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What’s new in loss prevention security?

April 28, 2025

Table of Contents

You’ve always been in the business of protecting people, assets, and profits. But today, the job of loss prevention is more complex than ever. Shrink is rising. Organized retail crime (ORC) is evolving. And you’re being asked to deliver results with fewer people, tighter budgets, and more pressure to prove ROI.

The truth? The old playbook – cameras, DVRs, gut instinct – is no longer enough.

So what does that look like in practice?

This article explores how loss prevention security is changing in 2025, and how the latest tools – especially cloud-based, AI-powered security platforms – can help you meet expectations, simplify your work, and increase your overall business impact.

Why it’s time to rethink the tools you rely on

If you’re still using aging DVRs or juggling a mix of disconnected platforms, you already know how frustrating it is. You waste time switching between systems, digging for footage, trying to align timestamps, and wondering if your alerts are even working.

And while you’re doing that, risks continue to grow:

  • ORC rings are targeting multiple stores with coordinated hits.
  • Internal theft is harder to spot, masked by seemingly normal transactions.
  • Compliance gaps around safety, access control, and audits can quickly escalate into costly issues.
Your current systems aren’t keeping up. They don’t give you real-time visibility or help prevent loss – only respond after it happens, if you can even find the right footage.

When it comes to successful loss prevention, you don’t need more cameras. You need smarter software that makes your current hardware more effective – allowing you to act faster and with confidence. Below are some of the key trends pushing loss prevention in that direction.

Key trends driving loss prevention security in 2025

  1. Smarter video with AI-powered analytics 

  2. How much time are you spending reviewing footage? We’re going to take a guess – it’s too much. With AI video analytics, you have the power to cut that time down, improving your investigations in the process.

    Instead of manually watching hours of video, you can:

    • Automatically detect behaviors like loitering, crowd buildup, or access to restricted areas.
    • Connect video to POS data and search for high-risk events like excessive refunds or no-sales.
    • Surface repeat visitors or internal behavior patterns that flag potential risks.
    This isn’t future tech, it’s here now. With AI doing the heavy lifting, you focus your time where it matters most: decision-making, case building, and prevention. And when you can search by keyword, employee ID, or transaction type? You close investigations significantly faster. 

    Modern platforms like Solink help LP teams search video by event or transaction, making it easy to jump straight to the footage that supports a claim, dispute, or fraud investigation.
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  1. Cloud-based physical security 

  2. Physical security used to mean being on site. But in today’s world, LP teams need access from anywhere. Especially as they manage multiple stores, time zones, and staff changes.

    Thankfully, modern cloud-based video management systems offer you the capabilities that on-premise simply can’t, including:

    • Remote access to live and recorded video.
    • A centralized dashboard to monitor all locations.
    • Real-time alerts, so you know what’s happening the moment it happens.
    When you can verify a delivery from your phone, investigate an incident from your laptop, or share footage with leadership instantly, you’re in control, no matter where you are. This level of access makes your team more agile and responsive. And when your security systems are cloud-managed, you don’t rely on IT for every update or configuration. It just works.

  3. Predicative and preventative strategies

  4. Reactive loss prevention is expensive. By the time you’ve reviewed footage, built a case, and responded, the loss has already occurred. In 2025, the most effective LP teams aren’t just reacting, they’re anticipating.

    With smarter tools, you’re not only protecting inventory- you’re identifying training gaps, supporting your store managers, and keeping your policies tight without micromanagement. You can:

    • Set rules to flag unusual behavior (like high-dollar refunds or overnight register access).
    • Detect early signs of internal theft or process abuse.
    • Use historical data to identify location-based trends and systemic risks.
    This is proactive loss prevention. And it’s more scalable than reactive, incident-driven models ever were.

  5. System integration and platform consolidation

  6. Having to pull data from five different places just to get a clear view of one incident is not effective for anyone.

    Disconnected systems – separate video management tools, alarm panels, access logs, and POS platforms – slow down investigations and often lead to incomplete conclusions. You deserve a platform that brings everything together:

    • Video
    • POS transactions
    • Access control logs
    • Alerts and sensor activity
    When it’s all in one place, you don’t waste time chasing context. You get the full story in seconds, and you act with certainty.

    Consolidating your tools reduces time to resolution, simplifies training, and gives you clearer, more actionable insight. It also helps you demonstrate value beyond LP, supporting HR, ops, and finance with data they can trust.

  7. Mobile-first loss prevention 

  8. Whether you’re overseeing three locations or 300, you’re expected to stay on top of issues wherever they happen. That’s why mobile access isn’t a nice-to-have – it’s essential.

