Body-Worn Cameras in Retail: What UK Shoppers Are Really Saying

Whether you lead loss prevention, manage HR and colleague wellbeing, or oversee store operations, protecting your teams and customers is a shared priority. This blog will use the results from independent research we commissioned in 2026 to answer a question that comes up in almost every deployment conversation: what do shoppers really think about body-worn cameras? The answer has direct implications for all functions within the business.

The Challenge Facing UK Retail Has Never Been More Pressing

According to the BRC Crime Report 2026, there were 1,617 recorded incidents of violence and abuse against retail workers every single day in 2024/25, the second highest rate on record. Physical violence accounts for 118 incidents a day, with 36 involving a weapon.

The financial toll is significant too. In 2023/24, the BRC reported that retail crime cost the industry £4.2 billion in total, including £2.2 billion in customer theft and £1.8 billion spent on crime prevention. The most recent data shows 5.45 million incidents of shop theft recorded in a single year, costing retailers a further £400 million in direct losses.

For the people working in these environments, the toll goes well beyond the financial. The Retail Trust found that 43% of retail staff were abused or attacked every week in 2025, a rise of 10% on the previous year. Its Health of Retail report found that customer abuse had directly and negatively affected the wellbeing of a third of store workers, and that young people in particular are leaving retail altogether as a result.

74.8% 

of UK shoppers see body-worn cameras as a responsible step retailers can take to protect staff and shoppers, while supporting a positive in-store experience, with over one third strongly agreeing.

Source: Reveal Media UK Shopper Survey 2026, conducted by Censuswide.

That level of support holds consistently across age groups, genders and regions. But what stood out even more than the headline figure was what shoppers identified as the primary reason for their support: protecting retail workers. More than half cited staff protection as the number one benefit of body-worn cameras, ahead of deterring theft, gathering evidence or any other consideration. 

Shoppers are not viewing this technology through a surveillance lens. They see it as something that helps keep the people serving them safer. That distinction matters enormously when it comes to how retailers communicate deployment decisions internally, and to their customers.

This finding is particularly significant because colleague scepticism or discomfort is one of the commonly cited barriers when retailers consider deployment. But when your own customers, independently surveyed, say the primary benefit of body-worn cameras is to protect the people serving them, that is a powerful message to share with frontline teams. It reframes the conversation: this is not surveillance imposed on staff, it is a protection measure that the public actively supports. 

Our research also addressed one of the most common concerns retailers raise: will it put customers off? The answer is clear. 87% of shoppers said body-worn cameras would not have a negative impact on their shopping behaviour, with many saying they would actively feel safer or more reassured. Only 9% said they would avoid staff or leave the store. For any retailer already operating CCTV or employing door staff, that figure falls well within normal tolerance.

For retail decision-makers, the case for body-worn video now spans every dimension of the business. It deters incidents before they escalate and supports de-escalation when they do. For HR and people teams, it is tangible evidence of a duty-of-care commitment to frontline colleagues. For loss prevention and retail operations, it generates secure audio and video footage that supports successful prosecutions. And for your brand, independent research shows that body-worn video is a measure the public actively supports.

Retailers from grocery and fashion to DIY and  pharmacy, are already deploying body-worn cameras and seeing the positive results. The shift in shopper perception revealed by our research means the remaining barriers to adoption are lower than many realise, and the case for acting now has never been stronger.