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Tablets For Checkout? Yeah, Let’s Throw The Chain Under A Truck
Is wireless access a great value-add, or is the new system being built to only function when there’s a strong signal?
When the signal does work, are there plans to secure the devices? Assuming there are such security plans, can they be undone by store associates with accomplices?
Years ago, there were fancied-up dumb terminals called X-Terminals. Their chief asset? IT was confident that no employees could do a darn thing with them other than perform their jobs. Customization and personalization are great, unless you’re in charge of IT security.
Mobile payment will be a huge bright spot for retail technology—in about five years. Until then, the streets will be littered with the fired bodies of thousands of IT pioneers who championed mobile payments back in 2011.
PCI has barely come to grips with wireless and has officially chosen to not decide on mobile payment, leaving such validation for others. That hasn’t stopped vendors from announcing mobile payment applications galore, though.
How confident are you that card data isn’t being stored, given the iPhone’s tendency to remember just about anything it wants? Even PayPal’s iPhone team got hit.
It’s not merely an issue of the machine retaining the data. It needs to transmit the data for approval. And once approved, issue a receipt. Will the machine retain receipt copies? How aggressively have you tested this in the field? Have you conducted some of those tests under the watchful—and CYA-oriented—eye of your QSA?
The very nature of payments is dangerous. We have more retailers planning to use the newest and least tested hardware with live payment processing? Why not do it on something comparatively safe and well-tested, such as an Android smartphone?
-Marc
January 20th, 2011 at 2:00 pm
Good questions posed, but there are some lessons learned to help those retailers with the desire (foolish or brave) to move ahead with a tablet or smartphone deployment strategy:
1. Wireless LAN networks can provide mobility without dependency on roof, thunderstorm, or carrier. This approach also allows for centralized device management and security.
2. Historically, mobile computing device vendors who standardized on MS WinCE did so precisely in response to retailer demand to lock down the screen to only “business apps” — no solitaire, no Start button, or general internet access
WLAN capability, reliability, management and security have come a long way (e.g., 801.11n, virtualization) but in my opinion, device management and compliance issues will likely always remain, in one form or another.
January 20th, 2011 at 6:15 pm
Good points but at the speed in which technology is moving and retailer’s desire to better serve there shoppers in any way possible I am confident that we will see many retail associates with some form of a Shopper Service “Pad” by December. Could this impact your great newsletter? Cause a shift from StoreFront to “PadfrontBacktalk”?
January 21st, 2011 at 6:58 pm
You raise a lot of great questions and all of your concerns should certainly be considered by a retailer when pursuing wireless, mobile solutions for improving their business.
I only have one question in response: If Apple, one of the most secretive tech companies out there, can securely implement a mobile payment solution in their stores then why are you so convinced that this will be an impossible feat for other retailers?
If any challenge exists, it seems it would be related to integrating the plethora of legacy systems that have been pieced together over the years at some retailers. That challenge, however is not specific to wireless networks, tablet deployments or mobile payments.
January 21st, 2011 at 8:26 pm
Not sure why you think I’m “so convinced that this will be an impossible feat for other retailers” given that I absolutely believe that it’s going to happen and quite soon. The point is that many chains are moving ahead too quickly, before they have had a chance to factor in all of the issues they’ll need to work out.
Apple’s accomplishment is impressive, but they were doing all internal development and it was an impressively proprietary approach with a very disciplined workforce. What today’s chains are being pitched–by a large number of vendors–is a third-party approach, being billed as seamless and–gulp–turnkey. That’s where problems will come from. Apple’s payment approach was expensive and it took a long time to test. Say what you will about Apple, they are disciplined.