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September 25, 2025
Retailers operating in every sector in every country are facing myriad challenges. Increasing store and staff costs, changes in how and where people shop, new rules, regulations, tariffs and increases in theft are all hitting the bottom line, at a time when profit margins are already tight.
As we approach what is traditionally one of the busiest periods in retail, owners of small independent chain stores and operators of national outlets will be hoping to hear cash registers ringing out. However, they’ll also be painfully aware it’s a time when they’re most exposed to theft and associated acts of abuse and violence. The British Retail Consortium indicates that customer theft reached a record £2.2 billion in 2023-24, with an eye-watering £1.8 billion (around $2.4 billion) spent on prevention.
It’s perhaps little surprise then that each day 37 stores in the UK closed in 2024.
CCTV has long been an indispensable ally of retail, used as a deterrent and to prosecute retail-related offenses, and investment in cameras and associated technologies, including video management software (VMS) systems and storage, contributes a substantial percentage of annual spending on in-store crime prevention. Yet, the ability to take a holistic approach to managing this significant investment is one that few retailers have.
While certain things are managed centrally, the ability to take advantage of cost and efficiency gains, security and specifically CCTV is often decentralized to each store. This is not only true for small- and medium-sized chains, but also large national, even international, retailers. The burden of responsibility to ensure every camera is operating at optimal efficiency and footage is being captured, as well as shared with law enforcement, often falls on the already under pressure store manager.
Consequently, stores often run in break/fix mode, unaware that a camera isn’t working until it’s called upon. Furthermore, law enforcement officers face frustrations getting timely access to footage, which compounds the already strained relationship between police and the retail community.
Adopting a more centralized management approach can address these issues and more, bringing a multitude of additional operational and cost benefits, with an excellent example being camera lifecycle monitoring. This information is easily accessible in a VMS system management solution. VMS licenses have to be managed, and these solutions offer both an overview of the inventory and simple ways to distribute thousands of licenses, completing the task in just a few minutes. This can help retailers not overspend when opening, closing and/or moving stores, by ensuring they are only paying for what they have.
Remotely monitoring the performance of CCTV systems can also help identify potential issues before they become costly problems. Being able to administer software updates and make configuration changes from a central point not only provides a greater level of operational consistency, but also reduces the costs of on-site maintenance and potential camera network downtime.
This best practice is not yet common practice; however, a rapidly growing number of retailers around the world, including two of the leading discount supermarket chains in Europe, are benefiting from having a single centralized platform that acts as an “umbrella,” connecting to the VMS in each of its stores. In doing so, this VMS system management platform provides them with insights into the status of every camera on the network, enabling them to make more informed decisions about planned maintenance and investments.
As aisles become festooned with seasonal goods over the coming weeks, attention turns to planning for the coming year. Some recent reports on retail crime trends from around the world provide cause for optimism, while others paint a bleaker picture.
Whatever the situation, spending on retail security will likely see another steep rise in 2026, as organizations upgrade cameras and other systems and experiment with newer technologies such as generative AI-powered analytics and facial recognition. Harnessing innovation is to be applauded, but creating the right infrastructure is the very best investment a retailer can make for the efficiency and effectiveness of security operations.
Coda Umbrella is a web technology-based VMS system management platform that allows retailers to centrally configure, manage and monitor distributed independent VMS installations.
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Oliver Wieloch has almost 20 years of experience in product management. He’s been with Octave’s Safety, Infrastructure & Geospatial division for more than six years and is the product manager for Coda Umbrella.
