Axxon solutions tackles UK rise of retail employee theft

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Axxon, an open network video management software provider in the EMEA region, is launching a low-cost retail Point of Sale (POS) integration module into its Axxon Smart Pro video management platform to help UK retailers tackle the rising levels of employee retail theft. 

New figures released by the Centre for Retail Research showed that the value of goods stolen from UK retailers had risen by 20% to reach 4.88bn for the year ending 30th June 2009.  The report entitled Global Retail Theft Barometer 2009 also highlighted that 36.4% of the total amount stolen in the UK was through employee theft, with employees responsible for high value theft, averaging 1595.66 per theft incident compared to 80.31 for external shoplifters.

One of the core areas of employee theft is sweet-hearting, which costs UK retailers millions of pounds annually.  Dishonest staff, working with friends or sweethearts, steal merchandise at the tills by selectively scanning in some, but not all, items.   Small, high value items such as cigarettes and CDs are targeted, as one item can be stacked on top of the other and passed fairly discreetly over the scanner.  Till discrepancies, where extra change is given, is also a problem. Experts believe that sweet-hearting is responsible for nearly 50 per cent of retail theft, making it the most popular method employed, and it is also hard to detect without close monitoring.  

To help retailers target POS theft, Axxon has introduced a low cost POS Module available for its recently launched Smart Pro video management software which integrates easily with most retail POS systems.  The solution takes video feeds from each cash terminal and automatically records all events and receipt data into the video archive.   It can examine bank notes and cheques used to ensure that checkout operatives are entering the correct figures and are dispensing the correct amount of change.  Automatic alerts can be set to flag up discrepancies where an item is moved but not scanned. Suspicious activity is outlined on the video with different colours used to signify various cashier actions.

Luis Coello, EMEA business development director, Axxon, said:

Axxon Smart Pro is a powerful video management suite in its own right combine it with our additional retail POS module and you have a solution which can really help to control retail theft and improve store operations.  Axxon wants to speed up adoption of advanced POS surveillance solutions and is offering Smart Pro including the POS module for around 150 per channel.  With an average employee retail theft totalling 1595, our solution offers rapid return on investment.