How to organize video surveillance in a supermarket.
But with all the advantages of the self-service system, it has a big drawback — it is easier to commit theft: the goods are available, there are no visible barriers
Theft of goods is a serious problem for «retail», it reduces income very significantly.
In my work, I have repeatedly encountered store owners who told me what losses they lose monthly due to regular thefts by both sellers and customers.
According to my calculations, on average 10-15% of profit monthly.
Sometimes more.
Supermarket owners use various methods to combat this problem, one of them is video surveillance.
Probably, the reader of these lines is now thinking: «No surprise, this is already being used everywhere and for a long time!»
But in fact, when writing this article, I did not have the task of «discovering America for someone.» Yes, indeed, today almost all large supermarkets already have video surveillance.
However, not many people know how to use it, what cameras and where are best to install and what related programs are used in conjunction with video surveillance.
This is exactly what I want to talk about.
HOW TO CHOOSE A PLACE TO INSTALL CAMERAS?
Here I would like to immediately warn you that if you decide to install video surveillance in your supermarket, you should not “shove” cameras in every corner.
First, identify key areas where the likelihood of theft is highest.
This will help save money and make it easier to analyze the archive.
For the same reasons, it is better to avoid cross-viewing cameras.
So, let's note the key controlled areas in the supermarket:
— the area of expensive goods in the sales area;
— the main passages in the sales area;
— parking of vehicles;
— routes of movement of material assets;
— cash terminals.
I will dwell on the terminals in detail.
The highest percentage of losses occurs when customers themselves or in collusion with cashiers take out goods without paying or goods do not match the receipt (according to some data, this is up to 90% of store losses).
Therefore, it is necessary to install video surveillance in this area first of all. This will give the security service an effective tool for identifying and preventing fraud by staff and theft by customers.
It will allow better conflict resolution, analysis of the legitimacy of customer claims against staff, etc.
How can the problem of control of cash terminals be solved?
In my practice, clients have repeatedly asked me about how the problem of control of cash terminals can be solved.
In such cases, I offer TRASSIR ActivePOS — a cash transactions module.
Its advantages over other systems are as follows:
- Event integration with cash register software is a record in the database of every action performed by the cashier, starting from turning on the cash register and ending with the banal opening of the cash drawer.
In the future, chains of actions can be built based on these events, the actions of the cashier can be analyzed, and a complete picture of what is happening at the cash register can be obtained;
2. “live” mode for viewing receipts with indication of alarming actions of the cashier;
3. software overlay of receipt data on the video image in the form of captions;
4. effective mode for analyzing the archive of cash register events synchronous with the video/audio archive;
5. support for a wide range of cash register equipment, easy and quick integration of new cash registers.
WHICH CAMERAS ARE BEST TO USE IN A SUPERMARKET?
The choice of a particular video camera depends, of course, on the characteristics and location.
There are analog and digital, color and black and white, with IR illumination and without.
In the sales area, it is better to install regular high-resolution color dome cameras.
Colored, as such cameras are more informative. It will be easier to recognize a person by their clothes, and also to understand what product they took.
At the entrance to the sales area — a camera with a varifocal lens for clearer face recognition.
And outside — in a special thermal casing for protection from weather conditions and necessarily with IR illumination.
In addition, if the supermarket is adjacent to a parking lot, then I would advise installing only one high-speed camera and using it together with TRASSIR ActiveDome.
An operator will not be needed to control the rotating camera, since this function will be performed by the system. The camera moves completely automatically.
This will ultimately help save time when searching for an offender.
P. S. I hope that I managed to explain the importance of video surveillance in a supermarket and give useful advice on this topic.
By the way, if anyone has funny recordings from video surveillance cameras, which show examples of «sophisticated» theft and displays of ingenuity, share the links!
Let's laugh and be surprised together.