Evan Schuman's StorefrontBacktalk

Visa already has lots of access to lower cost security options, and the world's largest payment card brand has even better access to huge retailers. We didn't say affectionate access, but it is access nonetheless. No, this deal is partially about E-Commerce and mostly about Mobile Commerce, with perhaps a few million dollars worth of PayPal paranoia thrown in.Read more...

There's no small amount of irony that Amazon—which has a well-earned reputation of leveraging every piece of customer information in any way possible to boost sales—is the one making this privacy argument. It's as though Amazon is channeling a classic line from Animal House: "He can't do that to our pledges. Only we can do that to our pledges."Read more...

By also using the phone to purchase food, beverages, t-shirts and other merchandise at the show, Apple's approach goes beyond convenience because of the CRM potential. For the first time, producers can learn precisely which guests are purchasing which extras and for how much.Read more...

It is a somewhat simple concept: The amount of fees paid by a merchant to process a credit card transaction is directly related to how secure their environment is. You create a standard scorecard for each merchant's "risk factors," similar to a credit score.Read more...

To that end, Conway was once asked, "If a VoIP network is used for cardholder data, what sections of PCI DSS would apply?" It was an easy question to answer: All of them.Read more...

Substantial efforts in recent years to protect the data within a split second of a card being swiped have done little beyond making PIN pads the victim of physical attacks. Units are replaced either with a skimmer attached or by a clone of the full device.Read more...

TJX has for years been the Poster Child for retail data breach. And to date, it is also the best example of how little material impact these breaches have. Read more...

Among the top changes, according to PCI officials, are: a requirement that retailers must perform extensive searches for cardholder data across all their networks and systems; clarification on strong one-way hashing of PANs; a move to a three-year PCI lifecycle; clarification on what constitutes acceptable network segmentation; new wording on what constitutes cardholder data; and the applicability of PCI for card issuers.Read more...

Each of the vendors is basically crossing its arms and pointing at the other two. The next person to tell him, "Hey, we did everything right; you need to talk to those other guys." is not going to like the conversation that follows.Read more...

We now have three years of data to examine—2007 through 2009—so, to the extent that Visa has used the same categories during that time, we can add a bit of context to this information.Read more...

Smartphones scanning barcodes is easy. The tricky part is accessing a frequently updated database that knows of the smallest ingredients—a recent CDC probe identified a food poisoning culprit as contaminated black pepper sprinkled on salami—and current non-obvious food triggers.Read more...

The initial favorable results from the October 2009 Starbucks trial may not prove to be that meaningful. Many of those sales may have been driven by the "gee whiz" novelty aspect, activity that would likely drop sharply over time. That skew is magnified by an order of magnitude because of the high-tech young consumer communities where the trials were conducted. Seattle, Cupertino, Mountain View, Sunnyvale and San Jose are hardly a diverse representation of American communities.Read more...

Michaud was on a conference call with a group of franchisees recently, providing a status update on several projects. When asked about the status of one particular project, he informed the group that it had not yet been started, primarily due to a lack of IT resources. This project is important, one that is expected to deliver significant savings to the franchisees' community. He wasn't surprised when they were unhappy with his answer.Read more...

The new defendants are Nordstrom, JCPenney, Macy's, Blockbuster, Lane Bryant, Fashion Bug, Cabela's, Guess, Panera Bread and Starbucks.Read more...

A new report from Forrester Research analyzes that dilemma and has one clean recommendation for today's retailers: Don't worry about it. Consumers either don't care or they understand why the prices might be different. Let the prices be different and worry about more important matters.Read more...

Consider, for example, arguments on both sides that JCPenney and Wet Seal would have their stock prices seriously hurt if word of their involvement leaked out. The federal judge overseeing that discussion said any stock impact would be from the retailers' own doing, but he neglected to point out that there is absolutely no reason to believe there will be any stock impact.Read more...

But just how deep they penetrated the $18 billion clothing chain is unclear, with the Justice Department, JCPenney and intercepted messages from Gonzalez IM conversations all painting very different pictures.Read more...

The idea behind the patent—see all of the Patent's glorious tech and logistical specs here—is for Amazon to video each package as it's being filled and link the clip to the order number. The video would show what goes in the box and then do a close-up of the address label as the box is sealed.Read more...

It's time for IT execs to stop trying to explain how the world works and start accepting how others think it works. I'm not saying that "If you can't beat 'em, join 'em." I'm saying it's time to make your own way. The way of the Maverick CIO. Read more...

If this premise is true, asks PCI Columnist Walt Conway, doesn't it make sense for CIOs to budget for a serious data breach or similar contingency?Read more...

In further proof that consumers make very different transactions when they think they’re being observed by other shoppers, one regional convenience store chain is finding sharply increased revenue—and profits—from sandwich sales when orders are placed privately.

Taking things one step beyond the anecdotal evidence that E-Commerce can more easily sell items that are less environmentally friendly than can in-store, one regional convenience store chain has discovered that when consumers make sandwich orders privately at a kiosk (away from prying fellow shopper eyes and ears), they tend to be much more generous with calorically intense (and profit plentiful) add-ons and related sides, including extra meat and cheese. Instead of having customers order the sandwiches at the counter—out loud, to a clerk, in front of everyone—they now do it privately at a kiosk and then take a printout of their order to the cashier, who makes the customized item, bags it and hands it to the customer. This approach is faster for the associate, more private for the consumer and more profitable for the chain. Who said privacy can’t be profitable?…

But the $561 million chain Wet Seal, which has 504 stores in 47 states, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico, kept its identity secret. No more, though, and that’s the way Woodlock wanted it.Read more...

Apple's approach is interesting in and of itself, but how might iGroups apply to retail? What if this approach was applied to a very large shopping mall? Or perhaps even a large, freestanding department store? What practical benefit could it have for consumers? The true advantage of the approach is in the discovery of online contacts who just happen to be there when you are. If a consumer goes to the mall with nine of her friends and they want to split up to divide and conquer the shopping, there are so many easier ways to communicate wirelessly. The iGroup idea only moves from mildly interesting to truly powerful when you factor in the discovery.Read more...