Wireless alarm system for London shops, shipped ready to fit
Wireless alarm system for London shops, planned around your unit, tested before shipping and fitted without drilling or rewiring. Get my system proposal.
A corner newsagent in Walthamstow, a barber on Brixton Road, a phone repair counter in Edgware Road, an independent boutique on Upper Street: London shops are small, packed with stock and often empty at night while the flat upstairs is lived in by someone else. You describe your unit online, we design the system, configure and test it in our workshop, then send it to you ready to mount. A technician guides you through the fitting on a video call.
Where a London shop is really exposed
The glass at the front is what everyone looks at, but on most parades it is the least likely way in: it faces the street, the buses and the night-time foot traffic. The weak points are usually behind and above.
The rear door onto the service yard
Many Victorian parades and post-war shopping rows have a back door opening onto a shared yard or an alley used for bins and deliveries. It is quiet after closing, often badly lit, and the door is frequently a simple timber or steel door with one lock. It gets a contact and, in most proposals, a motion detector just inside.
The stockroom and the safe corner
Vapes, phones, tobacco, spirits, designer stock: the valuable part of a small shop usually sits in one back room or one cabinet. We give it its own zone, so it can stay armed during opening hours while staff work out front.
The flat or office above
Shops with a separate flat upstairs often share a party wall, a ceiling hatch or a back staircase with it. A detector covering the ceiling void or the shared stair door closes a route that roller shutters never protect.
The counter, during the day
Not every risk is at night. A wireless panic button under the counter or on a key ring lets staff raise an alert discreetly. Notifications go to the phones you choose: the owner, a manager, a key holder.
No cable runs, no contractor, no landlord headache
Most London retailers are tenants on a commercial lease. Chasing cables into walls, drilling through a listed shopfront or running wires across a suspended ceiling can mean asking the landlord, sometimes the freeholder, and booking a contractor out of hours. A wireless kit avoids most of that.
- Detectors and contacts fixed with adhesive mounts, removable when you move on
- The hub plugs into a socket and connects to your broadband, with a mobile SIM as backup depending on the model
- Each device is paired, named (“Rear door”, “Stockroom”, “Till”) and tested before the kit leaves our workshop
- Codes or key fobs per employee, with a log of who set and unset the alarm and when
A note on shutters: several London boroughs, Camden and Croydon among them, publish shopfront security guidance and generally ask for planning permission for new external roller shutters, often preferring internal or open-mesh designs. An alarm inside the unit needs no such permission, and it works alongside whatever shutter you already have.
Example only. Your proposal is built from your own shop.
Three London shops, three systems
Convenience store, late opening
Open until 11 pm, deliveries at 6 am, cigarettes behind the counter. The plan focuses on the rear door, the stockroom zone armed all day, a panic button at the till and a fob for each shift lead.
Boutique or gallery, high street
Large display window, stock on rails, closed on Mondays. Glass-break detection on the window, photo-verifying detectors so you can see what triggered an alert, and scheduled automatic arming at closing time.
Café or takeaway with flat above
Back kitchen door onto the yard, cash kept overnight, a tenant upstairs. The rear door and kitchen get priority, plus smoke and leak detectors that can also report to your phone.
From the online form to an armed shop
Describe your shop
Floor area, doors, stockroom, flat above, opening hours, number of staff. A few photos on WhatsApp help a lot.
Receive your proposal
A VISAO technician designs the system and explains where each device goes and what it protects.
Order your kit
Once you approve, we prepare, configure and test the whole system, then ship it ready to fit.
Fit it after closing
Follow the illustrated guide, book a video call with a technician and finish with a full walk test together.
Who responds when the alarm goes off?
A VISAO kit is self-monitored: the siren sounds and the people you have chosen get an instant notification, with a photo if the detector has a camera. You decide what happens next, and you call 999 if a break-in is in progress. In England, police response to alarms is reserved for systems installed by recognised companies and linked to an approved alarm receiving centre; we explain this in our article on police response to alarms. If your insurer or your lease sets requirements for the alarm, tell us before you order and we will say plainly whether our kit meets them.
The equipment is Ajax wireless hardware with encrypted radio, battery backup and NF&A2P certification, the French benchmark for intrusion alarm equipment. Our team has 17 years in the trade and has worked for brands such as McDonald’s, Decathlon and Louis Vuitton.
Questions from London shopkeepers
Can staff keep working while the stockroom is armed?
Yes. The system is split into zones, so the stockroom or the office can stay armed while the shop floor is disarmed during opening hours. Each employee has their own code or fob.
Do I need my landlord’s permission?
Because nothing is drilled or wired into the building, it is usually simpler than a wired system, but check your lease. Anything fixed outside, such as an external siren on the shopfront, may need the landlord’s agreement and, in some areas, planning consent.
What if the power or the broadband goes down at night?
The hub runs on a backup battery and, depending on the model in your proposal, can switch to a mobile SIM if the internet connection fails, so alerts still reach you.
Your London shop, covered front to back
Tell us about your unit in two minutes. We send you a proposal for a system designed around it, then prepare, test and ship your kit once you order.
Live above the shop or elsewhere in the city? See our guide for London flats, our solutions or our home page.