Could Your Retail Business Security Use an Upgrade?

Retail businesses come in all shapes and sizes—from tiny boutiques to massive chains. While the scale of the business and its inventory may vary, a few operational priorities are always a concern. Tracking foot traffic, protecting valuable inventory, managing access, and monitoring properties remotely are just a few of the issues that keep retail business owners up at night.

Alarm.com for Business has a unified commercial security platform to overcome these challenges and more, helping you rest a little easier.

Rethink the “shrink” and minimize shoplifting

Shrink, also known as shoplifting, is one of the largest concerns for retail business owners. No matter what you’re selling, there will always be people who will try to walk out without paying for it. But that doesn’t mean you’re helpless in the face of the dreaded “shrink.”

With the ability to view live video footage from anywhere using the app, Alarm.com will be the eyes in the back of your head that you need to minimize shoplifting. With visible retail security cameras to deter potential intruders and elevated resolution technology that can help police easily identify perpetrators, our retail security system boosts store security, so you can keep track of what matters most. And thanks to the Alarm.com Enterprise Dashboard, which lets you manage multiple locations from one interface, this solution will scale up as your business grows.

Set up virtual trip-wires that send immediate alerts for unexpected or unauthorized entry to protect especially sensitive areas, like storage rooms where you keep your most valuable inventory. This way you can proactively keep tabs on your merchandise, instead of relying solely on video footage to share with the police.

Whether you run a small business with three employees or a big operation with its own loss prevention team, you can’t afford to let revenue literally walk out the door. Alarm.com for Business is here to help you rethink the shrink.

Make Access Control work for you

If you operate an office space or a warehouse, you know exactly who should be coming and going, and you tightly regulate access. In addition to employees and vendors needing specific permissions and access at certain times of day, retail businesses also rely on customers regularly coming through the front door. Given these circumstances, how do you invite strangers into your space while also ensuring your ability to maintain store security?

Alarm.com for Business lets you keep better track of who is coming and when so you can stay in control of your store security with a business access control system. For employees, add or remove access codes from the Alarm.com app or web dashboard, anytime, anywhere. Manage access in bulk for when you onboard multiple new hires or create access codes that automatically expire to help you manage seasonal employees.

Avoid the hassle of handing out or carrying separate physical credentials, which are easier to misplace or steal, and utilize Alarm.com mobile credentials. With Alarm.com access control readers, you can save time, money, and frustration and use mobile credentials, exclusive to Alarm.com access control readers. Allow your employees and vendors to access areas of your business with just their smartphones.

Monitoring secure or sensitive areas lets you tightly control who accesses them, so members of the public or employees who have no business there have no way of getting in. Setting up automatic alerts if a location opens late or closes early will empower you with the confidence that employees are adhering to store policies and that customers aren’t being turned away when you should be open.

Get deeper insights with Business Activity Analytics

Even if you know your business like the back of your hand, there’s always more to learn about retail store security. But with all the work that comes with owning or managing a retail establishment, who has the time? When you combine all the disparate parts of your security system into one unified platform with Alarm.com, you’ll gain the power of Alarm.com technology—giving you valuable insights into how your business operates, along with new ways to maximize efficiency.

When should you have additional employees on the clock, and when is it okay to operate with minimal staff? Where is foot traffic the heaviest in your stores? How long are customers waiting on average to be helped or to pay for their purchases? Are employees opening late or closing early? This behavior cost retailers $1,400 per incident, according to Parks Associates 2020 data.

With commercial video surveillance, Alarm.com Pro Series cameras, and the exclusive Business Activity Analytics feature from Alarm.com, you can use the footage that’s already being recorded in your business to answer these questions. Use actionable insights to learn how people move through your business spaces.

For example, virtual tripwires can help you see how many customers move through your space in a single direction—down a particular aisle—or stay compliant with capacity limits by using multidirectional counting to determine total net occupancy at any point in time. You can also draw ground zones that create a heat map of the ebb and flow of foot traffic, alert you to a gathering crowd before to prevent overcrowding, or see when a line has grown too long so you can open a new checkout lane.

Business Activity Analytics insights help you run your business more efficiently and deliver a better customer experience. According to Parks Associates 2020 data, approximately 62% of retailers find it very appealing to use customer tracking data to determine how many employees to schedule for each shift, and use the data to create rules to track and improve staffing efficiency.

You can also optimize product placement, measure queues and wait times, and more. And by scheduling regular operational reports, you’ll stay up to date with what’s going on inside your retail establishment so you can make informed decisions. With Alarm.com, you’ll always know what’s happening inside your business.

An all-in-one solution

When it comes to running a retail business, you need a security system that is tailored to fit your specific needs. Not only that, but each part of the system needs to work together seamlessly to provide the operational support and security you require. To accomplish this, you need a security system that meets the unique needs of the retail space. This all-in-one approach means the information you need to keep your business protected is always accessible, creating a system that’s truly more than the sum of its parts.

Combining commercial video surveillance, access control, intrusion detection, and a temperature monitoring system with Alarm.com for Business, makes for a security system that’s more than the sum of its parts. Keep track of it all on a single, intuitive interface with the Enterprise Dashboard—and do it remotely from anywhere, anytime with the easy-to-use app.