Theft by customers accounts for no less than 33% of total retail losses. British scientists researched the causes of shoplifting across 100 countries and established a link between the number of thefts and the penalties in force in each country: the stricter the law, the less people steal. So how do you fight theft on the shop floor itself? Does a smart video monitoring system or a special camera exist that could identify a thief before the crime is committed? Let's find out.

Theft: a worldwide problem

Shop theft is an international phenomenon. Everyone steals: women and men, rich and poor, amateurs and professionals.

According to UNESCO research, walking out of a store without paying — so-called "shoplifting" — has become the most widespread offense in the world. The statistics were collected over the past three decades.

American research tells us the following: one shop theft takes place somewhere in the world every 5 seconds.

The leaders in shoplifting are the Germans. Statistically, one in every 133 residents of Germany steals from stores. Americans take an honorable second place worldwide (one in every 201). The bronze in this ranking goes to the residents of Austria, where one in every 361 people steals.

There are no statistics for Russia, but it is known that overall supermarket losses run to a record 3% of turnover. To make up for those losses, most large retail stores add 5% to the price of every item. In this way, law-abiding citizens and thieves doing their ordinary shopping more than compensate for the losses.

Methods of fighting shoplifters

Every retailer puzzles over the question of how to identify a thief.

Electronic anti-theft systems can be made up of a range of technical elements:

  • sensors, including hard tags;
  • gates at the store's entrance/exit;
  • antennas in the space between checkouts;
  • deactivators for burning out security labels and/or tags;
  • special detachers for removing reusable hard tags when the item is paid for at the checkout;
  • other devices whose operating principle is based on transmitting and receiving electromagnetic waves from the tags to the anti-theft gates.

As a rule, four core technologies are used, differing by wave range:

  • radio-magnetic;
  • acousto-magnetic;
  • radio-frequency;
  • electromagnetic.

Loss management in retail is built on the principle of collective responsibility, regular stock audits and unscheduled inspections, and oversight of reporting and computer equipment.

Traditional and innovative methods of visual monitoring of the sales floor are also used.

Video surveillance

How do you identify a thief in a store? The article "Shop Theft: 3 Camera Features That Cut Theft in Half" describes the main advantages of introducing intelligent video surveillance into a retail operation.

You can read about setting up a well-designed video surveillance system and get advice from professionals in the field in the article of the same name, here.

A smart camera for identifying thieves

As long as two and a half years ago, Japanese CCTV camera manufacturers announced the arrival of a "smart" camera capable of recognizing shoplifters.

The developers were Japanese telecoms giant NTT and the startup Earth Eyes.

The camera is called AI Guardman.

The technology is based on artificial intelligence algorithms, along with an open-source methodology developed at America's Carnegie Mellon University.

The principle of two-dimensional thief recognition rests on scanning and analyzing a person's suspicious body position against images uploaded to the system's database. Notably, the technology does not include a "blacklist" of shoplifters, in order to avoid possible discrimination against people (for example, someone caught stealing on a single occasion).

Notifications, giving the thief's exact location, reach operators whenever a potential theft is detected.

Test results showed that the "smart anti-theft camera" is capable of reducing shoplifting incidents by 40%. The manufacturer is targeting large businesses.

The release date of the new product was mid-2018.

The price: from $2,150.

Cloud storage space is paid for separately ($40).

So it is fair to say that specialized video recording equipment capable of identifying potential shoplifters does exist in the world.

Conclusion

Any business owner will agree that there is no universal remedy in the world that can completely eliminate the risk of theft in stores. Achieving maximum protection of goods and inventory requires a comprehensive approach. It makes sense to combine intelligent video surveillance with additional tools (convex mirrors, safer boxes, gates, sensors and so on).

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