Page 44 - Security Today, June 2018

Overcoming Key Challenges Intelligent video plays a key role in the retail market
BTy Jennifer Hackenburg
he retail industry has become increasingly competitive as brick-and-mortar companies attempt to hold their own against online retailers offering low prices and free shipping. In this environment, retailers are seek- ing every possible advantage they can get in order to
grow revenues while also addressing traditional security challenges like inventory loss.
Theft of Inventory
Each year inventory loss, whether from shoplifting or employee theft, costs U.S. retailers billions of dollars each year—to the tune of $48.9 billion in 2016, according to Money Magazine. As a result, retailers’ efforts to reduce loss, protect existing inventory and provide a safe en- vironment for customers and employees occupy significant resources. But at the same time, they must also find the means to address the vitally important—and extremely difficult—task of growing their customer base and maintaining customer loyalty with an eye toward growing their business.
Luckily, in addition to the more traditional security-focused roles of safety and loss reduction, an intelligent video surveillance solution can also improve customer satisfaction and optimize overall business results, which combine to keep operating expenses low while increas- ing efficiency and growing profits. Designing an effective retail video system begins with identifying pain points and then building a solu- tion around those specific needs. This involves deploying the appro- priate technology to monitor five key areas: people counting, traffic pattern analysis, customer satisfaction, reducing theft and monitor- ing the exterior.
People Counting
Unlike e-commerce companies, traditional retail establishments struggle to determine exactly how many people come into and out of their stores. The ability to accurately count the flow of visitors allows a retailer to ensure their business operations are as efficient as possible while also making it easier to calculate and make deci- sions that could improve in-store conversion rates and per-customer transactions.
People counting analytics, which are a feature of advanced cam- eras, provide the accurate information about foot traffic at store entrances retailers need to improve efficiencies, staffing levels and other factors directly related to customer service and satisfaction. By exporting reports daily, weekly, monthly or as needed, retailers can analyze traffic to greatly improve business efficiency.
To ensure the best results, cameras deployed at store entrances should include wide dynamic range (WDR) to deliver crystal clear images to monitor store entrances at all times, even in challenging lighting conditions, including high-contrast or backlit scenes.
Analyzing Traffic Patterns
For the main area of a retail establishment, cameras with corridor mode functionality can be used to monitor store aisles, minimizing the need for multiple cameras to monitor a single area. This capabil- ity also offers savings on bandwidth and storage needs because the image can be flipped 90 degrees, which results in only capturing us- able data and eliminating the walls from images. Adding a fisheye camera will provide full coverage of shelf areas. Further, advanced heat mapping analytics can generate a visual demonstration of visitor flow through certain areas of the store. Cameras with heat mapping
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capability display hot and cold areas based on customer flow, which enables advanced business analysis.
In addition to counting people who enter and exit the store, retail- ers can also deploy regional people counting analytics to better un- derstand how customers move through the store. This insight gleaned from monitoring traffic in particular regions is key for retailers to optimize product placement and prolong a customer’s visit.
How people move around a retail establishment says a lot about a store, particularly its layout. For example, knowing how displays are performing is extremely helpful for retailers, and video allows manag- erstomonitorhowadisplaychangestrafficpatternsandhowmuch attention shoppers give to a particular display. These patterns can be analyzed by specific time of day, general time range, day of the week and other parameters to provide valuable information that goes much deeper than sales figures.
By analyzing and recognizing shoppers’ movements, retailers can alter and improve a store’s layout to reduce crowding in a particular area, and managers can also grow profits by placing high-value or high-profit items in an area where there is more foot traffic to make them more visible.
Improving Customer Satisfaction
If customers find themselves waiting in long lines at checkout coun- ters, there is an increased likelihood that they will abandon their pur- chases and leave a store. Using the same heat mapping and people counting analytics that provide insight into how many customers en- ter a store and how they move through the sales floor, retailers can be alerted to the need to open additional registers to reduce wait times, thus ensuring customers are happy and will be more likely to com- plete their purchases.
On a larger scale, these insights can be used to determine the ap- propriate staffing levels for different hours of the day or days of the week, which can often prove to be a challenging task for retail man- agers. Video can alleviate this challenge by providing the data neces- sary to know when more employees are needed in particular areas of a store. The ability to make sure additional sales associates available at busier locations and times of day is another strategy for retailers to grow sales and increase the value of individual transactions.
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