Can video surveillance brighten the holiday season for your business?

You’ve probably been in a situation like this one: A crowded store, where shelves are in disarray, crowds are jostling, and it seems like no one knows where to find the holiday gift you’re there to buy. When you finally manage to find some help, the store’s computer says that the thing you’re looking for is in stock — but you’re staring at an empty spot on the shelf where it should be. 

Welcome to the holidays. 

Besides other dangers associated with the holidays, from drunk driving to increased incidents of household package theft, there are less obvious threats that arise because of suddenly different patterns in travel, work, and commercial activity. For retailers, especially, it’s a mixed bag: increased foot traffic means more sales, but it also means more chaos and more chances for merchandise to go out the door unpaid.

And when it comes to theft, it’s not just porches being raided, or spur–of–the–moment pilfering; cargo theft hit an all-time high in 2024, with little reason to expect relief this year. Warehouses and loading docks on both sides of the trip to a retailer can be secured with guards, but far more coverage per dollar can be achieved with always-on, never-tired security cameras. 

In delivery or receiving areas, electronic surveillance is especially useful at night, when camera vision can be tuned to provide the equivalent of daytime vision, while human eyesight is thrown off by the contrast between dim lighting and glare.

‘Tis the season (for targeted theft)

Organized retail crime has emerged in recent years as a major threat, targeting both retail stores and distribution centers at an alarming rate. Losses to shoplifting, especially of high-ticket items like electronics, have become serious enough that many stores have been forced to implement hands-off retail displays for smaller items. 

Merchandise locked behind glass makes for a frustrating experience for both customers and employees. Some retailers have resorted to product placeholders, or dummy packages, which must be traded for the real item. That makes the purchase experience less compelling and complicates checkout. 

Strategically placed cameras backed by human observers can help with high-value retail sales by watching for shoplifting attempts, informing on-site security personnel about suspicious activity, and minimizing the need for these complications.

And where locked-down merchandise is a practical necessity, cameras (especially ones visibly mounted on the merchandise cabinets themselves) serve to discourage thieves, and as a key tool for prosecution if necessary.

Besides outright theft, the holiday season is also the busiest time of year for fraud attempts, including gift card scams and fraudulent post-holiday returns. Point of Sale integration can help stores use video footage to spot retail-counter fraud by matching every transaction to a video record. For fraudsters, not every transaction has to be investigated for the threat of getting caught to matter.

Holiday reality: More traffic, less experience

Seasonal hiring is a vulnerability, too. The hiring of 400,000 to 500,000 seasonal employees each holiday season creates significant security challenges for retailers and supply chains. Not only is it difficult to vet short-term employees as thoroughly as longer-term ones for reliability, skill, and honesty, but temporary staffers know less about the details and customers of their temporary workplaces. 

That gives thieves an advantage and lowers safety in crowded environments. Inexperienced staffers don’t know which corners of the store are blocked from view, and may be distracted by the need to simply learn their roles. In restaurants and warehouses, hazards crop up easily that new employees may not know to sidestep. In all these situations, cameras can help document safety issues, and watch spots where thieves are likely to conceal stolen goods or remove tracking tags. 

Getting carried away

And in the business of last-mile delivery, a gaggle of new drivers, often in ordinary autos or SUVs, means that employees at distribution centers can’t rely on a company uniform or long-time personal knowledge to know just who every authorized driver is, and may not have an easy way to confirm identity, especially in an atmosphere of last-minute rush. In a busy environment, holiday packages left temporarily on a rolling rack or dolly may end up in a thief’s trunk rather than reaching the rightful recipient.

Surveillance cameras can help discourage thieves who know they’ll be caught on camera — or better yet, provide deeper security by enabling whitelists and watchlists which can help identify authorized pick-ups with minimal friction. 

Beating the Christmas tree hangover

When the holiday is over, one persistent annoyance (and in many cases, a criminal act) is the unauthorized dumping of unwanted packaging materials, or goods which have been replaced with holiday purchases, from microwaves and refrigerators to old stereo equipment, furniture, and other household goods. It may not be possible to monitor every location where such unlawful dumping occurs, but with outdoor surveillance cameras, many common areas — such as disposal areas behind shopping centers or easily accessible public lands — can be monitored. (With speakers incorporated into an observation system, would-be dumpers can even be warned off before they add to the mess.)  

Even if the offenders aren’t caught, businesses and municipalities need to know when excess trash has created unsightly or dangerous conditions. Dried-up Christmas trees in dry conditions present a special threat, because their resin content means they can burn violently, producing embers that can be blown great distances and present a risk of fire to nearby areas. 

It goes for the whole year ’round

It’s not just the wintertime: every business or institution has its own holiday-, event- or vacation-driven changes, from reduced employee presence to altered operating hours, and these differences can create openings for both crime and accidental losses. Vehicle break-ins, pickpocketing, and bump-and-run traffic accidents happen in every city, and they’re made harder to spot by increased crowds. Schools face break-ins and vandalism when perpetrators know they’re empty and little-attended during extended vacations. 

Eagle Eye can help you keep an eye on your own weakest spots, so you can do more than survive the holiday season. 

Timothy Lord

Timothy Lord has witnessed and written about IT security trends and the ongoing evolution of SaaS for more than 25 years.