Boots trials CCTV loss prevention integration

Boots, the UK's largest health and beauty retailer, is trialling new loss prevention software integration with CCTV images to improve its ability to tackle fraud, theft and shrinkage.

The retailer today said the trial, which is taking place at its Mansfield store, would incorporate its existing point-of-sale (POS) data analysis with networked video and video analytics.

It has previously stated that the Vision SmartStore data mining software from specialist provider PCMS, originally implemented in 2006, was already saving the company millions of pounds by better identifying fraud and shrinkage.

Robert Jennings, head of loss prevention for Boots said: "The scope of the pilot scheme we have implemented with PCMS is unique within the industry and puts us at the forefront of the fight against shrinkage."

He added that the trial was designed to increase profitability and improve the customer experience by making existing systems, such as CCTV cameras, work harder. "It also offers wider stakeholder appeal, with features that are equally applicable to the marketing and management functions as they are to the discipline of loss prevention," he said.

The new, networked video analytics software has been designed to monitor footage from across the network of in-store CCTV cameras and alert store personnel automatically to certain behaviour patterns.

"The system can recognise when customers spend more than a certain amount of time at a particular shelf but can also be configured to identify congestion, till queue length or even spillages in aisles," said Jennings.

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