advertisement
advertisement

The Reasons Behind StorefrontBacktalk’s New Look

Written by Evan Schuman
January 22nd, 2009

Earlier this week (Jan. 20), StorefrontBacktalk unveiled a new site design (and lots of programming changes behind the scenes), and we wanted to quickly rattle off some of what we hope readers will consider improvements.

Also, look for a research site and a white paper/case study library to be rolled out from StorefrontBacktalk in the next few weeks. (If you know of anyone who might have any white papers or case studies they’d like to be considered for this new site, please ask them to contact us.

Our site’s new features include:

 

  • A Single Search Box. The site used to have one search box for stories and another for the blurbs. With our move to an entirely WordPress-based content management system, we have consolidated those searches.
  • New Category Sections, Easier To Find. We are inaugurating three new sections—In-Store, Software and Supply Chain—and have made all such sections easier to find and access with a pulldown menu.
  • A Bona Fide Lead Story. To the extent that anyone cares what we think is the most important story, this new lead story treatment will make our choice much easier to decipher.
  • Comments Now Appear At The End Of Each Story. Before, the story would only tell readers that, for example, four comments had been made. They needed to click to see what the comments actually were. We have been impressed with the level of sophisticated comments that our readers share with each other and would love to encourage even more. Hopefully, this change will make it easier for our readers to see and add to those comments.There are many more small changes, and we’d love to hear your thoughts. Please E-mail eschuman@storefrontbacktalk.com with any comments, good or bad.

  • advertisement

    One Comment | Read The Reasons Behind StorefrontBacktalk’s New Look

    1. Scott Sanders Says:

      Great redesign, Evan! Loving the integrated comments and *especially* loving that full stories now show up in the RSS feed. Thanks for a great site!

    Newsletters

    StorefrontBacktalk delivers the latest retail technology news & analysis. Join more than 60,000 retail IT leaders who subscribe to our free weekly email. Sign up today!
    advertisement

    Most Recent Comments

    Why Did Gonzales Hackers Like European Cards So Much Better?

    I am still unclear about the core point here-- why higher value of European cards. Supply and demand, yes, makes sense. But the fact that the cards were chip and pin (EMV) should make them less valuable because that demonstrably reduces the ability to use them fraudulently. Did the author mean that the chip and pin cards could be used in a country where EMV is not implemented--the US--and this mis-match make it easier to us them since the issuing banks may not have as robust anti-fraud controls as non-EMV banks because they assumed EMV would do the fraud prevention for them Read more...
    Two possible reasons that I can think of and have seen in the past - 1) Cards issued by European banks when used online cross border don't usually support AVS checks. So, when a European card is used with a billing address that's in the US, an ecom merchant wouldn't necessarily know that the shipping zip code doesn't match the billing code. 2) Also, in offline chip countries the card determines whether or not a transaction is approved, not the issuer. In my experience, European issuers haven't developed the same checks on authorization requests as US issuers. So, these cards might be more valuable because they are more likely to get approved. Read more...
    A smart card slot in terminals doesn't mean there is a reader or that the reader is activated. Then, activated reader or not, the U.S. processors don't have apps certified or ready to load into those terminals to accept and process smart card transactions just yet. Don't get your card(t) before the terminal (horse). Read more...
    The marketplace does speak. More fraud capacity translates to higher value for the stolen data. Because nearly 100% of all US transactions are authorized online in real time, we have less fraud regardless of whether the card is Magstripe only or chip and PIn. Hence, $10 prices for US cards vs $25 for the European counterparts. Read more...
    @David True. The European cards have both an EMV chip AND a mag stripe. Europeans may generally use the chip for their transactions, but the insecure stripe remains vulnerable to skimming, whether it be from a false front on an ATM or a dishonest waiter with a handheld skimmer. If their stripe is skimmed, the track data can still be cloned and used fraudulently in the United States. If European banks only detect fraud from 9-5 GMT, that might explain why American criminals prefer them over American bank issued cards, who have fraud detection in place 24x7. Read more...

    StorefrontBacktalk
    Our apologies. Due to legal and security copyright issues, we can't facilitate the printing of Premium Content. If you absolutely need a hard copy, please contact customer service.