London’s 100-million-pound shoplifting conundrum

Last year, over 67000 cases of shoplifting were reported in the UK. With over 62000 cases of shoplifting already reported by end-October, the signs are ominous for small retailers, staff at the retail stores, and genuine customers even as the annual holiday season is all but here (see news).

Contributing factors

A few years back, the government had decriminalized low value retail thefts and had reduced the penalty for 200 GBP theft to just 6 months of imprisonment. Combined with this, the inability of the police to follow-up on every shoplifting complaint seems to have emboldened bad actors to carry on with utter disdain.

Thieves have broken into stores with bins and suitcases and hurled abuses and threatened store staff who tried to stop them. Co-op has been at the receiving end of the retail theft, with one of their stores witnessing three incidents of looting on a single day by organized gangs.

A 100-million-pound burden

The financial drain on the retail chains is telling. According to estimates by the Standard, the monthly cost of shoplifting exceeds 9 million – that translates to over a 100 million pounds in a year! It is appalling that this rate of crime is happening in London, the CCTV capital of the world, with around 950,000 CCTV cameras.

The retail stores have also invested heavily into installing CCTV over the past decade. However, the fact that crime rates are not abating points to gaps that need to be addressed at the earliest.

AI-based surveillance is a game changer

Adding a layer of intelligence over the existing CCTV infrastructure can greatly improve the ability of retail stores to put the brakes on shoplifting. By instantly detecting a wide variety of theft patterns such as aisle theft, item concealment, item switching, incorrect billing, short payments, and checkout fraud SAI group’s visual AI platform can discreetly inform the store staff about incidents as and when they occur and provide ready to submit, legally admissible video and photographic evidence – without any manual intervention.

The technology platform alerts customers as well when it detects anomalies, enabling customers to take corrective action without intervention from the store staff. For instance, in cases of incorrect product scanning, which could have been a result of inadvertent action, the solution will inform the customer through an alert at the counter enabling the customers to act on their own.

SAI group’s visual AI is a true game changer as it ensures the safety of retail store staff as the staff does not need to physically intervene when a theft occurs. At the same time, quick access to incident footage that can be submitted to the police ensures that they do not spend too much time on evidence collection and reporting. SAI group understands that the store staff’s time is better used in servicing their genuine customers.

Cost-effective AI

One of the biggest challenges that AI solution providers face today is to make their solutions cost-effective. Whether it is a fixed cost or a per-seat subscription, AI solutions need to ensure that:

They cover their costs in terms of the computing resources that they consume
Their customers do not find it difficult to justify the costs incurred while adopting AI solutions.

SAI Group offers highly competitive solutions that ensure return on investment within a few months of deployment.

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About SAI

As a leader in computer vision technology, SAI Group delivers cutting-edge, multi-modal AI solutions into retail environments. Using a unique platform approach, its technology uses existing camera systems to target losses, increase store safety, and underpin operational efficiencies.

All solutions are built from the ground up to ensure the highest levels of security and data protection, respecting the privacy expectations of the public and operating to stringent ethical standards while delivering substantial value to our clients. Globally, SAI monitors millions of transactions per day, protecting the revenues from tens of millions of product sales and hundreds of millions of customer interactions. Its models also accurately identify anti-social behaviour, aggression and violence, helping to de-escalate situations with real-time interfaces to security officers and operations centres.