Evan Schuman's StorefrontBacktalk

This is not to say that most executives don't know where their data starts and where it's sent. But as data routes its way through off-site backup, into employees' laptops and USB flash drives, is shared with key customers and partners over an extranet and even spoken in a call center, that data can end up in quite a few unexpected places. Read more...

Still, those technological trendsetters are found in pockets throughout Europe, Asia and Australia, with most overseas retailers still slow to embrace self-checkout, according to a new report from European retail tech analyst firm Planet Retail. That said, for those merchants who have deployed, they are often exceeding their U.S. counterpart. Read more...

An EU undertaking called the SMART project—set to start widespread testing in October—is getting good support with some creative efforts. It’s looking at scenarios such as “if one product is selling well at store A but selling badly at store B, RFID-powered inventory systems could initiate the transfer of the product from one store to another,” according to this ComputerWeekly story.

The project Web site goes into some other interesting possible directions, such as smart-shelves that tell consumers “whether the product is available in the back-room or whether there is a joint/ personalized promotion” and “shelf replenishment practices that change based on real-time information about availability and product shortages.” One of the tests includes “automatic discounting system for products–specifically, meat–that is nearing its (expiration) date.”…

Officially, PCI participants are still debating exactly when to roll out the PCI specs to the world, but they have consistently said it would happen before the end of October. Given the desire to share these details with members before the public, the Oct. 21-23 Belgium briefing certainly suggests an announcement will most likely happen the week of Oct. 27. Read more...

For some merchants, who never wanted to collect or retain card data in the first place, this is regarded as a good thing. But it's also a very expensive thing, argues Guest View Columnist David Taylor.Read more...

Deals like the Amazon-Tivo arrangement will present context-relevant ads to appear right alongside—or embedded within—various entertainment and information shows. For advertisers, this is merely the next logical step following obvious product placement in entertainment shows. ("Gosh, Grandma, what a large Apple logo you have!") For retailers, though, it's a way of getting that profitable E-Commerce site somewhere other than on a PC or on a smartphone. Read more...

This is called the hazard of being too smart. Nothing is more frustrating to a really smart person (so my smart friends tell me) than to do something incredibly clever and then have to explain it to dumb people. That's the situation many retailers find themselves in when it comes to developing highly customized or integrated data security packages; they're frustrated that they have to prove the effectiveness of the package to their PCI assessor or merchant bank, who just doesn't seem to understand why the retailer didn't just "buy a package." Read more...

A Dutch court has given the go-ahead for a university to publish research about security flaws in the RFID chips used in as many as 2 billion smart cards, despite resistance from a semiconductor company, according to a story in Computerworld.

NXP Semiconductors manufactures the MiFare Classic RFID chip, which is used in government buildings and to board public transportation systems. They had filed a lawsuit in Court Arnhem in The Netherlands against Radboud University Nijmegen in an attempt to stop the university from publishing a paper that reportedly reveals flaws in that chip. That paper is scheduled to be unveiled in October at the ESORICS security conference in Malaga, Spain.…

But with some acquirers being no better off financially than many retailers, it's time to ask some hard questions: Is the risk of a security breach great enough to risk the financial health of our company? Read more...

"How many smart people are out there who are simply not reserving inventory" for all channels, asked Forrester Principal Analyst George Lawrie. "You never know where demand is going to crystallize." He cited morale—not to mention inventory—problems caused by "reserving inventory for stores that could have been sold by the catalog or online channel." Read more...

Consumers older than 50 are rapidly growing fond of the Web, with such users checking news, for example, more frequently than those younger than 20 as well as participating in online communities more. But the new university study found that instant messaging and video downloads were “still tools for young users. Only 9 percent of users 50+ said IM was important or very important compared with 48 percent of users younger than 20.”

“The perception is that Americans over 50 only dabble on the Internet, but we are finding that they are increasingly spending time online becoming involved in robust Internet activities, such as online communities,” said Jeffrey I. Cole, director of the Center for the Digital Future at the USC Annenberg School for Communication. “In specific areas, there is often little difference in use of online technology between older users and some of the youngest users.”…

But Homa's key point is that most retailers handle security backwards: Don't pour everything into protecting the front door. Assume they'll get through and have a plan to control them once they're inside. Read more...

The assumption of some anonymity on E-Commerce sites can be critical. Let's look at a scenario for Amazon.com. One of its most critical value-adds is customer comments—both good and bad—about its products. What if a consumer—employed in the consumer appliance world—purchased a toaster that was absolutely horrible? Read more...

But several major cellphone carriers are preparing to bundle the 2-D barcode software with phones as they ship. Will that make a difference? Read more...

The first move has to be to take a serious look at your data. Think of it like a residential move. How much of that accumulated stuff do you really need anymore? How much are you honestly going to be leveraging and using? The less you keep, the less you have to protect and manage. And the less you keep, the easier it will be to outsource. Read more...

No sooner had IT concocted a system to try and automatically detect an under-age shopper than someone has crafted a remarkably low-tech way to fool it. How low-tech? How about a picture ripped out of a magazine?

This delightful story from Pink Tentacle shows how the Japanese cigarette-machine RFID-leveraging face-recognition system is completely fooled by the magazine photo. “The face-recognition machines rely on cameras that scan the purchaser’s face for wrinkles, sagging skin and other signs of age. Facial characteristics are compared with a database of more than 100,000 people, and if the purchaser is thought to be well over 20 years old (the legal age), the sale is approved,” the story said.…

A new E-commerce payment system at UrbanOutfitters.com allows users to complete purchases in one screen, boosting cart conversion rates by 19 percent, according to an Internet Retailer story that quoted Dmitri Siegel, managing director of Urban Outfitters Direct.

The original approach forced customers to use several pages to handle payment, address and other purchase details. “We were losing a lot of customers with that,” Siegel said.…

The PCI Security Council is branching out a little, with an attempt to bring unattended payment terminals (UPTs) under its jurisdiction. As kiosks get more sophisticated and start taking cash, credit cards, mobile transactions and other payment methods, the UPT security risk is sharply increasing.

The council has also launched a testing program for Hardware Security Modules (HSMs). “PIN entry devices go well beyond the typical POS terminals we are all familiar with and we are continually expanding into more and more areas,” said Bob Russo, general manager, PCI Security Standards Council. “Any device that processes personal identification numbers is an important link in the transaction chain.” …

Amazon.com on Wednesday (July 9) finally deployed Bill Me Later as a payment option, almost eight months to the day after Amazon announced its intent to do so.

The credit-card-less payment option is partially owned by Amazon (Bill Me Later would only say that it was a minority investment), which is OK, given that Google owns GoogleCheckout and EBay owns PayPal. Web giants simply can’t go anywhere these days without sporting their very own alternative payment vendor. …

The first outage on June 20 was an internal glitch with the retailer's delivery processing system, forcing the chain to take down its site because it couldn't fulfill the orders. But the site itself wasn't the problem. Read more...