Many people believe that retail crime doesn’t impact retailers or shoppers. After all, those large businesses make huge profits right? It turns out that when it comes to the biggest challenges facing retailers, retail crime is one of the largest.

If you run a business, these thefts will ultimately cost you time and money, increasing prices for consumers and making you less competitive. For most retailers, dealing with retail theft is the worst part of the job. Whether you’re blatantly stolen from and watch the thief run away, or you’re down thousands of dollars worth of stock when you’re doing stock take, it’s never a fun experience.

Luckily, just as criminals become better at what they do, technology is making it easier to deal with this challenge. This means you can take back control and deter thieves from choosing your business.

The direct financial cost of retail crime is in the region of £660 million, a report by Secom shows. And theft was the biggest contributor to this number, costing £438 million. Some companies are investing in training to help prevent crime from happening or take on the criminals at the time. 81% of respondents for the Annual Crime Survey said that they’re providing in-store training for violence mitigation. And 69% said that staff are trained in preventing and identifying theft.

One of the best ways to deter criminals? Investing in surveillance security. Unlike CCTV solutions in the past, which were only able to help identify criminals after the theft, the latest systems are “smart”. They use algorithm-based intelligence, which can alert remote operatives of potentially suspicious activity. This means that instead of simply trying to identify a criminal on tape, retailers can be proactive and deal with the situation as it happens.

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If you’ve ever seen a recording from an analogue camera, you may be feeling a little wary about investing in new cameras. But the latest cameras are high-definition and can take in 4x more detail than the typical CCTV cameras. That means fewer cameras and clearer recordings.

And it’s not just cameras that are helping tackle the problem of retail crime. If you’ve ever used a smartphone with biometric security, you may have been surprised by just how well the technology worked. Well, consumer technology is heading in this direction, with businesses able to rely on deep palm readers,  facial recognition, and fingerprint scanning. This could negate the risk of pin-codes or keys falling into the wrong hands, and ensure that only authorised personnel are able to enter certain areas.

These are just a few of the ways that technology is helping retailers tackle crime. If you’re tired of disheartening stock-takes or dangerous interactions between criminals and staff members, it may be time to step up your security and stay one step ahead of thieves and other criminals.

What security measures are you using right now? Are they doing the job? Leave a comment below and let me know.

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