Designing Intelligent Retail Store
In-Store Video Analytics & Video Management Software Video surveillance has become an integral part of every retail store and its daily activities. Though it was mainly incorporated to maintain the security inside the store, the advent of video analytics and video management software helped businesses to leverage insights to improve business processes. These insights allow a store to stand out from rest of the competition and to provide top notch services to their customers on a consistent basis. Apart from the competition, retail stores also face problems such as pilferage and other fraudulent activities. To stay ahead of the competition, they needs not only to counter such activities but also to determine the needs of the customers to cater to them when they visit the store. The software gives needful insights in to the customer’s buying behaviour and an array of the methods to improve their shopping experience. VMS also helps retailers to understand the effectiveness of their marketing activities, product placements, and optimizing their inventory to satisfactorily cater to their customers. For any business, insights generated from different departments are very important to improve business processes. VMS also provides necessary inputs into the business that render improvement of shopping experience and understanding their buying behaviour. This white paper discusses how you can have a seamlessly connected retail store with the help of video analytics and using the derived insights from different aspects of your store to build a successful business. It also gives an in-depth view of how video analytics work. It’s a probable solution for any retail store to be successful in the long run. Current trends in retail The retail industry has undergone tremendous transformation in the last few years with evolving markets and technologies. Kasey Lobaugh, Deloitte’s Chief Retail Innovation Officer said, “The full extent of retail disruption is emerging due to a number of factors such as the rise of the digitally influenced shopping experience, the changing nature of retail competition, and the tidal wave of exponential technologies on the horizon.” Growth in the retail industry requires continuous expansion. This expansion is not only from a physical stand point but it also requires expansion from cost and revenue perspectives. Though there is a need to keep up with the sales and profit figures, there is also a need to keep a tab on store metrics. These metrics can be divided into two sections: Revenue and Cost side. Video analytics addresses in-store metrics like footfalls, conversions, average basket size from the revenue side; and employee management, inventory management and POS solutions from the cost side. One of the methods to improve footfalls in retail stores is incorporating video analytics. It helps in getting insights on managing your stores. At the other end, video analytics primarily helps in maintaining safety and security by minimizing incidents of thefts and fraud. This helps in proactively increasing profit margins that were being lost due to such incidents. The advent of online shopping has forced most retail store chains to identify e-commerce as a highly visible revenue stream which means traditional retailers have embraced the online medium with gusto. Due to stiff competition and the need to stand out, most stores focus on creating a unique shopping experience for all their customers. A customer could go to a retail store and browse through the shelves for products they like to buy. They could then go online and compare the prices to see if there are better price options or variants. This is where video analytics can play a very crucial role. Though the primary function of a video management software is security and surveillance, video analytics is simultaneously being used to extract various customer-centric information to improve footfalls and eliminate or minimize the challenges faced in day-to-day operations. The need for comprehensive in-store analytics In a survey conducted by the National Retail Federation in the year 2015, which included participation of 100 retail stores spread over 20 retail market categories, shoplifting alone accounted for 38 percent of the reported shrink. On the other hand, internal thefts also contributed to about 35 percent of shrinkage due to which retail stores faced heavy losses. Daily in-store operations have to overcome pilferage by implementing proper security and surveillance measures. Such incidents hurt the performance of the business. Though most stores are actively involved in maintaining security, the need to analyze this data has also become eminent. Video analytics enhances the in-store security systems which not only helps in loss prevention but opens up ways to improve customer service. The main focus, however, still remains in converting potential prospects into buyers. Product placements, promotions, customer assistance etc., influence the decision of the buyer. With the help of video analytics, stores can understand the effectiveness of their marketing strategies and product placements and can make necessary changes to make them more effective. In-store analytics can help in this direction giving insights into the metrics, which will help convert prospects into buyers. However, many businesses use video surveillance and video analytics for various purposes. According to the Seagate Video Surveillance Trends Report of 2016, the key use cases for video surveillance include the following. Video analytics – the game changer Video analytics has really become popular in the last few years for various reasons. It allows managing the video streams with ease allowing the team to focus on specific incidents rather than scanning through long streams of videos, which helps them to save time and manpower. Smart security systems with analytics record videos when any motion is detected that reduces the network load, and at the same time, helps save storage space. Further insights can be gained in to the performance of the employees enabling to make accurate assessments. Video analytics does not require exorbitant infrastructure, which makes it affordable for the small retail stores to have a state-of- the-art video management system. Analytics can be chosen as per the needs of the business, thus, ensuring a fool-proof customized solution that will be exclusive to the…
