Retail operations where the till, the shelf and the receiving bay agree
Retail and fast-moving consumer goods businesses run on thin margins and high volumes, so small repeated losses matter more than rare large ones. We connect the cameras, scanners, point-of-sale terminals, vehicles and back-office systems a chain or distributor already owns, so what happens at the till, on the shelf and at the receiving bay becomes a same-day signal instead of a month-end variance.
Shrinkage is recorded, rarely reviewed
Most supermarkets and hardware retailers already have cameras over the tills, the back door and the yard, and that footage is rarely watched until after a loss is found. We run computer vision, meaning software that interprets what a camera already sees, on those existing feeds and join each event to the till transaction log. Voids, refunds, no-sales, price overrides and items passed over the scanner without registering become flagged moments with the clip attached, so loss control reviews a short queue instead of hours of uneventful video. The system flags; the judgement stays with your people.
The receiving bay is where FMCG margin quietly goes
Goods received notes are usually typed from a supplier delivery note somebody else counted, under pressure while the vehicle waits. A camera and a scanner at the bay record what physically came off the truck, match it to the purchase order, and raise the discrepancy while the driver is still on site rather than in a claim argued three weeks later. The same workflow covers returns, short-dated pulls and inter-branch transfers.
Shelf gaps head office cannot see
A stock-out on a fast-moving line is invisible from head office until the sales simply stop, and by then the shopper has bought it elsewhere. Camera-based monitoring watches the lines you nominate, flags empty facings and misplacement, and alerts the merchandiser on the floor rather than a report circulated on Monday. The same feed gives suppliers dated evidence that a promotional display was built and held.
Van sales, route to market and proof the drop happened
Distributors serving tuckshops, forecourts and independent grocers lose visibility the moment the van leaves the depot. Vehicle tracking on the road and BLE (Bluetooth Low Energy) tags on crates, cages and returnable equipment in the yard give one picture of where stock actually is. The rep confirms each drop from the phone already in his hand, over WhatsApp, so photo, time, location and customer join the invoice at delivery instead of at cash-up the next morning.
Trade customers and the conversations behind the orders
Wholesale customers reorder the same lines constantly and ask the same three questions: price, stock and account balance. A WhatsApp agent answering from your live price list handles the repeat order and hands to a human rep the moment the answer is uncertain or credit is involved; that is the pattern already running in production as the Front Door concierge at Harris Auto. InOne CRM then holds the trade pipeline, the unified inbox, quotes, invoicing and campaigns.
What it covers
Till exceptions with the clip attached
Void, refund, no-sale and scan-avoidance events are paired with video and queued for human review, so an investigation starts with the moment rather than the date.
Receiving verified before the truck leaves
What came off the vehicle is checked against the purchase order on the spot, so a short delivery is documented while it can still be resolved.
Shelf gap alerts to the floor
Nominated lines are monitored for empty facings and misplacement, and the alert reaches the merchandiser on duty.
Stock and assets you can locate
BLE tags on crates, cages and trolleys give a last-seen zone inside the depot, where vehicle tracking tells you nothing.
Attendance that reaches payroll
Facial recognition at the staff entrance replaces the branch register, and casual, split-shift and overtime hours flow into payroll for approval instead of being retyped.
Supplier documents handled automatically
Invoices, delivery notes, claims and credit notes are read, matched to the order and routed for approval rather than keyed into two systems.
How it works
Site assessment
Week zero is spent in one representative branch or depot: front end, receiving bay, stock room and yard. We follow one delivery from truck to shelf and document your point-of-sale, back office, cameras, network and power reality, load-shedding included.
Integration
Over roughly three weeks we connect point-of-sale, stock and HR systems, existing cameras and WhatsApp. The system only observes in this period, building a factual picture of your trading day, peak hours and normal exception rates before it may act.
Rules and guardrails
Exception thresholds, escalation paths, receiving tolerances and payroll logic are agreed with your operations and loss control managers, then tested against your own historical trading data so alerts suit your branches, not a template.
Go live and optimise
One branch goes live first and alerts reach the people who can act. We review weekly, retire noisy rules, tighten generous ones, then roll the proven configuration out across the estate. A first system is typically approximately four to six weeks from assessment to go live.
Questions buyers ask
Do we have to replace our point-of-sale or ERP system?
No. It stays the system of record for pricing, stock and accounting, and we read from it so physical events line up with the transactions it already holds. Replacing a working back office is slow and rarely the actual bottleneck.
Will this work on the cameras we already have?
Often yes, if the recorder can give us a stream and the camera covers the till, door or shelf at a usable angle. The assessment says plainly which positions work, which need repositioning and which are not worth using, before you spend anything.
Are you running facial recognition on our shoppers?
No. Facial recognition is used for staff access and attendance, where employees are informed and it forms part of an agreed HR policy. Shop floor and till analytics work on activity and transaction events, not on identifying customers.
What happens during load-shedding or when the branch link drops?
Devices in the branch keep processing and buffer locally, then forward when power and connectivity return, stamped with when the event happened rather than when it arrived. The dashboard shows when each branch was last heard from instead of presenting stale figures as current.
Our branches outside Harare have poor connectivity. Does that rule us out?
No, and it is a normal starting condition. Processing happens at the branch and only summaries and flagged events travel, so bandwidth needs stay modest. Remote sites often gain most, being the ones nobody visits weekly.
Where does our trading and staff data live?
In your own environment or a dedicated tenant in your name, with a retention period agreed in writing before go live. That covers video, till exceptions and attendance records, scoped to the operational purpose you define.
Book a platform briefing
Fifteen minutes on your operation: what your cameras already cover, and where stock stops being accounted for between the supplier truck and the till. WhatsApp +263 77 636 6999 or sales@eigenstatesystems.com.