INDUSTRY PROFESSIONAL

Smart Security Solutions

The pandemic has impacted enterprises across nearly every single market sector. Sudden shutdowns, supply chain disruptions, labor shortages and an uptick in violent crime have each wreaked havoc on businesses large and small in the United States, and all over the globe.

Particularly hard hit has been the retail sector. Maintaining profitability and business continuity has been a challenge, and expectations for smoother, safer operations have gone largely unrealized. How can brick and mortar retailers get back to basics and protect their profits? Security technology solutions that deliver more actionable intelligence and real-time situational awareness are proving very useful in addressing the specific challenges retailers must overcome.

Retail Woes
The retail industry has long been susceptible to security vulnerabilities, and the effects of the pandemic and road to recovery have rendered some retailers more vulnerable than ever. The retail risk environment is more complex and costly than ever.

The National Retailers Federation (NRF) 2021 Retail Security Survey points out that, while shrink remains an ongoing challenge for retailers, the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in an increase of fraud, crime and overall risk. Specifically, these include workplace violence, organized retail crime (ORC), shoplifting, employee theft and cargo theft.

Active shooter incidents have also plagued retailers at an increasingly alarming rate. Retail locations remain soft targets because their doors are open to the public. While sporting arenas and movie theaters have ticket checks or magnetometers, retail stores rely on promoting free unhampered access to their stores. This is essential to their business model, but it limits the level of access control security they can put in place.

That is not all. There is even more daunting news looming on the horizon for retailers hoping to make a healthy comeback. Supply chain disruptions are posing a serious threat to their profitability. Many in-demand goods are sitting on ships waiting to be off loaded and sent to market. This congestion may be attributed to increases in new orders and infrastructure bottlenecks, including a lack of transportation and qualified workers.

This challenge is being compounded by vaccine mandates for retail employees. Implementing them if and when the time comes will be challenging, and affect hiring as the holidays approach. While it will be tough for big box outlets, smaller retailers will be especially hard hit. All this ensuing while during a worker shortage.

The retail sector, no doubt, is facing unprecedented challenges. Thankfully, sophisticated security technology solutions spanning video surveillance, video analytics and real-time situational awareness can help ease some of those challenges.

Security Solutions Retailers Can Rely Upon
Retailers now have affordable, easy to use, rapidly deployable video tools to protect their profitability and the safety of their employees and patrons. Today’s single source, end-to-end models are typically more affordable, straightforward and reliable, with no compatibility problems, and with user-friendliness designed.

A true plug-and-play approach to installation enables seamless connectivity, with no cyber security loopholes, and ensures that projects can be completed quickly and efficiently, whether during and after business hours.

Cost-effective cabling and NVRs that come with built-in switches deliver the benefits of reduced visual impact and lower equipment costs. If retail stores are looking to leverage existing coaxial cabling but still benefit from high-definition image quality, they can look for a range that allows a mix and match of IP with the latest analog technologies such as HD-TVI. Traditional legacy cameras, such as fixed lenses, or PTZs, can be replaced with high-definition fisheyes that work steadily in the background to guarantee wide area surveillance without blind spots – providing evidential-quality footage of every event on a shop floor, when needed for investigations.

When it comes to the VMS, integrators now have options that will easily integrate multiple stores with low or no licensing fees, as well as provide a centralized monitoring environment and allowing easy integration with third-party systems and devices such as wearable and fixed panic alarms.

Prevention managers no longer need to physically be in-store or visit controls rooms at their head offices to review footage or spearhead investigations in-person. Mobile apps now allow them to review events remotes, and view live-stream HD and even 4K footage quickly from their smartphones and tablets.

Video analytics and highly accurate AI-assisted notifications for intrusion, object, loitering, and unusual event detection, are also playing a huge role in helping to provide retailers with a real-time view of any security and theft violations enabling them to quickly verify incidents and respond appropriately.

Using high-performance video technology, behavior analysis applied to a physical retail environment to glean an understanding of what customers and potential customers look at, for how long, and making buying decisions by leveraging the intelligence of video analytics, retailers are equipped with the intelligence they need to maximize their customers’ footprints and profiles and parlay them into purchases.

