Evan Schuman's StorefrontBacktalk

By dialing that store immediately, he might be able to have it fixed before it goes in the oven. It would discourage moves such as the time-honored pizza-chain tradition of taking ingredients that drop on the floor and put them right back on the pizza. All things that could truly speak to customer service and that could also give pizza buyers a reason to switch to Dominos. Unfortunately, that's not quite what Dominos has in mind.Read more...

In this case, though, the executive was Best Buy's chief ethics officer, who wanted to have a site outside the direct control of corporate. And she learned a lesson about why one wants to be within the protection of a multibillion-dollar chain's IT department. She learned that when her Best Buy blog was shut down, possibly due to a cyberthief attack.Read more...

From the shoppers' perspective, that single login is not that exciting, as most have been doing a very insecure replacement: using the same login/password for those dozens of sites. In effect, that's what PayPal is doing. The security impact is that if there is a breach—at PayPal, at that shopper's computer, elsewhere—that password can now be used to access all of those sites. At least that's the hole until PayPal is contacted and the password is shut down or changed.Read more...

That dramatically cuts Amazon's delivery costs, and it's the most obvious explanation of why Amazon flipped its position on online sales taxes in 2011, from the leading opponent to a major supporter: All those warehouses give Amazon a big advantage over its e-commerce rivals, and it doesn't want those rivals to have a sales-tax advantage in return.Read more...

Result: Both Walmart and acquirer First Data have declined to accept the system, and Discover is now doing deals with acquirers one by one in order to get PayPal's system available in more stores. Discover said on Tuesday (April 30) that it has gotten a green light from 50 acquirers, and it is hoping PayPal will be live in 2 million stores by the end of this year, up from 250,000 now.Read more...

The second, more mundane technology is having the card-reading device send diagnostic information to the bank in real time when there's evidence of tampering. Read more...

Instead of IP addresses, they need to think about e-mail segmentation. Instead of database clusters, they need live content marketing. Instead of disaster recovery, they need to wake up focused on integrated marketing across all digital channels. It’s as much science and math as configuring a new router, and that has many marketers nervous. And it should. But as these marketers find their way into this new world of math and science (digital relevancy), they need to be careful to not cross the fine line between being relevant and being just plain creepy.Read more...

Walmart (NYSE:WMT) has announced that it is expanding—to chainwide—an experiment to let associates more easily see work opportunities in other departments at their store, as a way to supplement their pay. "For example, a bakery or deli associate can now request to work an available shift in electronics or the lawn and garden area and vice versa," the Walmart statement said, adding that "this program is showing value beyond filling available shifts. It's providing associates the opportunity to help build their careers by learning about different departments, which helps strengthen our stores and benefit associates and our customers."Read more...

"NFC was revolutionary 10 years ago but I think it just might have passed its sell-by date," Lyndon Lee (Tesco Enterprise Consultant Architect) told attendees at a mobile payments conference in London this week, according to a report in NFC World. "Is mobile NFC at the right place, at the right time? I don't see any real movement or activity. NFC usability is not really revolutionary and, for the general public, is it really that cool? I think the next generation won't think it's cool enough for them and they won't use it. Mobile NFC is unappealing."Read more...

In the United States, it is generally presumed that the use of video surveillance technology in non-"private" places ("private" as in bathrooms and changing rooms) is perfectly legal. Unlike audio surveillance, which is regulated by federal and state law, there appears to be little regulation of video surveillance technologies. Retailers regularly employ them for loss prevention purposes, inventory management, and to defend themselves in liability lawsuits such as workers’ compensation claims or "slip and fall" claims by customers. Video surveillance technology can also be useful in tracking customer behavior and traffic patterns; footfall analysis; to evaluate the effectiveness of advertising or displays; and even to evaluate the gender, age and behavior of customers.Read more...

Although the current version of the system has serious technical limitations, the potential is probably greater for facial recognition than any other technology. Unlike PIN, cardswipes or any other form of biometrics, facial recognition has the promise to do far more than verify identity, including guessing at emotional state, gender, age and other attributes. Selling suntan lotion? How about the ability to identify shoppers with deep tans? Want to be able to tailor suggestions made to first-time shoppers based on gender or age? With a thermal scan comes the ability to pitch hot cocoa to shoppers whose skin is especially cold or ice-cold lemonade to those whose skin is especially hot. (It could factor in the outside temperature so that it doesn't confuse someone who has been working in the sun with someone who is just running a fever. And if that shopper does have a fever, how about 50 cents off Tylenol?)Read more...

One key element of the bill that won't relieve the tax pinch but should simplify the implementation: A state can't start requiring collection of the taxes until it provides free software that nails down all the complexities of that state's sales tax structure, including automatic calculation of what rates are owed on which products for any location in the state.Read more...

The most concrete difference between the two approaches is that Gap will force shoppers to pay for their goods in-store. After it's reserved online, the customer has until the end of the next business day to show up, pay and pick it up. That's good for getting shoppers deeper into the store, but not so good for guaranteeing the sale.Read more...

