Did you know that retail businesses lose about $44 billion from their inventory?
It happens due to a lot of untoward circumstances. Out of these, shoplifting accounts for about 38% of the entire loss.
If you want what’s good for your business, you need to invest in video surveillance. Video surveillance offers numerous advantages regardless of whether you’re a small business or a large chain of retail stores, which we’ll discuss below.
Don’t know how proper surveillance can prevent theft and other illegal activities? Uncertain if it beats other security measures?
We’ve got you covered. Read on and discover the benefits of video surveillance below:
1. Reduce Loss, Vandalism, and Theft
This is the most obvious advantage to your business. It’s especially important to consider it over an analog system. After all, this type of surveillance system will capture and store a lot more videos with better video feed quality.
Most digital surveillance systems enjoy more clarity. It’s possible with its high-definition quality and wider viewing angles. This will give you the means of seeing the situation no matter what time of the day.
The clearer images will enable you to press charges better. It’s effective against the people you catch stealing goods or vandalizing your business property. That’s due to the clear images you can give the authorities.
It will help strengthen your case once you start prosecuting the suspects. With that, future criminals become deterred to do illegal activities. This is due to the system having the means of capturing their face.
The improvements in video resolution and coverage angles will do a lot in saving your company much-needed money. The greater coverage means you won’t have to buy a lot of cameras for your business premises.
Employee Theft Prevention
It’s not easy to imagine your own employees stealing from your business. But it’s more common than you think. After all, a study done by the United States Department of Commerce showed that around 1 in 4 employees steal.
The only guaranteed way to catch them in the act is to use surveillance cameras. When your employees know they’re under a watchful eye, they will think twice. More often than not, they won’t find the risk worth the rewards.
2. Easier Installation With Reduced Insurance Costs
Compared to analog surveillance systems, digital ones need less equipment to install. It gives a greater degree of effectiveness for your security team. It’s easier to use, making it less of a bothersome task.
Do you need an easy way to save on business insurance? Try using modern surveillance systems. A lot of insurance companies will give you a lot of discounts on their insurance policies.
You need to install this system to avoid getting more expensive premiums for your insurance. Investing in a dependable indoor and outdoor video system will reassure your provider. They will see your efforts in taking precautions to protect your property.
This will let your insurance company know that they’ll have an easier time working with your company. For them, your business becomes less of a liability.
3. Improved Storage and Accessibility
If you’re a business that still depends on analog systems, you know they still use tape recorders. Using it for video footage means it has less space to record. Their degree of accessibility decreases since tape recording systems are now obsolete.
With digital systems, it will use digital video recorder systems to store your camera footage. This will have enough storage space for your security team to work with longer. Some systems even allow you to store the footage on a secure cloud server storage system.
These systems can also give you and your security teams a secure means of logging in to it in remote locations. That means they won’t need to stay trapped in offices while tracking security footages. This gives you the flexibility and ease of access.
You can now log in using any device to view your security footage. It doesn’t matter whether you need to look into a remote location or when you’re out traveling. With this remote login, you can view different digital feeds no matter where you are.
4. Use Remote Monitoring for Workflow
Digital surveillance systems have remote monitoring capabilities, but most people overlook it. It becomes an important part of your business security process due to its worldwide coverage.
That means you can look into surveillance feeds as long as you’re connected to a stable internet connection. It doesn’t matter what device you’re using–mobile devices, tablets, and laptops are eligible. You can view streams of security footage in real time or view the archived files in storage.
Employee tracking using a surveillance system isn’t limited to recording theft alone. Using the right equipment will let you know what your employees do. This will ensure that they spend the majority of their time working and boost your company’s efficiency.
You benefit the most if you’re a retail store. After all, knowing what your employees do is a necessary step in checking whether you’re over- or understaffed. You will know how your company operates with just two minutes of footage most of the time.
5. Cost Reduction with Easier Scalability
Compared to an analog system, digital video surveillance is more cost-effective. The main reason behind it is the fact that it needs less physical structure for its operation. After all, it doesn’t need as many wires and bulkier equipment.
With wider viewing angles, you don’t need a lot of cameras to cover the same amount of space with high-quality footages. The video files coming from these surveillance cameras are compressible, thus taking up lesser space in storage systems.
Most modern video cameras will have Power-Over-Ethernet technology combined with CAT-5 wiring. This means both power and video transmission will use one cable. This is a huge improvement over the coaxial and power cables used by analog systems.
With digital cameras, you don’t need a lot of cable for each camera you install. You can run CAT-5 cables to a POE switch nearby. That eliminates the need for you to run the cables back to your preferred storage device.
Scalability Benefits
Your digital system can grow with your desired coverage area without making too much of a jump. You can add digital cameras on an as-needed basis. These cameras are easy to set up and connect to your surveillance network.
Bonus: Save Time With Distributed Intelligence
Even with the sharp eyes given by digital surveillance systems, there isn’t anyone with enough time to watch every hour of footage. But the best part about the technology is that newer systems fill this security gap with distributed intelligence. Software programs have the means of looking into video feeds to pick specific events, activities, and behaviors using movement pattern recognition.
When certain motions get detected, the system will make alerts and send it to your security team. This type of response isn’t matched by any type of analog system. The advancements and convenience these systems offer make the security cameras market get the potential to surpass its $9.7 billion mark within the next four years.
How to Make an Effective Video Surveillance System
There are a lot of ways for you to have an effective video security system. Inefficient systems will not help you much in gaining the above-mentioned benefits. Here are some things you can do to help keep your business safe:
1. Proper Camera Placements
The most important aspect of any surveillance system is the placement of your cameras. To make the most out of its effectiveness, you need to install cameras in locations that cover wider areas. You need to ensure that the cameras don’t overlap each other too.
The technician installing your camera should know the things within the view of the device. You need to give them a clear definition of whether you want a close-up of an important part of your business. For example, you might need to get more on the sides if you’re aiming for a close view of the cash register.
2. Proper Camera Types
Any good surveillance systems will use fixed cameras as their primary device. They’re cheaper than PTZ cameras in most cases. The latter can only cover the same amount of area if someone’s there to operate it in real-time.
You need to ask yourself what your business needs before making the right camera type choice. PTZ cameras are great if you’re trying to track suspicious movements. You can also use them for checking how transactions happen while checking on both customer and employee safety.
Get Good Video Surveillance Systems Today!
As a business, you need to do your best to secure your premises. You need to ward off suspicious people and activities. This ensures your place a safe space for both employees and customers.
For that to happen, you need to have a good surveillance system in place.
Do you need more help on mounting your outdoor video surveillance cameras? If so, you can try out this post listing benefits of mobile security surveillance.
Feel free to call us if we can ever be of assistance, contact us.