Retailers surely face specific and concerning security challenges. The capabilities of advanced video security tech is here to help this very viable and needed sector survive and even flourish, post-pandemic, with practical, powerful, and affordable video surveillance solutions.

This article originally appeared in the November / December 2021 issue of Security Today.

Featured

  • AI to Help Resolve Non-Emergency Calls Across Utah and Decrease 911 Caller Wait Times

    The Utah Communications Authority (UCA), which oversees the state’s next generation 911 technology services, recently announced that public safety answering points (PSAPs) throughout the state plan to implement Motorola Solutions’ Virtual Response technology to automate the receipt and resolution of 10-digit non-emergency line calls in Utah with the help of AI. Read Now

  • Report: 2025 Video Surveillance Market Set to Grow After Small Decline in 2024

    Novaira Insights has unveiled its latest report, “World Market for Video Surveillance Hardware and Software – 2025 Edition.” The research indicates that the global market for video surveillance hardware and software experienced a slight decline of 0.3% in 2024. This performance fell short of previous forecasts, primarily due to a significant decrease of 7.8% in the Chinese market. Conversely, the rest of the world saw a growth of 4.9%. The global market for video surveillance equipment was estimated to be worth $25.0 billion in 2024. Read Now

  • Report Reveals Local Governments Face Surge in Ransomware Attacks with Minimal Resources

    KnowBe4, the cybersecurity platform that comprehensively addresses human risk management, recently released new research highlighting the critical cybersecurity challenges facing state, local, tribal, and territorial (SLTT) governments. The report details how government organizations have become prime targets for cybercriminals while simultaneously facing severe resource constraints. Read Now

  • Video Surveillance Trends to Watch

    With more organizations adding newer capabilities to their surveillance systems, it’s always important to remember the “basics” of system configuration and deployment, as well as the topline benefits of continually emerging technologies like AI and the cloud. Read Now

  • New Report Reveals Top Trends Transforming Access Controller Technology

    Mercury Security, a provider in access control hardware and open platform solutions, has published its Trends in Access Controllers Report, based on a survey of over 450 security professionals across North America and Europe. The findings highlight the controller’s vital role in a physical access control system (PACS), where the device not only enforces access policies but also connects with readers to verify user credentials—ranging from ID badges to biometrics and mobile identities. With 72% of respondents identifying the controller as a critical or important factor in PACS design, the report underscores how the choice of controller platform has become a strategic decision for today’s security leaders. Read Now

New Products

  • Luma x20

    Luma x20

    Snap One has announced its popular Luma x20 family of surveillance products now offers even greater security and privacy for home and business owners across the globe by giving them full control over integrators’ system access to view live and recorded video. According to Snap One Product Manager Derek Webb, the new “customer handoff” feature provides enhanced user control after initial installation, allowing the owners to have total privacy while also making it easy to reinstate integrator access when maintenance or assistance is required. This new feature is now available to all Luma x20 users globally. “The Luma x20 family of surveillance solutions provides excellent image and audio capture, and with the new customer handoff feature, it now offers absolute privacy for camera feeds and recordings,” Webb said. “With notifications and integrator access controlled through the powerful OvrC remote system management platform, it’s easy for integrators to give their clients full control of their footage and then to get temporary access from the client for any troubleshooting needs.”

  • Connect ONE’s powerful cloud-hosted management platform provides the means to tailor lockdowns and emergency mass notifications throughout a facility – while simultaneously alerting occupants to hazards or next steps, like evacuation.

    Connect ONE®

    Connect ONE’s powerful cloud-hosted management platform provides the means to tailor lockdowns and emergency mass notifications throughout a facility – while simultaneously alerting occupants to hazards or next steps, like evacuation.

  • Unified VMS

    AxxonSoft introduces version 2.0 of the Axxon One VMS. The new release features integrations with various physical security systems, making Axxon One a unified VMS. Other enhancements include new AI video analytics and intelligent search functions, hardened cybersecurity, usability and performance improvements, and expanded cloud capabilities