Where to put cameras in a retail or hospitality tenancy — and why most installations get the angles wrong.
Walk into any Newmarket clothing retailer or Ponsonby Road café with cameras and look up. Most installations have one or two cameras pointed at the room from the back wall — the “general overview” shot. When something goes wrong, the footage shows you that something happened, but rarely shows you who. Good retail CCTV placement is layered: identification at every door, till-level coverage with timestamp, back-of-house, and overview as the supporting layer rather than the primary. Here’s how to do it.
The single most important camera in retail is the entry identification camera. Mounted at face height (about 1.7m), framed narrow on the doorway, it captures a clean shot of every person entering or leaving. When a suspect is identified two weeks later, this is the camera that gives police or insurer a usable face.
Common mistakes: mounting the camera high above the door (faces are foreshortened and partially obscured by hats), using a wide-angle lens (face is too small in the frame to be useful), and framing too tight (cuts off taller customers).
For multi-entry stores (front door + side door + back fire-exit), each entry needs its own identification camera. The few hundred dollars for an extra camera at a back door is trivial compared to the cost of unidentified back-door theft.
Cash-handling areas need a dedicated camera framed directly on the till and the counter, with a timestamp overlay burned into the recorded footage. The purpose is two-fold: incident review for transaction disputes, and shrinkage / staff-theft documentation.
Place the camera above and slightly behind the counter, looking down at the till and the customer’s side of the counter. Get the till display, the customer’s hands, and the area where stock is bagged into one frame. Avoid mounting the camera so it only sees the back of the till operator’s head — you want the customer transaction visible.
Hospitality applies the same principle: a camera over the bar or POS terminal with a timestamp overlay, usable for both incident review and food-safety / service review if needed.
The second-largest source of retail loss after entry-door incidents is back-of-house: stock shrinkage, returns processing, deliveries, and the back door used as an after-hours entry point.
Sales-floor overview cameras are the supporting layer, not the primary. One or two wide-angle cameras give you general context for incidents but don’t replace identification cameras at the entry. For larger floors (200 m²+), one overview camera per zone — e.g. front, middle, fitting-rooms area, electronics area — works better than one wide-angle camera trying to see the whole shop.
Avoid the urge to have an overview camera with everything in frame. The further the subject is from the camera, the more pixels per face you need to identify them. A 4MP camera framing a 10m wide shop won’t identify anyone past the first 4m.
Fitting-room theft is a real issue in apparel retail, but cameras inside fitting rooms are illegal in NZ under the Privacy Act 2020. The compliant alternative: a camera on the corridor leading to the fitting rooms, framed to capture every person entering and leaving but not inside the room itself. Document the framing in your commissioning pack to show due diligence.
For shops on Hurstmere Road, Ponsonby Road, Newmarket Broadway, or any other Auckland retail strip with public frontage, a camera on the shopfront looking out at the street can be useful for after-hours break-attempt evidence. Privacy-mask the public footpath beyond what’s necessary for the security purpose; the Privacy Act 2020 still applies to public-space recording.
| Store size | Typical cameras | Indicative cost (supplied & installed) |
|---|---|---|
| Small café / boutique (50–100 m²) | 4 (entry ID, till, back-of-house, rear door) | $2,800–$4,500 |
| Mid-size retail (100–250 m²) | 6 (entry ID, till, back-of-house, rear door, 2 overview) | $4,500–$7,500 |
| Larger retail / hospitality (250–500 m²) | 8–12 (per layer above) | $7,500–$13,000 |
| Big-format / department | 16+ (with ANPR if loading dock) | $15,000+ |
CCTV installation services · Retail security solutions · CCTV cost guide
Indicative supplied-and-installed price for a Comsys CCTV system. Move the inputs to match your site — the calculator updates live.
This calculator is a guide only. Final pricing depends on the site visit — specific camera models, mounting access, cable routing, and any access control or alarm integration can move the number up or down. We always quote in writing after a free on-site assessment, with brand and model itemised so you can see exactly what you’re paying for.
