CCTV for Business
The number of burglaries and cases of shoplifting still increases, what makes owners of stores take appropriate security measures for elimination or at least reduction of these kinds of crime. Store owners sometimes do not decide to invest in CCTV systems for financial reasons. However, the mere presence of video monitoring discourages potential thieves and provides a “security package” that other systems do not. The most important assumptions for the roles of CCTV systems in stores are:
- protection of the owner profits by counteracting theft,
- securing the sale points against unauthorised operations (such as not registering products being sold, registering products under incorrect sales items) thanks to the POS function,
- verification in the events of disputes with customers (incorrect price, improper change etc.),
- detection of undesirable people,
- source of statistical data to optimize the number of the points of sale, the distribution of goods throughout the store etc.
Cameras are used not only for security reasons – they are a source of valuable information that can improve the work of the store. Built-in image analytic systems can count customers, analyse their behaviour, or monitor the queue length. Cameras implementing artificial intelligence algorithms allow users to develop a customer profile with features such as gender, age or color of clothing. All data can be reported and subjected to further analysis.
From conversations with the owners of this type of facilities, it appears that after introducing monitoring systems, the number of thefts decreases significantly. Video monitoring also has an impact on employees to improve customer service and solve contentious issues with customers more easily.
