On September 7, Equifax, one of the “big three” U.S. credit bureaus, announced a massive data breach impacting an estimated 143 million Americans. Now that preliminary information related to the breach has been released, this CapraPLUS post reflects on what happened, the impacts of the event (both immediate and long-term),...
Fraud Programs – Doing More Harm Than Good?
U.S. merchants had an astounding $9 Billion in payment card fraud in 2015, a number that continues to grow at an increasing rate year after year.[1] In a retail climate that that faces increasingly tighter margins, higher operating costs, and intense competition from low cost, online only retailers, fraud losses...
Should I Care About The Blockchain? Part 2
This is the second piece in a 2-part series dedicated to blockchain technology. If you would like to read the part 1, which covers what the blockchain is, and how it works, you can do so here. When Will The Blockchain Affect My Business? All of the promises made by...
Should I Care About The Blockchain? Part 1
This is a 2-part series on blockchain technology. In part 1, we will explore what blockchain technology is and provide a simplified explanation of how it works. In part 2, we will identify when to expect enterprise blockchain adoption, and what you should be doing in order to prepare. The...
Click & Mortar – About To Be at a Whole Foods Market Near You
August 24, 2017 - Today Amazon announced several initiatives it will begin to execute on when it closes on its deal to acquire Whole Foods Market this coming Monday. I blogged about this just two months ago and my vision closely matches the plans Jeff Wilke, CEO of Amazon Worldwide...
What Have We Done To Consumer Expectations?
Whatever you think of him, Steve Jobs was excellent at product development. Consumer friendly, intuitive design was the at the core of every product he introduced. He felt that the user should be able to effectively use a device or software without being told or shown how, and he did...
How Net Neutrality Affects Your E-commerce Business
What is Net Neutrality? Imagine that the websites you access most often suddenly begin to charge subscription fees. Some of these fees you may opt into— online news subscriptions, video streaming, etc. Other fees you may not even notice you are paying— the shoes you want become more expensive as...
Click & Mortar
The following has been re-posted from C-Store Decisions. The original article can be found here. Amazon’s Whole Foods acquisition shows brick-and-mortar and online retailing can help strengthen each other when brought together. By Ed Collupy With what seems like the click of the mouse, Amazon has made its entry into...
What Happens When the Lights Go Out?
Background Driven by the high-profile data security breaches at global retail brands (Target, Michaels, etc.) over the past 10 years, directors across all retail verticals have elevated data security to a top priority of their organizations. As a result, maintaining the confidentiality and integrity of PCI, PII, and sensitive corporate...
ePOS Software Release Testing: How much is enough?
Recently, a customer asked me about the required level of testing to perform for a new build of ePOS software. My response was “It depends on what changes were made”. The response seemed to baffle some in the meeting because of the commonly held belief that every new software build...
Moving Forward With Payment Technology
The following has been re-posted from C-Store Decisions. The original article can be found here. As EMV implementation wraps up, retailers must consider where mobile payment solutions are headed. By Ed Collupy The baseball season is in full swing and I’m reminded as I continue to think about card payments...
EMV Hopes – An Implementation Update
The following has been re-posted from C-Store Decisions. The original article can be found here. As retailers struggle with compliance, chargebacks from the liability shift have been larger than anyone in the industry anticipated. By Ed Collupy The implementation of EMV (Europay, Mastercard and Visa) chip card acceptance should be...