    Modern platforms let you:

    • Monitor activity from your phone or tablet.
    • Respond to incidents in real time, even off-site.
    • Share video with partners or law enforcement on the fly.
    • Manage permissions or settings remotely.
    You stay efficient, even when your schedule isn’t. And your team stays connected, no matter where they’re working.

  9. LP as a source of operational insight

  10. Today, you’re not just protecting product. You’re protecting business performance. Loss prevention has become a strategic lever in many businesses, helping improve operations, compliance, and even customer experience. 

    With the right platform, you should be able to

    • Confirm open and close times.
    • Validate deliveries and vendor access.
    • Monitor adherence to safety protocols or brand standards.
    • Spot bottlenecks and identify process breakdowns.
    This expanded visibility doesn’t just reduce shrink and theft, it increases efficiency. It’s one more reason why modern LP is more valuable to business performance than ever before.

  11. LP is now data-driven, not gut-driven 

  12. You’re no longer expected to “just know” where the risk is. You’re expected to show it with data. That means:

    • Reporting loss trends by region or time of day.
    • Tying LP actions to measurable outcomes.
    • Building airtight cases backed by video and transaction logs.
    • Proving ROI to finance and executive leadership.
    Modern platforms help you do all of this without needing a data science degree. You get dashboards, reports, and tools that tell the story for you – allowing you to spend more time leading and less time pulling spreadsheets.

    Software platforms that aggregate and visualize this data help teams make smarter calls, measure their impact, and prove their value to senior leadership. Solink, for instance, enables LP professionals to build dashboards, analyze patterns, and share performance reports tied directly to loss prevention outcomes.

Common ways modern LP teams are using loss prevention security tools

Let’s ground this in reality. Here’s how your LP team can use these strategies and tools right now:

Fraud prevention. Matching video to POS events to detect refund abuse, no-sale manipulation, or cashier theft.

Organized retail crime response. Flagging repeat offenders, tracking regional patterns, and coordinating evidence across stores.

Vendor dispute resolution. Confirming delivery or service claims using searchable, timestamped video.

Compliance monitoring. Ensuring PPE use, access control, and operational standards are followed without constant in-person checks.

Safety incident validation. Using video to support investigations, protect employees, and verify training outcomes.

These aren’t just theoretical use cases, they’re practical examples of how LP teams are using smarter tools to reduce friction, save time, and increase ROI.

The dream: Proactive, software-led loss prevention

The dream for loss prevention teams is clear: A system that’s easy to use, works with the cameras already in place, and provides fast, meaningful insights without requiring hours of manual work.

In 2025, that dream is not out of reach.

Software-first solutions like Solink allow your LP team to:
  • Enhance visibility across all locations
  • Detect and prevent loss faster
  • Centralize data and simplify collaboration
  • Improve cross-departmental value and justify investment
And perhaps most importantly, they do it without requiring massive hardware overhauls. It’s not about replacing your system. It’s about getting more from it.

How Solink can help

If you’re ready to modernize your loss prevention strategy without replacing your entire security infrastructure, Solink offers a powerful path forward.

Solink is designed to work with the cameras and systems you already have, transforming them into an intelligent, cloud-based loss prevention security and operations solution. That means no disruptive hardware overhaul, just smarter software layered onto your existing hardware.

With Solink, your team gains:

Searchable video linked to transactions

No more digging through hours of footage. Solink connects video directly to your POS system, allowing you to search by transaction type, amount, staff member, or even anomaly flags. It’s a faster, more precise way to investigate and close cases.

AI-based alerts for anomalies and risk events

Whether it’s a register opening after hours, repeated access to restricted areas, or unusual traffic patterns in high-risk zones, Solink’s AI-powered alerts notify your team in real time – so you can act before loss escalates.

Remote visibility across every location

Solink’s cloud platform gives LP professionals full access from anywhere, on desktop or mobile. You can monitor activity across all locations, review incidents, or share clips with stakeholders without ever setting foot in the store.

Automatic cloud updates and system monitoring

Because Solink is cloud-native, your system stays current without manual maintenance or complicated upgrades. You always have the latest features, security patches, and integrations, no IT burden required.

Low lift for IT, high impact for LP

Solink is built to be easy to implement, intuitive to use, and scalable across regions or store counts. It reduces IT overhead while delivering measurable ROI across both loss prevention and operations.

Whether you’re battling ORC, looking to streamline investigations, or searching for better visibility across your locations, Solink will help your LP team go from reactive to proactive- without starting from scratch.

Book a personalized demo today to see how Solink helps you get more value from the video hardware you already have.
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