Product shrinkage. While mass organized or coordinated theft has devastated specific business establishments, with the increasing use of self-checkouts, some honest, normal shoppers are taking what they have not paid for as well. According to the National Retail Federation (NRF), the global shrinkage rate in retail stores is about 1.4-1.6% of annual retail sales. This causes retailers a $100 billion global annual shrink problem.
The shrinkage problem has prompted one artificial intelligence (AI)-based company to specifically address a variety of in-store thefts. Everseen’s VisualAI approach to self-checkout product shrinkage detects both intentional and unintentional missed scans using cameras and AI analysis. With Evercheck, when it detects a missed scan, the system alerts the retailer to recover the sale by sending an alert to a store associate or by nudging the customer to scan.
For the unintended missed item from an honest shopper, the system’s nudge approach has a response time of 300 milliseconds or less. This encourages/reminds a shopper to correct a mistake that would otherwise lead to shrinkage and reduces the need for a store associate’s intervention and a potential confrontation.
With the ability to easily integrate with the company’s point-of-sale (POS) and/or retail technology provider’s products, the system reduces losses — since an average of 3.79% of all transactions have recoverable loss events.
Everseen also has a solution called Everdoor to monitor back of store/direct store delivery (DSD) area or access points. With a camera or cameras monitoring the dock and loading area, the AI system analyzes objects. When products are detected leaving the area, the system can send visual results to a monitoring agent’s cell phone to confront the person in real time. The system can also be integrated with existing in-store management systems.
With high value products in the store, the aisles can be monitored for product concealment events as well. These activities can be flagged and real-time alerts of suspicious customer behavior in the store’s aisles can be provided.
One of the many unique aspects of Everseen’s AI approach is that its solutions are tech-agnostic. They can be seamlessly integrated with a company’s existing camera, computer hardware, POS, and other business systems.
Kroger is taking advantage of Evergreen’s technology to reduce its products shrinkage in the self-checkout area. With store staff reduced, more and more shoppers are choosing the self-checkout route to reduce their time in the store. Taking advantage of the nudge aspect of Evercheck, the system alerts customers when an item has not been scanned. However, when a second item is missed, store personnel are alerted.
Reporting that real-time computer vision has helped reduce over 75% of errors at the self-checkout after implementing the technology in more than 1,700 stores, Kroger plans to extend it to its entire chain of 2,800 stores in 35 states.
With Fight Retail Crime Day 2023 occurring on October 26, 2023, perhaps more retailers will look into using their existing cameras or install a system with cameras and take advantage of AI analysis to reduce theft. In the grocery space, Walmart and Target already appear likely to follow Kroger in adopting real-time computer vision.
References
Everseen Advances Computer Vision AI Systems for Global Retailers (prweb.com)
Kroger has an intrusive plan to stop theft (Walmart and Target might follow) – TheStreet
