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...
Surviving the Next Retail Tech Revolution
How to Avoid Being a Casualty of the Digital Revolution Many retailers looking to differentiate their brand will tackle the risk of becoming early adopters of new in-store technology. Other retailers will play the more cautious angle of waiting to implement new in-store technology until the difficulties associated with launch...
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...
What is Omnichannel Anyway?
Time to Reflect At first glance, Omnichannel appears to require a lot of costly, labor-intensive infrastructure work spanning your payment systems, retail network, loyalty program, etc. However, the hardest part is building something that customers will use and be attracted to. In order to make omnichannel less ominous, let's take...
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...
Where Do Fraudsters Go?
There are undoubtedly hundreds of cybersecurity and fraudulent attacks being committed at this very moment. While merchants have invested time, resources, technology, and hundreds of millions of dollars to protect sensitive company and customer data, fraud continues to rise at an exponential rate. Fraud is Migrating While the U.S. continues...
EMV: Stalled at the Pump
The convenience and fuel retailing industry is buzzing about the announcements from VISA, Mastercard, and American Express that they will delay most of the liability shift for automated fuel dispenser (AFD EMV chip card transactions by 3 years. Convenience store operators and gasoline retailers were preparing to meet the October...
Follow Your Own Technical Compass
The following article has been reposted from C-Store Decisions. No matter where you choose to operate your c-store chain, technological opportunities exist throughout the U.S. By Ed Collupy Compasses have been sailors’ companions for years helping them navigate unfamiliar waters. This election year we’ve certainly heard of the moral compass...
An Engaged Think Tank
The following is re-posted from NACS Online. The objective was simple: Bring together a few IT leaders from the convenience retailing industry and let attendees at the Conexxus Annual Conference in May hear what was on their minds. The aptly named “Think Tank” came together, and quite surprisingly, the three...
Controlling Your Most Controllable Expense
Arguably, employees are the most important asset for a business – also the most expensive. Employee wages represent a major liability on a company’s balance sheet. Any business owner (large or small) worth their salt understands the importance that monitoring and controlling wage spend has on their bottom line....
