High street retailers go all in on facial recognition

Retailers are increasingly adopting facial recognition technology to combat a post-pandemic surge in shoplifting and staff abuse. According to the British Retail Consortium, industry security spending reached nearly £1 billion last year, totalling £5.5 billion since 2020. This investment appears to be yielding results; detected shoplifting incidents fell from 20.4 million in 2024 to 5.5 million in 2025, while the value of stolen goods dropped to £408 million. Daily violence against workers also decreased by a fifth to 1,600 incidents.

Large retailers are using facial recognition software to identify suspects retrospectively or through real-time alerts. Tesco, Marks and Spencer, Morrisons, and Boots use technology from Auror, a New Zealand company, which offers retrospective facial recognition (RFR) and plans to launch live facial recognition (LFR) later this year. Morrisons reported tripling the value of organised crime referrals to police during its trials. Sainsbury’s noted a 46% drop in theft and aggression and a 92% reduction in repeat offenders during a trial with Facewatch.

Facewatch, which charges approximately £10 per camera daily, already provides live monitoring for Budgens, Sports Direct, B&M, and Home Bargains. Unlike Auror, Facewatch shares a database of over 100,000 criminal images across its client network. While experts caution that camera angles and image quality can limit effectiveness, adoption continues to grow as the UK government prepares to toughen retail crime laws. New measures include removing the £200 threshold that previously allowed for more lenient sentencing in low-value shoplifting cases.

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