Tuesday, December 22, 2015

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

Since there will likely not be anything "blogworthy" between now and the end of the year, I wanted to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

As you celebrate Christmas do keep in mind that He is the reason for the season!

-Kevin

Monday, December 21, 2015

This Christmas, Retailers Should Give the Gift of Security

EMV cards that contain a silver or gold computer chip have made their way into the wallets of U.S. consumers, but far too many retailers have chosen not to accept the more secure payment technology. This decision, apparently made for the sake of convenience, is short sighted and puts consumers and businesses at risk. This holiday shopping season, the greatest gift retailers can give themselves and their customers is the gift of payment security.

EMV, which stands for Europay, MasterCard and Visa, is an electronic payment technology that has been used successfully to prevent fraud in Europe for years. In fact, since EMV was introduced in Europe, credit card fraud has fallen by 80 percent. Meanwhile, fraud in the United States has increased by 47 percent.

Unfortunately, a Newtek Business Services survey found that nearly 25 percent of small businesses that accept electronic payments have no intention of upgrading to EMV. Furthermore, only 20 percent of EMV-ready terminals have been switched on to accept chip cards, according to a Mercator Advisory Group EMV migration research note.

What these small business owners don’t seem to understand is that in addition to compromising their customers’ security, they are putting themselves at great risk as well.

Losses from counterfeit credit card fraud reached $3 billion in 2014, according to the Aite Group, and is expected to hit $3.6 billion by the end of this year. The advent of EMV technology in America has come with an important liability shift and there is now an onus of responsibility on retailers to keep customer information safe.

Businesses that fail to use EMV chip-enabled payment terminals can now be held responsible for the costs of counterfeit card fraud. While some business owners cite the cost of new terminals—typically a few hundred dollars—as a deterrent for upgrading their payment security, the costs associated with fraud could be enough to shut a small business down for good.

In my nearly 30 years working in retail management and with retail technology, I have seen the consequences of irresponsible data handling time and again. Deciding to put customers’ financial information at risk is not just bad business—it’s wrong. This holiday season, retailers should give their customers the gift of payment security. It may not bring peace on earth, but it will certainly allow for financial peace of mind.

If you are interested in a website with free resources, events and tools related to payment processing and EMV, check out Master Your Card at https://www.masteryourcardusa.org/ which is provided to you by MasterCard.

Friday, December 11, 2015

A Few Changes

Since starting this blog site and via my YouTube channel, I've been contacted by over 600 businesses searching for point of sale advice, technical information, and general advice. Due to a schedule change, and based on feedback, I am currently only offering on site paid consulting services for businesses located in the United States.

I've found that these are the businesses most in need of the type of services that I can provide. It has also become a bit of a gamble recommending any of the tablet and cloud based point of sale systems designed for smaller single location businesses as these tablet and cloud based point of sale systems having been going through various growing pains and just about all of them have various user complaints.

So, if your organization has between 5 and 300 stores in the US (or a single location with more than $1M in annual gross sales) and is in need of unbiased paid point of sale consulting, be sure to get in touch with me by visiting my contact page for information in how to reach me.

Saturday, December 5, 2015

New Videos: Options for RMS/HQ Users and Consulting Process Overview

A couple of new videos that may be of interest to you.  First up is some updated honest advice for stores using the Microsoft Dynamics RMS (and HQ) point of sale software programs.  General advice related to the end of life status with RMS and HQ and how the new Retail Management Hero plays in to your various options:



By request, I have also created a video that highlights in a bit more detail the process that I use when offering unbiased paid point of sale consulting work for larger organizations with between 5 and 300 locations:



Information on how to reach me for more information can be found on my contact page.