W. Capra’s new Strategic Foresight Series focuses on how merchants can transform the digital commerce experiences they deliver to customers through emerging technologies. In each series segment, W. Capra experts dive into an emerging area, outlining the signals of change in the market, potential strategic responses to those signals, and...
Utilizing an AWS framework to measure KPIs
When collecting KPIs, there are certain foundational questions that organizations must ensure they can answer: How can you be certain all of your system processes ran without error? What are the KPIs you are tracking? How long would it take to find out what data your KPIs are measuring? Would...
C-store Operators Move Technology Investments to the Must-Have Column
This article originally appeared in a print edition of Convenience Store News, written by contributor Melissa Kress. Convenience Store News’ online content can be found here. Not that long ago, technology initiatives were a nice-to-have in the convenience channel, a bonus to stand out in the competitive set. But today, convenience store...
Before You Check Out of 2019…
The winter holiday season is around the corner, but that doesn’t mean time stands still and projects need to grind to a halt. While most who work in service industries and operational roles cannot automatically schedule week-long or more vacations around the holidays, many do have the luxury to “check...
Averting the Digital Dilemma
This article originally appeared in a print edition of Convenience Store News, written by contributor Thomas Malloy. Convenience Store News’ online content can be found here. Most c-store operators are by now already familiar with the Internet of Things (IoT). Small sensors and tiny tech machines talk to each other...
EMV Co. and W3C, United for a World Without Friction
One of the hardest parts of the payments universe is increasing transaction speed and reducing friction for the consumer. Let’s be realistic, we have gone from paying with cash to using a mobile phone in a very short time, but the last five years have brought significant change. In the...
Defend Against Dollar Stores: C-stores can protect their turf against value retailers by focusing on strengths and differentiation
This article originally appeared in a print edition of Convenience Store News, written by contributor Tammy Mastroberte. Convenience Store News' online content can be found here. Convenience Store Operators face competition from within the industry, as well as outside of it. This includes quick-service restaurants, drugstores and the expanding dollar...
Touchpoints: The New Point of Sale
The following has been reposted from Convenience Store Decisions. The original post can be found here. New touchpoints are challenging traditional point-of-sale (POS) systems used in the convenience/petro retail industry, as customer-experience-driven technologies, global solution providers and industry leaders look to move their companies forward. For example, as more convenience...
Generational Consumer Preferences: What Does It Mean for Your Business?
We hear it all the time – “Millennials are killing ___”, with any number of products or services filling in the blank. Millennials are currently the largest generation of spenders, and will continue to be for at least the next 10 years [1]. For merchants, this means that the...
What Happened to Cryptocurrency?
In early 2018, in an email to a colleague, I wrote this about cryptocurrency, and it remains prescient even today: “Regardless of when this is being read, the cryptocurrency market will have wildly shifted within the last few days. As cryptocurrency remains prevalent in the news, merchants and all others...
Multi-Factor Authentication and Security Practices Within Office 365
Nearly all organizations experience incoming security threats. Whether it’s via email, malware, or otherwise, organizations must equip themselves with the set of tools to be proactive in blocking and defending themselves against such threats. Organizations in the financial and payment processing sector are unfortunately targeted at a higher rate than...
The Evolving Data Revolution
The following has been reposted from Convenience Store Decisions. The original post can be found here. Not so long ago, scan data meant monitoring how many of which items sold. It gave category managers a new response to vendors using purchase data to allocate shelf space. It relieved store employees from...
