Sometimes this happens with the newfangled habit of “showrooming.” We’ve written about it here before, and as a merchant with customers, you should keep the phrase on your radar. “Showrooming” refers to the practice of customers entering a store, looking at items “live,” as it were (which is to say, displayed on your shelves — if you’re one of those with an offline location that has shelves), then checking their phones quickly to see if they can get it for a better price — once your own showroom display has actually helped make the sale.
Category: Card Processing
First Data Shows Upticks in Card Use — of all kinds
One the one hand, we like to tout February as a “second season” to attract shoppers, after the holidays — what with Super Bowl weekend followed by Valentine’s Day. And then there’s Presidents’ Day weekend, with its traveling and “get away” plans. Add it all up, and tends to mean active customers for a wide array of businesses.
AVPS In Your Corner For Charge Disputes
Suddenly, there are news stories about credit card disputes everywhere. Fox Business had one about consumer complaints, but those aren’t the same thing. Or rather, we might consider charge disputes a subset of overall “complaints,” which could include everything from bad service, to not crediting a payment, to not honoring a stated interest rate, and more.
Credit Card Fee Update — States Striking Back?
We’ve been striving to update you on the fallout from last autumn’s credit card fee settlement from the lawsuit where numerous merchants challenged Visa, Master Charge, et all, about the fees they were charging for credit card transactions.
The History — and Future– of Credit Cards
The New Year’s cusp is always a good time for looking both forwards – -and backwards. Especially when one considers how fast the whole passing parade… passes by! For some colorful holiday reading about the history of credit cards, we refer you this article by Bloomberg, on a Christmas-season “fiasco” occasioned by Chicago banks, getting into the then-new credit card biz.
Credit Card Trends Point to More Mobility
Aside from the all the big election news this week, a couple of smaller items popping up in the newsfeeds on the credit card front point toward a rapidly changing landscape there too, one where mobile payments are even more common.
Card Use Expected to Be Up This Holiday Season: Is Your Business Ready?
Projections for credit card use this holiday season continue to be good. The Greensheet, a credit card industry newsletter, recently featured a round-up of projetions, with many saying that this year’s holiday retail sales could top 2011 by upwards of 4 percent. Deloitte LLP estimated that U.S. retailers will rack up over $900 billion dollars of sales between November (which starts today!) and January of 2013. And of that, approximately $36 billion is expected to be “mobile-influenced,” with
shoppers using phones and tablets to help locate items, and comparison-shop between them.
Lessons of a Bookish Breach
As you may have been reading in the news this week, there’s been another breach in a merchant credit card system, this time hitting 63 Barnes & Noble outlets across the country. While the breach — and resultant damage — seem to have already been contained (since the original hack occurred in September, but wasn’t announced until now, per the wishes of FBI investigators). Customer swipe machines at various B&N’s were compromised, and sent account info to the hackers themselves, who seem to have briefly used the information for purchases throughout the fall, though those curtailed.
“Smart cards” headed this way — eventually
According to the Nilson Report, one of the payment industry’s leading newsletters, the United States generated about 27 percent of payment-card purchases though accounts for nearly half of global payment-card fraud.
