Whether it's catching a thief paying for three items while pocketing one, a cashier accidentally scanning the wrong UPC or an employee giving a friend an unofficial discount, POS cameras can be of great assistance in loss prevention. Overhead camera systems have been used for nearly two decades, but they alone cannot capture all relevant data or potential threats, and traditional exception reports generally recognize a loss only after the patterns are significant.

By integrating camera feeds with data analysis, some retailers can correct behavior patterns before large losses occur. Utilizing solutions from Camden, N.J.-based Agilence, one regional drug chain found that it could see substantial savings by not only staying abreast of theft, but also tracking employee errors and operational inefficiencies.

Rather than reading transaction logs, Agilence pulls data directly from POS systems. Item-level synchronization means that items within question are directly tied to video, making suspect items visible. Finally, it creates a static image for each and every line of the transaction so that investigators can scroll the video to find the exact image where the problem occurred.

Agilence serves a number of clients in the retail industry including Bloomingdale's, Tuesday Morning, Giant Eagle and Pathmark. The company offers its solution as a license and maintenance model or as a customer purchase model. Also available is a subscription model that transmits data back to LP specialists at Agilence who monitor, audit and submit reports to clients on a weekly basis.

Real-time alerts
Derek Rodner, Agilence vice president of product strategy, says that by marrying electronic signals at POS with time stamps on videos, Agilence can even provide real-time alerts to a store manager or detective via e-mail or short message service (SMS).

Price checks are another activity to monitor closely because it is a common tactic for cashiers to use fake scans when sweethearting.
"We can take you right to the specific line of transaction and right to where the operational fraud is being committed," Rodner says. "In most cases, we're seeing at least a 6:1 return on investment in a matter of 12 months."

A regional drug chain implemented Agilence in many of its stores last year. Within three months, it was able to weed out problems such as sweethearting, cash theft and scanning-error scenarios. Extra video cameras were installed around the store to monitor POS and other operations. In a short period of time, the chain was able to recoup its investment and identify cashier shrink and operational inefficiencies.

Data, video analysis
The ability to efficiently track and analyze data and video in minute detail makes it much easier for LP administrators to get a handle on theft and operational losses. The regional drug chain, for instance, noted that inventories of cases of drinks weren't always aligning with sales receipts.

By lining up sales data with video archives, the company's LP specialist was able to discover that sales associates were sometimes tilting cases of the soda and ringing up the UPCs for single bottles instead of the case.

"I keyed in a couple of CC codes and started monitoring transactions," the chain's LP director says. "It was only a couple of cashiers" but being able to stop the practice saved the store approximately $1,400, he says.