RESOURCES
National Retail Federation’s Retail Big Show
Henry Helgeson
January 24, 2013
It’s the retail industry’s biggest show and it did not disappoint this year. The National Retail Federation (NRF) held it’s 102nd Retail BIG Show January 13th through the 16th in New York City, attended by more than 28,000 of retails top brass from around the globe. For Merchant Warehouse, it was our first time exhibiting at the event and we had an incredible debut. Conference sessions featured leaders from well-known brands including Kraft, Sam’s Club, Macy’s, Brook Brothers, and Coca-Cola, to name just a few, with conversation topics ranging from global expansion to addressing showrooming to socialnomics. In addition to the vast array of educational sessions, the show also featured hundreds of exhibitors’ demonstrating a myriad of retail solutions. To my amazement, I saw everything...
Mobile Payments Security
Henry Helgeson
November 27, 2012
As the mobile payments’ media spotlight shines on who will ‘win’ the digital wallet race or when near-field communication (NFC) will evolve to a mainstream technology, another critical topic is security and how digital wallets work to protect consumer data. Interestingly enough, there are various form factors of digital or mobile wallets and each operates differently, so it’s critical that we begin with a look at each type of digital wallet and how it operates. Cloud based wallets, such as those offered by Starbucks, LevelUp, and Pay with Square, store sensitive data in the cloud with nothing being stored on the smartphone or tablet itself. Most cloud based wallet providers vault the card data in a centralized, PCI compliant hosting environment with none of the card data ever...
Money2020 In Review
Henry Helgeson
October 30, 2012
In its inaugural year, Money2020, a conference focused on how niche innovations are collectively shaping the new reality of money, did not disappoint. The conference, held last week in Las Vegas, featured over 75 educational sessions, dozens of exhibitors and 2,000 industry professionals. The conference opened with a series of deep dive educational breakouts ranging from Investment Capital for Money2020 Innovations to EMV and then officially launched with a motivating keynote from Suze Orman. Keynotes and educational tracks included a wide range of topics including banking 2.0, personal financial management, digital wallets, virtual currencies, online-to-offline commerce, electronic receipts, merchant solutions, alternative credit and more. Relevant to the payments ecosystem, Karen...
Credit Card Surcharging: It’s Bad for Business
Henry Helgeson
September 25, 2012
In July, card issuers and banks reached a 7.25 billon dollar settlement with merchants. As a result of the settlement, nearly seven million merchants will receive paid damages and lower processing interchange fees for a period of eight months. The settlement, which is viewed as a major ‘win’ for merchants, also allows merchants to charge a capped fee to the customer when they choose to pay with credit and not cash or check. We could see merchants exercising their right to surcharge or credit purchases as soon as January 2013, but is it a good business decision? Customers using credit cards will likely view any surcharge as simply a higher price and not a convenience expense for using plastic over cash, leading them to a competitive business or an online retailer for a ‘better deal’. In...
The Future of Payments
Henry Helgeson
June 28, 2012
Hundreds of new payment types and customer programs have entered the marketplace over the past year, and the end is nowhere in sight. These converging payment types and customer programs are creating disruption for POS developers, agents and merchants. This whitepaper provides an overview on the key new players driving change in mobile payments, predictions on the future size of mobile payments, frustrations and challenges each market segment is facing and solving for the future. Download the Merchant Warehouse Whitepaper today
The Future is Customer Engagement
Henry Helgeson
June 12, 2012
This is a very exciting time in the industry. There is an onslaught of new entries to the marketplace and, while emerging payment types including mobile wallets, NFC, EMV, and QR codes have not reached mass adoption, there is a major paradigm shift on the horizon. In fact, Gartner predicts that, “Worldwide mobile payment is expected to have 448 million users and $617 billion in transaction value by 2016.” In North America alone, Gartner is predicting mobile payment user growth of 177 percent from 32.7 million users in 2012 to over 90 million in 2016. * We are also witnessing a sea of change in customer expectations in terms of value, mobility, choice and personalized offers. Customers today are seeking out merchants who offer including loyalty rewards, personalized discounts and other...
Keeping Ahead of the Thief: PCI Compliance for the Small Business
Henry Helgeson
September 30, 2008
TJX, Hannaford, Okemo Mountain and others have drawn massive attention as large merchants who have been breached and had millions of consumers' data compromised. While breaches at these large corporations certainly represent more data than that of most of the 6 million small merchants nationwide, small businesses are not exempt from having consumer credit card information stolen, or from meeting the same requirements for protection of sensitive consumer data. In reality, it is imperative that these businesses begin to see themselves as targets and put steps in place to combat data theft. However, there is a lack of education for small merchants about data security and compliance issues. According to Visa and the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB), 57 percent of small...