Bottom of the ninth with two outs and your turn up to bat. You look for your bat and it’s gone? So is your helmet, and you can’t just use someone else’s equipment. What do you do? Sports retail stores must answer the same questions when it comes to protecting their own equipment.
With security being at the forefront of any sports retail business, the big questions on the minds of businesses are “how to improve security?” and “what is the bottom line?” Whether a team has been in business as long as the Boston Red Sox or is creating their brand like the Las Vegas Golden Knights, merchandise can be flying off the shelves. Hundreds of people coming in and out of stores to grab new clothing and signature edition gear.
The question remains, how can stores engage with customers in discussions about big games or shirt sizes, all while monitoring the merchandise? One way that companies are doing this is by integrating and unifying their security systems.
Watch the Tape: Video Monitoring
Most stores have an analog system monitoring a specific location. This can be problematic because it requires someone at the location to monitor the situation. Any time another store wishes to review that information, the footage must be moved to find the specific instance. When a chain has multiple locations they must review thousands of cameras individually across hundreds of stores and update everyone through all avenues of communication. This process becomes tedious.
The Game Plan: Standard Operating Procedures
Unified systems are taking the stress away from employees by advancing security through speed and ease of use. Unified systems create an easily intertwined system that can be used by multiple areas of security. The systems are like a pane of glass, “they can do everything from that system, and they don’t have to bounce back and forth”.
So why should companies move to a unified system? What are the benefits of unifying all aspects of security? Unified systems are now expanding areas of coverage and constantly adapting, all while maintaining ease of use. Gunshot detection, facial recognition, glass break alerts and other emerging technologies can be combined into one system. They can even help track the day-to-day operations. The data collected can help improve security for the everyday goings-on.
One specific retail sporting goods company, Dick’s Sporting Goods, has helped solve these issues by moving from an antiquated system and moving to a cloud-based system. Most stores have multiple cameras placed strategically throughout the store, monitoring customers and merchandise on a constant basis. They record all movement throughout the day for any loss prevention supervisor to review. Dick’s realized that this system however was outdated.
Half-Time Adjustments: Adapting to the Times
In order to better protect their merchandise and serve customers, several retailers moved to an integrated security system over a cloud. Now any coach or manager from any store or even the corporate headquarters location has access to all of the film from any camera angle in any store. With this new capability, all security teams can view footage of all scenarios. Any product retention team can monitor the goods within the stores as well as view warehouses to make sure all shipping needs are being met. Even areas such as the point-of-sale (POS) can be better monitored to ensure customer safety and to prevent fraud (authentic autographs only!). Transactions that may be reported as suspicious are now easily found and corrected.
Another benefit of converting to a unified system is the unified cost. For any business looking to upgrade their systems, they might think getting rid of the old system and installing a new one will cost a fortune. Most unified systems, although requiring upgrades, can still be compatible with older systems. Through gradual upgrades, companies can now slowly unify systems at a budget friendly pace.
The Final Score: Let’s Wrap it Up!
Unified security systems are becoming the trend in systems today. Through constant adaptation and growth of these systems’ capabilities, all areas of the security team can improve their daily business. From daily operations to protecting products to customer security with cameras and POS systems, unified systems are constantly upgrading and helping all businesses easily improve their benchwarmer defense into an All-Pro lineup.
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