Organized retail crime (ORC) is more prevalent than ever before. Last year, the average loss attributable to organized retail crime (ORC) was $700,259 per $1 billion in retail sales — a 54% increase from 2015’s average of $453,940. The same study reported that 83% of top retail loss prevention executives surveyed experienced an increase in ORC activity. Criminals are likely going to get even more aggressive. Retailers must therefore counter with more aggressive measures to prevent retail crime, or risk even greater losses going forward.
Combatting a problem like ORC can, at first glance, seem daunting. But what if there was a single solution that could prevent ORC from happening? Many of the world’s most successful retailers have discovered that face recognition is that one-stop solution. Replacing traditional surveillance cameras with a biometric surveillance system offers several advantages. Here are five clear ways that a face recognition system can help you virtually eliminate ORC.
Automatically Detect Career Criminals
Traditional surveillance cameras can sometimes be helpful in forensic investigations after crimes, but they do nothing to prevent crime. With a face recognition system, you can assemble a watchlist of known shoplifters and organized retail criminals. Then, the moment an individual who matches someone on your watchlist enters a store, your security team will receive an alert.
Recognize Changes in Appearance
Changing one’s hair color, growing facial hair or wearing a wig can easily fool the human eye. But facial recognition systems aren’t so easily fooled. Our algorithm, for example, uses hundreds of points on an individual’s face to positively identify individuals. This offers a powerful advantage over relying on your loss prevention team to recognize repeat offenders.
Track Crime Across Multiple Locations
When implementing a face recognition solution, it’s helpful to share data across multiple store locations. The more outlets using the technology, the easier it is to catch retail criminals. It’s quite common for retail criminals and perpetrators of fraud to strike multiple locations of the same brand. But a face recognition system can identify criminals who strike across multiple store locations and help stop ORC before it becomes crippling to your bottom line.
Alerts Your Loss Prevention Team Instantly
Loss prevention professionals have a tough job! Preventing ORC requires relying on their own intuition, which is fallible under the best of circumstances. But a facial recognition system empowers loss prevention pros with real-time alerts that tell them who to watch, where to go and what actions to take. As an example, imagine that a serial retail criminal who is wanted by the police enters one of your stores. With face recognition, your security team could get an instant alert giving a directive to call the police immediately.
Identify ORC Patterns
Unlike with traditional surveillance cameras, using biometric surveillance helps you predict the future. Through predictive analytics, face recognition software can help you identify which store locations and times are most susceptible to crime, so your entire team can be prepared organized retail criminals strike.
Curious to learn more about how facial recognition can transform retail surveillance and loss prevention? Check out our easy-to-digest 5-Minute Guide.