The thief stabbed the assistant manager's car's front driver side tire, presumably so that the assistant manager would be occupied when the thief pointed a silver gun at him and ordered him to open the store and to then open the safe, according to the police report. The thief helped himself to the contents, including about $6,000 in cash and that day's backup disk. The disk, which was unencrypted and apparently not password-protected, included the full names, addresses, dates of birth, prescription numbers, prescribers, insurance cardholder IDs and drug names for some 788 customers, according to Sears. Read more...

Different versions of the proposal have been introduced in Congress for years, but all have died without a floor vote. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid used a special process under Senate rules to bypass the usual procedure. The proposal showed some life last month when it passed a test vote 75-24 during the budget debate. A big difference this time around: Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN), previously the biggest opponent of Congressional approval for online sales-tax collection, now supports the measure.Read more...

When this approach would make sense depends on the nature of the transaction. If the purchase involves the seller sending a physical product to the recipient, the recipient has little choice but to reveal name and street address. But for digital purposes, it could work well. And it might even work with physical shipments, assuming the recipient uses a post office box or some similar alternative.Read more...

The FTC consent decree involves shoppers who lease computer equipment and other devices equipped with GPS tracking or other tracking software, pens legal columnist Mark Rasch. If a consumer fails to make a scheduled payment, or if they default on the terms of the contract, the leasing company would activate the software, which could do things like turn on the cameras on the computer, capture keystrokes on the computer, or use either Internet protocol or GPS tracking to determine the exact location of the computer. In this way, the retailer would be able to engage in a form of "electronic repossession" of the device, either shut it down completely, or sending someone in to actually physically retrieve the device. Read more...

The bombing, which killed three people and injured 176 others, was one of the more devastating terrorist attacks in the U.S.. The footage from a surveillance camera at Lord & Taylor "has provided clear video of the area" but law enforcement officials were initially vague about what was captured, according to The Boston Globe. "The camera from Lord & Taylor is the best source of video so far," said Dot Joyce, a spokeswoman for Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino.Read more...

In a hearing in Brooklyn on Thursday afternoon, U.S. District Judge John Gleeson said that unhappy plaintiffs, including the National Association of Convenience Stores, the National Restaurant Association and the National Grocers Association, and their lawyers in the class-action suit have until today (April 18) to decide on a plan for fixing the information on the sites.Read more...

But unlike those attacks, Schnuck's said its PINpads were not tampered with—the attack was apparently done entirely through malware implanting somehow on Schnuck's payment-related systems. An even more troubling revelation: The breach activity seems to have begun on Dec. 1, less than a month after the chain's QSA validated its systems as PCI DSS compliant.Read more...

The significance of Amazon having its highest month ever is minimal, as the world's largest e-commerce site has repeatedly broken its own record, as its traffic has grown over time. But the fact that Amazon saw more traffic in March—a traditional ho-hum traffic month—than December is noteworthy. To be fair, the Comscore figures show that March only barely beat December (105.3 million unique visitors for March 2013 versus 104.8 million for December 2012), but that marks the first time March has even come close. March 2012 saw 90.2 million versus December 2011's 97.4 million, and March 2011 had 61.5 million compared with December 2010 at 76.7 million, according to Comscore figures.Read more...

Why have the world's largest retailer and the world's largest retail organization been doing this Hatfields-and-McCoys thing? This all started back in 1969, when the NRF was known as the National Retail Merchants Association and Walmart's annual revenue was about $30 million (about $190 million in 2013 dollars). According to several people involved, the bad feelings started when Walmart founder Sam Walton came to New York City—where the association was based at the time—and lobbied to join the group. They did something that one doesn't do to Sam Walton: They rejected him, saying that they didn't want Walmart as a member. Given that there is nothing that has been more a part of Walmart's culture than holding a grudge, that rejection kept Walmart out of the association for 44 years.Read more...

For years, the coffee chain has pushed a promotion called Pick Of The Week, where it gave free copies of various pieces of digital media (songs, apps, games, etc.) to shoppers who went in-store and grabbed a card with a code on it. As of April 9, Starbucks has changed the program, no longer requiring the card to get the digital goodies. All it requires is downloading the app. "The intent is really to build a relationship. You don't need to go into our stores," said Linda Mills, a Starbucks senior manager for global brand public relations. "This is about educating about our product offerings and just engaging with our customers."Read more...

Attorneys wrote to U.S. District Court Judge D. Brock Hornby that the Hannaford case allows for banks to be paid directly. "This can all be done without disclosure of the actual identity of any bank customer. It is hard to imagine that a card-issuing bank would not cooperate in a process that would provide cash benefits to its customers," the filing said. No, it's really not at all hard to imagine the likes of Chase Manhattan and Fifth Third not being at all cooperative with a new and untested method.Read more...

When you sell something, the price is supposed to be a bargained-for negotiation between a willing purchaser and a willing seller. You are buying a product or a service. Tub of popcorn, $2. Tub of popcorn at a movie theater, $6 (but for another 25 cents you can get a jumbo!) The consumer is buying a product, the product has a specified "value," and that transaction is called a sale. And the government gets a slice of that "sale" – maybe 6 percent of the sales price. Sales taxes typically apply to retail sales (merchant to consumer) of non-exempt tangible personal products, and to certain specified services as well.Read more...