CCTV for shops and retail units
A single-unit shop is four views — the till, the entrance, the stockroom door and the rear fire exit — and framing the till correctly matters more than the camera count. This guide covers where each camera goes, why a shopfront in daylight defeats a badly placed lens, and what the ICO expects on signage, staff and changing rooms. We supply the equipment; you or your installer fits it.
4-camera systems: Single unit: till, door, stockroom, rear exit
Four views cover a single-unit shop — the till framed from opposite the operator, the entrance shot into the shop rather than at the glass, the stockroom door and the rear fire exit.
Drives from 1 TB to 20 TB in this band.
Hikvision 4-channel CCTV kit4cameras4K
- 4× 4K Turret
4-channel DVR · 10TB
Keeps about 28 days of footage
Covers a house
Reuses the round coax cable of an older system
Hikvision 4-channel CCTV kit4cameras4K
- 4× 4K Turret
4-channel DVR · 10TB
Keeps about 28 days of footage
Covers a house
Reuses the round coax cable of an older system
Hikvision 4-channel CCTV kit4cameras4K
- 4× 4K Turret
4-channel DVR · 10TB
Keeps about 28 days of footage
Covers a house
Reuses the round coax cable of an older system
Hikvision 4-channel CCTV kit4cameras5MP
- 4× 5MP Turret
4-channel DVR · 6TB
Keeps about 34 days of footage
Covers a house
Reuses the round coax cable of an older system
8-camera systems: Aisles, delivery bay and back office
Eight adds the aisles, the delivery bay, the back office and the shop floor from the far corner — the point most shops reach when they take on a second entrance or a yard.
Drives from 2 TB to 20 TB in this band.
Hikvision 8-channel CCTV kit8cameras5MP
- 8× 5MP Turret
8-channel DVR · 10TB
Keeps about 28 days of footage
Covers a shop or small business
Reuses the round coax cable of an older system
Hikvision 8-channel CCTV kit8cameras5MP
- 8× 5MP Turret
8-channel DVR · 10TB
Keeps about 28 days of footage
Covers a shop or small business
Reuses the round coax cable of an older system
Hikvision 8-channel CCTV kit8cameras5MP
- 8× 5MP Bullet
8-channel DVR · 10TB
Keeps about 28 days of footage
Covers a shop or small business
Reuses the round coax cable of an older system
Hikvision 8-channel CCTV kit8cameras5MP
- 8× 5MP Turret
8-channel DVR · 10TB
Keeps about 28 days of footage
Covers a shop or small business
Reuses the round coax cable of an older system
Not sure how many cameras you need?
Answer three questions and the finder narrows the range to systems that fit your site.
What are you covering?
This just sets how many cameras we start from. You can widen it afterwards.
How to cover a shop with CCTV
Count views, not square metres. A single-unit shop usually needs four: the till from behind and slightly to the side, the entrance, the stockroom door and the rear fire exit. Eight adds the aisles, the delivery bay, the back office and the shop floor from the far corner.
The till view is the one that earns the system. Frame it so a single shot holds the customer's face, their hands and the note being passed — a camera in the ceiling directly above the till gives you the top of two heads and settles nothing. Mount it opposite the operator at about 2.4 m, 2.8 mm lens for a small counter, 4 mm once the customer stands more than 3 m away.
The entrance is where most shops get it wrong. A camera pointed at a glass shopfront in daylight is shooting into tens of thousands of lux and will hand you a silhouette. Point it into the shop so faces are lit by your own lighting, and choose a camera with real WDR rather than hoping the recorder fixes it.
At night the question is colour. Infrared gives clean monochrome down to 0 lux, which identifies a shape but not a coat. ColorVu and Smart Hybrid Light models hold colour by bringing their own white light, which is worth paying for at the till and the door where a description is the evidence. Turrets suit both jobs indoors and out; keep bullets for a long car park or a side alley.
If you are replacing an older system, check the cable before you price anything. Analogue over coax runs up to 4K down the RG59 already in the walls and needs no rewiring, which is why most shop refits stay analogue — HD-TVI (Hikvision brands it Turbo HD), AHD and HDCVI are the three flavours, and the hybrid recorders we sell accept all of them. A PoE IP kit needs one Cat6 run per camera and repays it in image quality and on-camera analytics.
Two hard rules. Never put a camera in a fitting room: the ICO names changing rooms as somewhere CCTV should not be running. And tell your staff before you switch on, not after — the ICO's position is that it will not usually be fair to use security CCTV to monitor or discipline them without warning.
Sources: The ICO's video surveillance guidance · The ICO's CCTV advice for small organisations