Retail Surveillance Service - Addressing Industry Challenges

The retail industry in India has seen a big boom in the last decade with the entry of many big players in the market. Retail stores and brands like Reliance Fresh, Reliance Trends, Easyday, More, Big Bazaar, VMart, and much more have invested in creating their own retail chains.

Many luxury brands with high-end products have emerged, attracting various challenges like consumer expectations and high costs along with the eyes of burglars & intruders. A retail surveillance service helps address challenges like theft, inventory shrinkage, and others with live monitoring and regular audits.

With each retail company facing some unique challenges, some common issues stay constant across the industry.

Demanding Customers

Today, customers have got a lot of options with the emergence of numerous brands, and hence, have become extremely demanding. Further, the rise of online retail stores has added more convenience of comparing & shopping from numerous brands and businesses.

The retail industry of today is striving to meet every specific need of their customers and their expectations for quality products & service.

Rising Competition

As already discussed above, many big companies have forayed into the retail segment, and this has raised the level of competition significantly. This competition has brought some benefits for customers, one of which is the stringent price & discount war between retailers. Different brands and retail owners offer various discounts on their products, from time to time, further intensifying the level of competition.

This has led to lower profit margins for retail business owners, making their survival difficult if their sales are low.

E-Commerce Retailers

The rise of online retailers has made a huge hit to the traditional retailers in India. E-commerce retailers including Indian startups, like Snapdeal & Flipkart, along with international players, like Amazon & eBay attract more customers towards them. Some common reasons for this include attractive discounts, doorstep delivery, and other convenience options.

The inclination of customers towards these online retailers has caused a huge loss to physical retail business owners.

High Costs Involved

The large areas of physical retail outlets come with a huge maintenance cost. This includes various aspects like repairing broken appliances like refrigerators to replacing the LED lights that are lighting up the entire area. All this costs retail owners a lot of their profit, every year.

Other costs that add up for physical retailers include the rent of the space they use and other running costs. Though all these add up to create a daunting challenge for business owners, new players find it difficult to address & start a business.

Inventory Shrinkage

Shrinkage is caused by one of the many reasons, including shoplifting and theft by internal employees as well as external customers or visitors. While shoplifting causes a loss of millions to billions to the industry every year, internal theft restricts the growth of the retail business as well.

However, theft is not the only cause of shrinkage. Many products that are placed on the shelves of stores remain unsold and eventually perish. This stock turns into a waste and a loss to the business. Employing a good retail surveillance service helps reduce the loss to retailers caused by any reason of inventory shrinkage to a huge extent, though.

Changes in the modern economy and in the behavior of the buying process followed by customers fuel much more challenges of the retail industry. Here, business owners should look for a solution that helps them not only address challenges but also help Retailers need to find a way that helps them offer a better and personalized experience while addressing the challenges discussed above. Retail surveillance service helps managers with live monitoring and regular audits to optimize their store operations, reduce costs and understand customer behavior.