In this session, two retailers: Tesco in the UK and Kroger in the US shared updates on how they had utilised video technologies to improve scan accuracy and prevent losses. The former provided feedback on their experiences of introducing Personal Display Monitors at SCO checkouts, which mirrored the users’ activities, aimed at creating a deterrent effect. While the results were inconclusive in larger format stores, Tesco reported a marked reduction in unknown losses in small format stores after they were introduced.

The Kroger case study was focussed upon the use of video analytics to identify when a consumer had not scanned an item at a Fixed SCO machine and then provide the errant user with a prompt to encourage them to scan the item. This is an interesting technology, not least because it places the emphasis upon the user to make the correction rather than a SCO supervisor – an example of what can be described as a ‘nudge analytic’ – persuading the user in a non-confrontational and discrete manner, to do ‘the right thing’.

The two case studies showed the various ways in which video technologies can be used in a retail environment to respond to the problem of loss identified in the ECR report with one a ‘passive’ approach based upon generating deterrence through increasing user awareness of the potential risk of deviant behaviour being identified, and the other a ‘proactive’ approach where a video analytic interacts directly with the errant SCO user.

The group discussion focused on how other organisations were looking to manage losses at the self-checkout using video with input from retailers from Europe, USA and Australia.

This session was part of a series of monthly group discussions on the use of video in retail, if you are a retailer, CPG or academic and would like to participate in future sessions then click here. If you would like to apply for a recording of the session, click the button.