Asda has announced it will roll out a crime reporting and intelligence software across its entire store estate following a successful trial. The supermarket giant, which operates more than 1,000 stores across the UK, will deploy the Auror platform to all 1,100 stores.
Pilot success in London
The retailer carried out a pilot using Auror, a third-party platform designed to track and prevent theft, across 30 London stores this year. Asda said the trial delivered "significant improvements in how retail crime is reported and prevented, helping colleagues identify repeat offenders more effectively and focus security resources where they can have the greatest impact."
Auror, which is also used by other retailers and the Metropolitan Police, consolidates information on crimes committed in branches. This helps staff, retailers, and authorities rapidly identify repeat offenders, spot patterns, and report security incidents.
How the system works
With all relevant data in a single source, building, managing, and resolving cases is "streamlined," allowing resources to be focused on stopping the most prolific shoplifters. During the trial, specially-trained Asda staff reviewed CCTV footage related to serious incidents and theft, uploading clips to the platform. The video was then combined with reports from other users, supporting investigations and wider crime prevention efforts.
Asda stressed that no live facial recognition technology was used in the trial or the rollout. Auror says the software has made it 80% faster for Asda staff to record crime.
Retail crime statistics
The move comes as major high street names face concerning levels of retail crime and violence. Asda pointed to the latest BRC Annual Crime Survey, which reported that retail workers faced an average of 36 violent incidents involving a weapon and approximately 1,600 incidents of abuse or violence per day last year.
Asda also cited Auror's UK retailer data, which it said shows repeat offenders are driving high levels of threatening and violent behaviour, with 10% of offenders responsible for 70% of all retail crime. Those repeat offenders are up to four times more likely to be violent or use a weapon, it added.
Investment in security
The grocery chain said it has made a significant investment in protecting staff and shoppers, including more than £90m in the last two years on various security measures. David Lepley, chief operating officer at Asda, said: "Rolling out Auror across our estate will further strengthen our ability to prevent and tackle retail crime. The results from our London pilot demonstrated the value of having a faster and more effective way to report incidents and identify repeat offenders in real time. By working more closely with police and retailers through a shared intelligence network, we can focus our efforts where they will have the greatest impact and help to tackle retail crime."
Mark Gleeson, general manager UK and Europe at Auror, said: "We're delighted to welcome Asda to our strong network of like-minded retailers who are all committed to keeping frontline retail colleagues safe and taking on retail crime together. It's fantastic to see retailers like Asda unite to take a stand against the top 10% of offenders causing 70% of retail crime and take back UK's high streets. Auror has made it 80% faster to record crime for Asda colleagues and early pilot results saw the team identify dozens of prolific repeat offenders, with the majority known to offend at stores owned by other retail brands within the Auror Network. This is why the network effect is key to getting on top of this problem. Retailers are working more effectively with police than ever before through digital collaboration. This is helping them surface the true scale of offending, understand and respond to risk across their estates, and focus their precious resources on those repeats, organised, and violent offenders - creating safer stores for all."
