Opportunities Abound with the UK Retail Industry Rebound

True cloud video surveillance makes businesses better for owners and customers

By Rishi Lodhia, Vice President and Managing Director, EMEA

Retail gave me my “aha moment” and it inspired me and my friend Tijmen Vos to develop the world’s first Cloud Video Surveillance platform, Cameramanager.com. Today, almost two decades later, Cloud Video Surveillance has crossed the chasm and Eagle Eye Networks has become the leading global cloud video surveillance provider. Eagle Eye is dedicated to solving problems and delivering information to business owners to help them be more secure, efficient and increase profits. How did I get here? It all started in college when I was trying to help a fellow student entrepreneur who needed to manage and operate his two clothing stores that were hundreds of miles apart. Many retailer customers have followed in the last years. I have many friends and family who are active in retail and this industry has been especially challenged during the pandemic, and I’ve been heartened by their anecdotes, and numerous recent studies, that indicate that things are beginning to take a turn for the better.

Back in the early 2000s we developed a cloud video service with the idea to offer businesses a tool to improve business processes. This was unheard of, and considered unrealistic due to internet bandwidth constraints, cybersecurity concerns and other fears. After my studies, I became determined to create a technology that would solve the operational problems faced by a friend who owned a retail startup with clothing stores in Maastricht and a second in Groningen, on the other side of the Netherlands.

At the time, my friend was forced to spend several hours commuting back and forth to ensure that stores had enough stock, that the space was tidy, and to investigate fraudulent transactions. We came up with a solution: zero distance management. We installed a connected camera and offered access to the live and recorded images via our online video service which gave my friend the ability to see his stores anywhere, anytime and anyplace. If a customer in Maastricht wanted a shirt in a different print, someone in Groningen could hold it up to the camera. And he could always see if the shelves were full, the instore marketing was set up to his guidelines and whether the store was neat. It allowed him to run a better operation and he did not need to drive to Groningen every week. More than 20 years ago, our technology was ahead of its time–using remote video to improve business processes. Today, Eagle Eye Networks is a global leader in cloud-based video surveillance as a service (VSaaS) and is one of the top three technology providers in the world,  who helped the industry’s adoption of cloud video surveillance by businesses of all types and sizes.

Considered as a nation of “shopkeepers”, the UK’s retail industry now needs to adjust to the post-pandemic surge in high street footfall while maintaining social distancing measures, meeting new expectations of consumers in a post-pandemic environment and combating in-store theft and violence against shop workers.  

Meeting the New Consumer Expectations of a Safe and Streamlined Shopping Experience 

Since the announcement of the UK lockdown on 23 March 2020, new behaviours have been accelerating and becoming more habitual. According to data from the IMRG Capgemini Online Retail Index (Retail Gazette, 2021), online shopping was up 60.9 percent overall in April 2021 compared to April 2020.

In a survey conducted by Sensormatic Solutions (UK retail beyond a year of lockdowns, Sensormatic, 2021), 71 percent of consumers say they would make a conscious effort to visit stores once they reopen, according to a survey conducted by Sensormatic Solutions. Yet, 55 percent of consumers are still concerned about in-store shopping, the study said.

Clearly, retailers need to attract consumer crowds back in a safer way, ensuring that they can find the right products and that they can benefit from a more tailored and engaging experience within the store. It is clear that analyzing shopping behaviour in-store is more difficult than analyzing online shopping behaviour. This is where cloud video surveillance can help retailers gain a clearer picture of how customers behave throughout the store and how to optimize traffic layouts for increased revenue. In that sense, cloud video surveillance can be seen as the Google Analytics tool for in-store performance.

Recent innovations in artificial intelligence (AI) and data analytics are also helping retailers move from day-to-day monitoring to proactive security. AI can help retailers identify threats early. This can prevent crime, speed up response, and identify ways to improve the customer experience, by identifying traffic patterns, enhancing traffic flow, revamping merchandise displays, facilitating social distancing and employee training. Smart data can improve business operations and help deter crime. In addition, technologies previously only available to the law enforcement and defense industries, such as body cameras, are now available for commercial use in retail, fashion and apparel, pharmacies, restaurants, food delivery services, and ride-hailing app drivers.

With a true cloud video surveillance system, retailers have data at their fingertips to help them understand the customer’s journey within their stores. The data can help them make staffing and other business decisions so they avoid overcrowded and understaffed stores.

Although UK retailers are enjoying a surge in consumer spending following the reopening of high streets, trends that emerged before and during the pandemic are set to remain post-COVID, posing major structural changes to the retail industry (Deloitte, 2021). Changes that are likely to endure include: the continuation of working from home, the consequent decline in the demand for office space, increased online shopping, fewer physical retail spaces, and the demand for a safer and more experiential shopping experience.  

According to GfK, the reopening of non-essential retail and hospitality businesses has played a key role in the rise of consumer confidence in the UK. Reopening of business is also credited, by the Retail Gazette,  for driving a 9.2 percent increase in sales in the UK in April of this year compared to March 2021. This April, UK fashion retailers experienced 69.4 percent growth and non-food retail experienced 25 percent growth (ONS, 2021) compared to April 2020 when the COVID-19 lockdown had already started.

Tackling Abuse, Anti-Social Behaviour, and Violence Towards Shopworkers

However, it’s not all good news for the UK retail industry. The food retailer Co-operative Group found crime against shopworkers rose to 76 percent during 2020 compared with 2019. The British Retail Consortium (BRC) stated there were 165,000 cases of violence and threats to shopworkers from January to April 2021 (Crime Survey 2021, BRC, 2021). Yet, nearly half of all incidents are not reported to the police due to a lack of response, the BRC said.

And violence is not the only challenge faced by retailers and their staff: The cost of crime rose to a record £1.3bn in 2019/20, of which customer theft accounted for £935m. In addition, British retailers are spending more than £1.1bn to fight crime, bringing the total cost to retailers to almost £2.5bn, according to a BRC 2011 crime survey.  (Crime Survey 2021, BRC, 2021).

In retail, video surveillance is primarily used to deter crime and to investigate thefts and incidents. The question is whether traditional on-premise video surveillance installations are able to properly detect contemporary challenges. Today, cloud computing protects video surveillance data that had been previously vulnerable to hardware damage and theft, with long retention periods of up to 20 years, enabling investigations and prosecutions. This ensures that stores can provide valuable video evidence, to safeguard shop workers and protect businesses against liabilities.

Cloud-based video surveillance ensures stores can eliminate on-site physical hardware. This reduces costs by making hardware installation and maintenance, on-premises servers, IT management, and support obsolete. In addition, sharing of video with authorities is easy using a shareable link. There is no need to use an USB stick on-site to download video.   

The rise of cloud video surveillance and remote monitoring is bringing new possibilities for retailers to optimize store layouts, customer experiences, and increase revenue.

If you also have an “aha moment” or want to share ideas, please pm me or mail me at [email protected]

and join us at the upcoming Retail Events:

Retail Risk (tradeshow), London, UK, July 22nd, 2021 (https://www.retailrisk.com/london/)

Retail Forum (tradeshow), Madrid, Spain, 29th September 2021 (https://www.retailforum.es/)