Vendor claims 3-year ROI on retail facial recognition deployment

Amid a worrying rise in retail crime, retailers are adopting facial biometrics as a preventive measure. A case study from RecFaces shows that such systems can identify thieves and reduce theft-related losses by 50 percent. As law enforcement often struggles to respond to theft incidents promptly, these systems fill a crucial gap, identifying thieves and alerting security personnel in real-time while adhering to regulatory requirements to ensure data privacy, RecFaces says.

In their 2021 retail survey report, the National Retail Federation (NRF) provides some alarming statistics. According to the report, 64 percent of respondents observed a surge in losses from organized criminal groups since 2016, while 53 percent reported an escalation/increase in theft. Furthermore, 82 percent of the survey participants reported an increase in the severity of attacks and the use of weapons.

The often-delayed response of the police to shoplifting incidents leaves retail businesses vulnerable to theft. Store employees, wary of potentially armed perpetrators, avoid personally confronting suspects, while law enforcement personnel respond to incidents only after the criminals have escaped. Additionally, theft cases below a specific monetary value are often deemed low-priority and go uninvestigated.

Retailers have taken several measures to address the increasing incidence of crime in their industry. These tactics include embracing security measures like anti-theft systems, on-site monitoring, and facial recognition technologies.

Facial recognition systems have been highly effective in preventing theft and robberies. For example, a major retail store chain reports that its facial recognition system prevents thousands of crimes each month.

Fortune Business Insights predicts that the global market for facial recognition technology will achieve a remarkable $12.92 billion by 2027, with a compound annual growth rate of 14.8 percent over 2019. Further, RecFaces cites a prediction by Inkwood Research that face biometrics technology will be particularly successful in Latin America, with its market to reach $8 million by 2027-2028, exceeding the global growth rate.

A notable Latin American case study comes from Jockey Plaza, a shopping center in Curitiba, Brazil, spanning 200,000 square meters, accommodating 400 stores and 28 food establishments.

To combat theft, the facility collaborated with Francaza, a Brazilian integrator, and RecFaces, a facial recognition solution developer, to implement Id-Guard facial identification software. The system, which integrates with the center’s video surveillance and analytics systems, offers biometric identification, real-time and retrospective face search, and stoplisting capabilities.

RecFaces’ Id-Guard operates only with biometric templates to perform identification operations. Reverse conversion of a biometric template to an actual facial image is not possible. This data storage method adheres to international GDPR data protection regulations and is supplemented by AES-256 standard encryption mechanisms, according to the case study.

Using the new system, Jockey Plaza experienced a 50 percent reduction in shoplifting instances, faster crime resolutions and increased security system efficiency, leading to a payback period of less than three years for the project.

“The moment a person on the stop-list enters the camera’s field of view, the operator is immediately notified. Based on our experience, implementation of Id-Guard saves security specialists time as they no longer have to spend hours sifting through video footage when investigating incidents,” says Francaza’s CIO, Cristiano J S Maffessoni.

Article Topics

biometrics  |  Brazil  |  data privacy  |  face biometrics  |  RecFaces  |  retail biometrics  |  video surveillance