How smart video analytics helps you avoid checkout queues

Queues in stores arise when too many visitors encounter too few available cash registers. We have all experienced this situation and were annoyed especially when in a hurry. The larger a store and the more visitors shop, the greater the risk that a large number of people will rush to the checkouts at the same time. 

Busy checkouts could be avoided if retailers were able to keep a constant eye on all visitors. That's why retailers should rethink video surveillance. Their video systems can do much more than traditional use cases such as theft control. 

Queue management systems combining IoT security cameras and AI video analytics help businesses improve customer experience in stores by reducing waiting times at checkouts. During the COVID 19 pandemic, smart queue management also includes monitoring and ensuring compliance with social distance rules.

Smart surveillance in retail

What if your surveillance cameras could automatically detect when traffic jams build up at your store's checkouts and notify your staff in time to make more checkouts available?

This is exactly what networked cameras equipped with the latest video analytics technology from our Application Store can do to help you increase customer satisfaction. Specific apps give your cameras new capabilities far beyond security. 

Video Analytics applications for smart queue management

• Detect & inform when queues at checkouts form

• Detect & inform when over occupancy near checkouts appears

• Detect & inform when many people move towards checkouts

• Detect & analyze over occupancy through structural weaknesses in store layout

For each of these applications, smart security cameras can automatically trigger actions, such as informing employees. Connected to other systems, such as information displays in stores, cameras can also be used to further automate processes. 

The earlier retailers realize that queues will form at checkouts, the sooner appropriate measures can be taken to avoid them. That's why some retail camera apps even allow you to predict incidents before they happen. Time is money…

Worth reading: How smart video analytics helps retailers survive in tough times

Ready-to-use retail apps in our Application Store

Here are some exciting apps that you can install with a few clicks (provided your camera uses our common camera OS). New apps are constantly being added, more detailed information about each app you can find in our Application Store.

AI Retail: allows you people counting, crowd estimation, queue management, computation of occupancy and over occupancy (see screenshot above) and generating heat-maps of your store. 

Source: Aitech

FLOW Retail: provides full-area people counting and tracking, queue detection, queuing times calculation, queue statistics, detection of hot spots or peak hours.

Source: RCE Systems

Worth reading: What if the “new normal” in retail was 10x smarter than the old one?

RetailFlux Shopper Flow: detect and visualize in-store shopper activities with high accuracy heat-map, zone and route analysis to detect structural weaknesses in sales floor layout.

RetailFlux Queue: analyze all aspects of shopper activities inside your store and predict queue density events using latest AI algorithms.

Source: Linkanalytix

SAIMOS Count and Heatmapping: enables occupancy monitoring and analytics with multiple cams in stores.

Source: ONG-IT GmbH

This is just a selection of apps designed specifically for retail security cameras, available in our Application Store. Browse through and be inspired!

Get to know more about our smart retail solutions.

How to start getting more out of your camera system

New AI technologies for IoT cameras offer retail users and system integrators endless possibilities to boost their businesses.

• Surveillance camera users should start considering their cameras as business-all rounders, which can increase not only security but also sales success in stores. 

• Security system integrators should use the examples given above to inspire their customers and create new groundbreaking retail solutions.