26 Mar 2008

Retail stores worldwide face serious problems from shoplifting and employee theft.  There are over 5,000 individuals shoplifting every day, resulting in billions in loss each year to "inventory shrinkage".

In Argentina, Christian Supermarket with its store staff continually confronts a range of the shrinkages and risks, as do all retail stores nowadays.  These include shoplifting, internal fraud perpetrated by members of staff, robberies, credit card fraud and increasing risks of violence and intimidation via verbal or physical threats.

To cope with these incidents and decrease the cost of security officers patrolling the store, Christian Coreno, the owner of the supermarket, decided to work with DRAFT S.R.L., a distributor of VIVOTEK in Argentina, and adopt VIVOTEK's high-quality but cost-effective IP surveillance system.  DRAFT S.R.L helped install 10 VIVOTEK network cameras - IP7135 - throughout parking and loading bays, public areas, sales counters, and the main entrance.

A video receiver, RX7101, was installed at Coreno's home so that he might use his television as a computer monitor for remote monitoring.  In addition, to deter the internal fraud losses, some higher value products normally kept in secure places and accessed only by staff can be monitored all day long to avoid unnecessary misunderstandings between employers and employees.

The very cost-effective IP7135 network camera is designed for retail store applications, featuring 3GPP-compatibility, superior image quality, and optimized bandwidth efficiency by MPEG-4 implementation without high investment.  The store supervisors can easily access each camera and receive synchronized video and audio on computers or 3G cell phones anytime, anywhere for retail management and mobile surveillance.  Meanwhile, the video receiver RX7101 can quickly convert networked digital videos into analogue signals and output them to existing analogue systems like television sets.

After the deployment Coreno was extremely pleased with the results.  Not only does the VIVOTEK's IP surveillance effectively deter robbery and theft, but it also provides police with the evidence needed to help capture culprits and prosecute them successfully.  Coreno commented: "Two months ago, by combining the high quality video evidence from network cameras with actual sales transaction information, a thief was easily arrested just two days after the robbery happened.

"The main reason of implementing this surveillance solution was to create a safer working environment for our staff.  We're so impressed with the overall performance of the system and its outcomes.  VIVOTEK's surveillance system successfully helps fight crime and makes my store less attractive for break-ins and robberies.  It is definitely worthy of investment for all retail stores to reduce losses and enhance the effectiveness of in-store procedures and point-of-sale operations."

Benefits:

  • Centralized management - IP/Networked surveillance allows monitoring to take place virtually anywhere, enabling centralization of monitoring staff.
  • Real-time information - IP video offers motion detection, event triggers, and alert automation, which make security management more efficient, intelligent, and cost-effective.
  • Cost-saving solutions - Installation and maintenance of the digital surveillance systems has been proven more cost-effective than analogue systems since network infrastructure to date is well deployed.
  • Remote accessibility & mobile surveillance - By simple connection to a 3G cellular phone or WiFi networked PDA, the IP surveillance system becomes a mobile surveillance system that can be controlled in your hands.