How to Streamline Management With Advanced Convenience Store Security 

The United States convenience store industry has seen rapid expansion and transformation in recent years. Market data shows that convenience stores were the fastest-growing retail channel in the US from 2023 to 2024, with 1.5% year-over-year growth. Across the nation, over 150,000 convenience stores are in operation. However, as growth accelerates, businesses find themselves struggling to effectively scale their operations with the addition of new locations, employees, and systems. 

For these multi-location convenience store businesses, bottlenecks arise as their existing security infrastructure creates disconnected stores and isolated management, which inhibit productivity and impact business performance. To solve this, organizations can turn to centralized cloud video security to unify locations, users, and devices, improving operations and security in a single pane of glass. 

In this article, we explore the challenges facing convenience stores and highlight how an open platform cloud video surveillance solution can help organizations overcome these obstacles, unify operations, and prepare for scalable, flexible growth. 

How a Disconnected Organization Hurts Convenience Store Operations 

Convenience stores often operate across a wide range of areas, serving diverse customer bases with unique needs and expectations, creating a phenomenon known as “market-type dispersion.” Research shows when store units are isolated in their different market types, the organization tends to see overall diminished performance at both chain and single store levels. To address profitability and reduce operational costs, many companies have pursued standardization of processes across locations. However, these initiatives frequently encounter obstacles such as inadequate tools and outdated infrastructure, making it difficult to efficiently meet each location’s unique needs and increasing the risk of costly errors in daily operations. 

Below, we’ll examine the three sides of this issue and how they create more work for location-specific operators as well as the entire organization, negatively impacting the bottom line and creating less support for team members. 

Fragmented, Isolated Convenience Store Locations 

One of the most pressing challenges for multi-location convenience store organizations is the fragmentation of systems and operations across their stores, created by outdated security systems without remote access. District managers often need to visit each site in person to ensure operations are running smoothly or to review security footage, creating extra time and effort to managing these locations. 

Fragmented operations is a problem that only gets compounded when you factor in the high rates of staff turnover within the industry. According to the NACS SOI Compensation Report of 2022, average turnover rates for store associates have reached 141%, up substantially from previous years, and have consistently exceeded 100% since 2016. For those managing security systems, constant staff changes require frequent updates as to who can access cameras and security systems across locations, increasing the number of overall site visits. If store managers fail to remove access promptly, it can create security gaps and increase risk. 

Legacy and Disconnected Security Systems 

Another core challenge lies in the reliance on closed, outdated security technologies, which end up being fragmented and requiring multiple platforms for access. Often, each store within an organization utilizes its own distinct camera system, resulting in a patchwork of incompatible video systems and equipment. As a result, monitoring these systems can become cumbersome and inefficient, requiring staff to juggle different software applications, passwords, and access procedures to retrieve video footage. 

This issue extends beyond video surveillance: other essential systems, such as point-of-sale (POS), access control panels, intrusion alarms, and business management platforms are frequently disconnected from one another as well. Store operators are forced to navigate a complex web of platforms, increasing the risk of operational bottlenecks, wasted time, and overlooked security vulnerabilities. This lack of integration not only hinders daily operations but can also leave organizations exposed to potential risks that could otherwise be addressed through an open platform. 

Difficulty Expanding Business Operations 

Expansion is at the heart of the convenience store industry’s recent growth, with operators frequently acquiring takeover locations or building new stores. Yet, bringing an added location online can be a time-consuming and costly process, especially when existing security infrastructure is unable to be leveraged and must be entirely replaced. 

Efficient, seamless growth requires a solution that is both flexible and scalable, capable of integrating with current and legacy hardware and able to onboard new stores quickly while maintaining consistent processes across the organization. 

Improve Store Management With Cloud Video Surveillance 

To address these issues, convenience stores can leverage an advanced cloud-managed video surveillance platform to create more consistent operations across the organization. These solutions are designed to unify users, locations, and devices in a single platform, empowering businesses to flexibly scale their operations to new and existing locations. 

Below, we examine how cloud video surveillance solves the problems detailed above through centralized management, an open platform, and flexible deployment to meet your organization’s needs today while best preparing you for the goals of tomorrow. 

Manage Your Security From Anywhere 

Cloud-based video surveillance enables remote access of security video from wherever on the device best suited for the task, while offering seamless management of multiple locations, users, and devices. By leveraging the cloud to access live and recorded security video from any location, store managers and operators can review incidents, verify store processes, and support team members without having to travel to each individual location. 

User management allows authorized users to oversee the systems needed for their work conveniently in the cloud video platform, which can be further customized based on their level of access. 

For example, a store manager can have access to the video system of the store they’re primarily responsible for, while an IT team member at HQ may have access to all locations to ensure the system is functioning properly across the organization. The ability to easily provision user access as well as add or remove users, with updates instantly pushed through the cloud, improves security and helps accommodate the high turnover rates that impact the convenience store industry. Additionally, proactive alerts help enable swift action to further team support, while shared reports and video clips facilitate collaboration and centralized oversight. 

Ultimately, cloud technology unifies operational processes so that support and supervision can be delivered remotely with far fewer bottlenecks or delays. 

Integrate Business and Security Systems 

An open cloud surveillance solution offers the ability to unify video, third-party cameras, access control, POS, and other business systems in a single pane of glass. By tying these systems together and connecting disparate data points with video, convenience store organizations won’t need to jump between platforms to find different information, instead having them in one place for more immediate insights. 

The open platform provides additional flexibility in the solutions that convenience stores use. This gives businesses the freedom of choice to determine which systems are best suited for their needs as opposed to being locked into a single vendor. Not only that, but the open platform can incorporate future innovations into today’s system, so there won’t be pressure to rip and replace existing security measures to take advantage of the latest technology. 

Seamlessly Scale Across New and Existing Store Locations 

By leveraging a cloud-managed video platform, convenience stores can seamlessly grow their organization across new and takeover locations thanks to the flexibility offered via the open platform. 

New locations can be brought online in the timeframe that works best for your organization, without excessive hardware costs or installation delays. Devices, users, and permissions can be configured for each store to maintain standardized processes. 

For locations with existing security infrastructure, an open platform allows installed systems to be integrated into the platform, sparing stores from expensive rip-and-replace projects. Bringing disparate legacy systems into a single cloud platform ensures consistent processes and visibility across all operations. In situations where stores currently have security blind spots or may not be ready for a complete system, cloud cameras can accelerate deployment. 

This approach equips convenience store operators with the agility to respond to new market opportunities, integrate acquisitions, and fortify existing operations. 

Manage Locations Seamlessly With OpenEye Web Services 

Convenience store organizations struggling with isolated locations, fragmented systems, and slow expansion can benefit from a scalable cloud video platform. These solutions allow businesses to unify store management and integrate disparate systems as your organization grows. 

OpenEye’s cloud-managed surveillance platform empowers organizations with remote centralized management for improved operations company-wide, alongside reports, shareable video clips, and proactive alerts for additional business intelligence. OpenEye Web Services (OWS) seamlessly integrates with third-party devices and systems, enabling convenience store operators to leverage existing infrastructure, connect legacy systems, and scale effortlessly with organizational growth. OpenEye’s cloud cameras provide an additional method for securing new or takeover locations with an all-in-one video solution with onboard recording and dedicated analytics processor, providing the benefits of OWS in a scalable form. 

Ready to optimize operations and unify your stores? Book an OWS demo to learn more about how our cloud video surveillance platform can streamline multi-location convenience store management.