(Convenience Store Decisions)

Digital surveillance systems stem loss, improve supervision

Employee theft cost U.S. retailers almost $15 billion in 2004, according to the latest National Retail Security Survey. Shoplifting cost retailers more than $10 billion. In most cases of retail shrink, according to the survey, there is not a definite audit trail, so loss prevention managers are forced to make "after the fact" guesses to estimate just how their inventory losses occurred. As a result, retailers are seeking more robust, more effective methods for stemming preventable losses.

For many retailers, traditional loss prevention methods such as VHS-based video recording don't effectively control inventory shrink. This is especially true for store managers or owners dividing their time between multiple stores, since they may be unable to effectively oversee staff or monitor productivity. Nationally, productivity drops an average of 30% when employees go unsupervised --- and the costs of poor employee productivity add up quickly. For instance, if a store has five employees making an average of $8 per hour, even at a rate of 20% lower productivity can cost the store $7,200 a year if employees go unsupervised just three hours per day.

To address these challenges, many convenience retailers are turning to more advanced measures, like digital surveillance and remote management systems from companies like Eyeson Digital. As a result, those retailers are benefiting from a host of digital theft-deterrent, time-saving features such as "video audit" capability, point-of-sale integration and easy 24/7 remote access of multiple cameras and sites from a single screen. This can provide quick return on investment by eliminating sources of theft and enabling better employee supervision.

Because these surveillance systems fully integrate with popular POS systems, they imprint all relevant data onto corresponding video images. This enables retailers to video audit any suspicious transactions, such as unwarranted voids, returns, exchanges or cash drawer openings. Like other digital surveillance systems, Eyeson's has a "smart search" capability to help retailers perform instant searches by day, time, motion, camera or other criteria to view suspected instances of theft or "slacking" without poring through hours of raw video footage.

by CSD Staff