“We have plenty of data. We just don’t have enough answers.”
We often hear this from retail leaders. It captures a fundamental challenge in modern retail: stores generate vast amounts of information through cameras, sensors, access control systems, and other operational technologies, yet that data often remains fragmented across siloed systems, limiting its value.
Cameras are typically used for security, sensors for monitoring conditions, and access control for managing restricted areas. While these systems perform their individual functions, they can deliver greater value when connected through a unified platform.
The shift from surveillance to strategy is not about collecting more data. It is about connecting the systems already operating in stores and warehouses and turning their data into actionable intelligence.
As highlighted in the IDC spotlight paper Smarter Retail: Multiplying ROI with Connected Intelligence, sponsored by Axis Communications, connected intelligent network solutions can help retailers gain a real-time view of operations, respond to events more quickly, and build insights that improve performance over time.
The silent data advantage
Retailers already have a significant, often underused asset: the data generated by their existing infrastructure.
A traditional video feed provides a record of what happened. When video is combined with AI analytics, audio, access control, and IoT data, it can also support real-time responses and proactive decision-making. For example, connected intelligence can help retailers:
- Move from reactive to proactive operations: Real-time loss prevention and safety monitoring can help staff respond to incidents as they occur and deter potential criminal activity.
- Improve store performance: Shopper traffic and shelf intelligence can support better store layouts, reduce stockouts, and improve on-shelf availability.
- Increase operational efficiency: Intelligent sensing and connected data can help retailers improve staff efficiency and reduce energy consumption.
- Enhance customer experience: Insights into product availability, traffic, and waiting times can help retailers improve service and customer satisfaction.
Turning connected intelligence into retail value
Connected intelligence does not necessarily require retailers to replace all their existing technology. Open-standard platforms can help them integrate systems, adapt to changing needs, and scale as their operations evolve.
By connecting video, audio, access control, and IoT sensors with AI-driven analytics, retailers can extend the value of their security infrastructure beyond traditional loss prevention. Store managers can receive intelligent notifications that highlight where attention is needed, rather than relying solely on manual monitoring or reviewing footage after an event.
Redefining ROI: From loss prevention to value creation
Traditionally, the return on investment of a camera system was measured primarily by the losses it helped prevent. Connected intelligence expands this perspective by showing how network infrastructure can contribute to broader business value, including:
- Operational efficiency: Using connected data and automation to streamline processes and reduce costs.
- Customer experience: Improving on-shelf availability, store layouts, waiting times, and service levels.
- Safety and loss prevention: Monitoring incidents in real time and helping reduce theft, fraud, and safety-related costs.
- Sustainable operations: Using occupancy and sensing insights to support more efficient energy management.
- Business resilience: Building the visibility and agility needed to respond to changing retail conditions.
Turning data into action
The data needed to address many of today’s retail challenges already exists across stores and warehouses. The challenge is making it accessible, connected, and actionable.
When infrastructure operates as a connected system, retailers can move beyond simply collecting data. They can use real-time insights to respond more effectively, improve operations, and identify new opportunities for business value.
Read Smarter Retail: Multiplying ROI with Connected Intelligence to explore how connected intelligent network solutions can help retailers build more responsive, efficient, and resilient operations: IDC Spotlight, sponsored by Axis Communications, “Smarter Retail: Multiplying ROI with Connected Intelligence,” Doc. # EUR154585426, June 2026.
