time threat detection will allow more effective responses to abnormal behaviors such as loitering near high-value displays, line crossing and intruder detection, unauthorized access into stock rooms, and other unusual and suspicious behaviors. This shift emphasizes the importance of alerting security teams to potential incidents as they unfold and before losses occur.

The latest innovations in real time surveillance for public settings include patented smart privacy masking technology that delivers clearer images while still protecting identities. A new approach – one that combines the advantages of object detection and heatmaps with deep learning - delivers more finely calibrated masking that makes it easier to distinguish people’s actions and movements in real time.

Retailers can also benefit from multi-layered AI analysis that better verifies threats, with cross-references to associated audio and sensor data. AI surveillance solutions can automatically activate alarms and send real-time notifications to security personnel and store managers, initiating response protocols and targeting the dispatch of security teams to exactly where they are needed, through customizable action plans.

Law enforcement across many parts of the United States, recognize that organized retail crime and repeat offending is a growing problem they need to address and have begun to work more closely with city-wide retailers.  That means surveillance operators need smarter, AI-powered forensic search tools allowing them to quickly identify criminals from multiple cameras streams and export forensic evidence.

Similarly, surveillance operators can now take advantage of smarter real-time privacy masking that protects individuals’ identities while allowing more accurate, reliable, and responsive real-time monitoring. The latest live privacy masking overcomes the challenges associated with conventional methods that can lead to privacy breaches or over-masking that not only hinders monitoring but slows down investigations.

Balancing Security with Customer Experience

Active deterrence cameras are powerful tools that can be deployed with any camera model, offering flexibility and effectiveness. With AI triggers to initiate alarms, flashing lights and two-way audio can deter potential criminals and safeguard merchandise. This can also help staff feel more protected, with the assurance that would-be criminals are less likely to act when faced with this form of deterrence.

Advances in camera technology have also made it easy and affordable to cover wider areas and ensure that all parts of the store are under constant surveillance. For example, multi-sensor and fisheye cameras can capture an entire scene in ultra-high definition, eliminating blind spots and ensuring no area is left unmonitored. They save on installation and maintenance costs, replacing three or four conventional cameras.

The choice of cameras can now be tailored to the exact needs of the retail business, depending on whether it is a premium retail environment, a standard retail store, a mid-sized supermarket, a logistics-driven retail store, or a multi-brand retail chain.

For example, in premium retail environments security tech might be preferred that it isn’t intrusive and doesn’t impact the customer experience. Rather than large PTZ cameras and spot monitors, which are ideal for big-box and large grocery stores with high ceilings, flush and mullion-mount domes are better suited for luxury retail applications as they minimize visibility. The same is true for discreet ceiling mounted fisheyes and powerful yet compact micro domes that can achieve optimized coverage without impacting on the customer experience.

Better Domain Awareness, Better Understanding

The best end-to-end video solutions providers now offer a complete choice for every kind of store. High performance cameras – including a wide choice of NDAA-TAA-compliant specialist models for every kind of retail setting - along with more robust NVR recording technology, and more user-friendly VMS software, give retailers enhanced video clarity and comprehensive scene capture without blind spots.

This matters, because if systems are poorly designed then scene coverage can be impacted – creating vulnerable blind spots - every time the store layout is changed, for example with seasonal displays and special promotions.

And at a strategic level, AI-powered video is also driving better decision-making. For example, it allows retailers to analyze foot traffic patterns, identify high-risk areas, and make adjustments to store layouts and employee placement to mitigate theft risk. By understanding customer behavior in greater detail, retailers are now adjusting their strategies to keep one step ahead and minimize the chances of theft slipping through the cracks.

Targeting Organized Retail Crime (ORC) Through Systems Integration

One of the biggest challenges for stores today is the rise of organized retail crime. These coordinated theft rings typically involve professional criminals who steal large quantities of goods for resale.

Better video coverage and AI-powered surveillance systems are helping to combat ORC by detecting suspicious activity across multiple stores and identifying repeat offenders with faster AI footage search tools. By integrating surveillance systems and synchronizing cameras across the store with point-of-sale (POS), retailers can also identify more sophisticated crime involving insiders working at checkouts and individuals inside the store and at entrances. This type of integration also helps store managers and head offices spot discrepancies in stock levels or pricing, with both scenarios typically indicative of ORC.

All this is making it easier to identify risk patterns and collaborate with law enforcement agencies to leverage a faster response.

Retailers are increasingly looking for affordable video solutions that integrate seamlessly with their other loss prevention and inventory management systems. For instance, they want lower cost solutions, such as encoders that will overlay transaction data video footage to provide a clearer picture of checkout activity without adding additional technology stacks.

The integration of video analytics with inventory management and enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems can now be made straightforward. It offers retailers a comprehensive view of their operations, to support investigations or provide alerts when inventory discrepancies occur and identify issues sooner. Additionally, this data can help retailers optimize their supply chains and reduce the chances of stock out, which can also contribute to both theft and customer dissatisfaction.Top of Form

Scalability for Expansion and Repeatability

For retailers looking to expand, scalability is a major consideration. Advanced video surveillance solutions can be easily replicated across multiple locations, ensuring that loss prevention measures are consistent and effective at every store. This repeatability is especially valuable for franchises, where individual franchisees don’t have security expertise but can still benefit from a standardized approach to loss prevention proven to reduce shrinkage.

By implementing a consistent video surveillance strategy, retail chains can ensure that each new location benefits from the same high level of protection, reducing the risk of loss as they grow.

Conclusion

While many retailers might feel they are currently losing the loss prevention battle, implementing advanced AI video surveillance and by collaborating with law enforcement will significantly advance their crime prevention strategies. By leveraging proactive, real-time monitoring, behavioral analysis, and data-driven insights, retailers can create a safer shopping experience while protecting their assets. And as retail crime continues to evolve, embracing systems integration and AI video will be essential for maintaining security, increasing operational efficiency and ensuring continued profitability.