Brick and Mortar retailers – Do queues have anything to do with your profitability?
When we think of cctv systems, usually we think of shrinkage – which can be as high as 3% of turnover without adequate controls in place.
But! it has come to light, that one thing that has the greatest impact on driving your customers to your online competition – is indeed long queues at checkout.
It takes on average 6 minutes before a customer will leave your store – due to long checkout queues.
Retailers of course recognize that e commerce is a threat to their revenue!
There are of course a number of solutions – automated check out points, creating on-line portals, and more.
Video Surveillance on the other hand – offers multiple dimensions to managing queue’s – while also helping to get your retail shrinkage from other sources down to the targeted 1% norm.
Entrance
Right at the entrance, video surveillance systems offer people counting solutions. Knowing how many people are actually in the store – allows you to proactively prepare for their checkout. Keep in mind that you only have three or four minutes to address a queue issue once you identify it.
Of course the cctv system, may also assist at the entrance with identifying VIP customers, and known thieves.
Aisles
While increased coverage of aisles with CCTV cameras assists in reducing shoplifting and other theft, additionally these systems can generate heat maps – using fisheye cameras. Heat maps will not only highlight popular areas of the store, but will also address the other issue on the info-graphic – long wait times for customer service. Knowing where your customers are, allows you to deploy customer service and security representatives accordingly. There are surely many other benefits to identifying the areas in your store which are most active.
Parking Lots
While it’s common knowledge, that some facilities develop a bad reputation based on the safety of their parking lots – cctv cameras don’t only help with identifying suspicious behaviors, accidents and other incidents – contributing to customer well-being. The CCTV system can prepare you for customer reception by monitoring the number of vehicles arriving and leaving the facility.
Storeroom and Warehouse
Moving into the store room , CCTV cameras will obviously assist with the major contributor to shrinkage in this area – employee theft and Vendor fraud. However video surveillance coupled with heat maps and Point Of Sales Systems will lead into another significant pain point for customers – out of stock products! Video Surveillance assists in ensuring that the shelves where people are highly active remain stocked.
Checkout
At the checkout point, customer disputes, and unpriced or incorrectly priced goods also contribute to increased checkout times. Video Surveillance captures and records the data related to these incidents and brings it all together for analysis and evaluation in the office. The surveillance will also provide prompts regarding congested check out points. Of course the same system also helps with cashier fraud, and point of sales systems.
Video Surveillance is a multi-faceted measure that has gone beyond checking up on incidents. The video surveillance system is a business assistant, one which contributes to your bottom line, and the customer experience.
We are past pulling a cable and mounting a camera – it’s now all about business and profitability.
Author
Brandon Joubert
Gensixtech.co.za
