Boots, the health and beauty retailer, has joined forces with retail software and services specialist, PCMS Group, to trial a loss-prevention programme.
The trial, which will take place at Boots’s Mansfield store incorporates a range of measures – POS data analysis, networked video and video analytics – within one package, to tackle fraud, theft and shrinkage.
The retailer is a long-standing customer of PCMS’s Vision SmartStore product, which uses transactional data to identify exceptions to operating norms that indicate possible shrinkage. The new initiative represents according to the firm the next generation of loss prevention, with the integration of networked CCTV and video analytics alongside SmartStore, enabling retailers to identify such anomalies through real-time analysis of security camera footage.
What they say
Robert Jennings, head of loss prevention for Boots, said: “The scope of the pilot scheme we have implemented with PCMS is unique within the industry and puts us at the forefront of the fight against shrinkage. The programme was designed to examine ways of increasing profitability and improving the customer experience by making existing systems, such as CCTV cameras, work harder. It also offers wider stakeholder appeal, with features that are equally applicable to the marketing and management functions as they are to the discipline of loss prevention.
“The video analytics software has been designed to monitor footage from across the network of in-store CCTV cameras and alert store personnel automatically to certain behaviour patterns. The system can recognise when customers spend more than a certain amount of time at a particular shelf but can also be configured to identify congestion, till queue length or even spillages in aisles,” added Jennings.
Richard Smith, managing director of PCMS Group, said: “We have a passion for retail and 25 years of experience in fulfilling the needs of the sector. The pilot scheme we have been running with Boots is the only working implementation of a data mining solution running in combination with networked video and video analytics, offering retailers a total solution for addressing shrinkage across its entire estate. The comprehensive approach we have put in place represents the next generation of loss prevention and enables retailers to benefit from greater efficiency throughout their organisations.” For further company and product information:
