Innovative retailer Girish discovers value of firm’s anti-theft systems
TECH-SAVVY retailer Girish Jeeva is urging other convenience store operators to install the anti-theft package offered by Visu.ai.
He spoke out after the firm’s AI-powered systems instantly revealed that a trusted member of staff had stolen £1,500 cash in three months.
Visu.ai’s technology consists of two elements – Cashier Watch and Customer Watch that use CCTV and artificial intelligence to provide real-time alerts to retailers so that they can act to prevent theft.
Cashier Watch monitors cash handling, product movement and high-risk transactions, tracking behaviours and theft patterns to mitigate risks while measuring till workers’ productivity.
Examples of critical incidents detected include lottery scratchcard misuse, incorrect manual entries for products, cash mishandling, unscanned goods during a transaction, items deleted after billing and deliberate altering of a price.
Customer Watch detects suspicious gestures instantly, such as a customer hiding a product, and flags and tracks blacklisted repeat offenders using facial recognition.
The technology firm claims the system, which integrates with existing cameras and is fully GDPR-compliant, can reduce theft by up to 70% and so boost profits.
Girish had both Visu.ai systems seamlessly integrated with his cameras and EPOS system at his Premier store in Barmulloch, Glasgow, by Scottish retail solutions firm MHouse.
He said: “I immediately realised that a member of staff who had been with us for about 18 months was thieving.
“He was voiding customer sales, taking cash out of the till and putting the money into our PayPoint machine. Then, he was using PayPoint to top up his Monzo bank card.
“Monzo cards are banned in the store, so we looked at transactions from PayPoint and there were Monzo payments going back three months totalling £1,500.
“I confronted the member of staff and he denied it. But when I showed him the footage, he was speechless.
“We got the money back from him and then dismissed him instantly.
“He was a trusted member of staff and I was really shocked. But this has convinced me that we did the right thing in installing the Visu.ai systems. We’ve had no staff theft problems since.”
Girish also said that the way Cashier Watch instantly highlighted mismatched product pricing, for example, if a price rise had not been updated on the till system, was a big money saver.
And he gets alerts when cash is taken from the till – even if it’s for a safe drop – and is able to tag incidents as good or bad.
He added: “Visu.ai creates profiles of staff to show if their behaviour is more suspicious or looks higher risk. It might be they’re inadvertently doing something wrong and need extra training. It helps find errors with stock control and it saves time and money.”
Customer Watch has also impressed Girish, who said it was very accurate, with instant, really clear video footage.
Cameras facing the shop door pick up everyone coming in and provide an instant alert if it is a customer who has been barred for criminal behaviour.
Girish added: “Customers know we have this system and that has reduced theft.”
Shan Walford, Visu.ai associate director (sales), highlighted the way Customer Watch alerts retailers when people blacklisted by other stores enter their outlet.
She explained that the blacklist is both AI and human verified, with retailers able to flag up if the customer is abusive or violent. The blacklisting alert covers stores within a 50-mile radius of the retailer concerned.
Shan added: “Obviously, the more stores that adopt Customer Watch, the better it will be for retailers. It’s an anti-theft network that is led by the store owners themselves.
“Cashier Watch can be emotional to sell, because retailers don’t want to believe their staff would be thieves. But, as Girish found out, that can be the case even with someone you trust.”
