The research – commissioned by Axis Communications and carried out by the Centre for Retail Research – found that of the 261 responses from UK retailers encompassing over 20,300 stores, 85% of them directly attributed the reduction in internal and external shrinkage to the use of CCTV monitoring. Over a third of those saw reductions in losses of between 11% and 50%.
The findings of the survey, which had over 700 responses across Northern Europe, were presented yesterday at the Retail Fraud on the Road conference in Leicester.
Commenting on the findings, Professor Joshua Bamfield, director at Centre for Retail Research (CRR), said:
“Once again, the report shows that many UK retailers are keen to maximise their investment and get as much as they can from a surveillance system, so that it can be used as more than just a loss prevention tool.
“Although analogue CCTV still dominates in this sector, the rise of HD image quality and increased use of analytics is beginning to highlight this technology’s limitations, and retailers are continuing to appreciate the additional benefits that an IP-based system can deliver.”
Atul Rajput, retail business development manager, Northern Europe, at Axis Communications, added:
“It’s clear that CCTV plays a major part in reducing retail losses but what was really surprising was how the perception of CCTV, following events like the 2011 riots, have changed with nearly half of those surveyed saying that the public had become more accepting of the need for the technology, which may have been partly driven by the public using mobile phone HD footage to assist the police.
“The current economic climate is a real issue for store-based retailers and therefore maximising ROI on any technological investment is crucial, as consumers become more savvy and price conscious. However, the quality of video footage is still an issue when it comes to successful prosecutions, so it’s hardly surprising that 58% (the highest across the whole of Northern Europe) of UK respondent’s currently using analogue CCTV systems had plans to invest in IP surveillance.
“Respondents cited easier integration with business intelligence analytics such as people and queue counting, better remote access and improving image quality through the use of HD IP cameras, as the primary drivers behind their plans to migrate to IP surveillance.”