It is always sad to see an iconic British high street name like Debenhams fall by the wayside as several have done in the last few years. While there could still be hope for Debenhams, the latest in this sorry roll call, with a number of players vying to take control and turn it around, it has sent yet another warning message to other high street stores hoping to ride out brick and mortar’s decline.

It is abundantly clear that the brick and mortar model has been struggling for a number of years. Shrewd merchants have been adapting their strategy to compete with e-commerce and align with the ever-changing retail landscape, and those who haven’t adapted fast enough have felt the hit.
The convenience and speed at which online purchases can be made have been key factors in the migration of large chunks of market share from high street to online. Enormous overheads from rising rents (£4.3bn in operating lease commitments in Debenhams’ case) and the need for high numbers of staff, equates to high (and rising) costs with decreasing sales – a formula that even the best chief executives might struggle to work with.

While it would be foolish to say that all brick and mortar businesses are doomed, it is imperative for decision makers to review their strategy even if, so far, it has been working for the last 50 years; consumer needs and wants are rapidly evolving and loyalty programs need to keep pace with their expectations.
FreedomPay believes that connected commerce and customer centricity are the pillars of retail and loyalty programs today and tomorrow.

The importance of personalization and digital data

In order to entice the customer, one has to understand the identity of each person. For example, a vegan may not buy into 50% off sausage rolls. This can be done by analyzing the spending habits on an individual basis, for example, using your systems data to identify who your top-spending customers are and rewarding them. Not only that but by crunching the data to see what they buy from you and when, you can reward them in a way that they will actually value highly, perhaps by offering discounts on the products they buy most often and not the ones they aren’t buying, i.e. the sausage rolls.

The megalithic online retailers understand the mantra and place the customer at the centre of their business operations. For brick and mortars, the ‘shopping experience’ is an asset they will always have to trump online retailers and should be utilized to assert an advantage. Aesthetically pleasing interiors and helpful employees are simple but effective examples. The experience is complemented by the ability to earn discounts, free samples, exclusive treatment and VIP access to entertainment. A loyalty card can drive repeat purchases and incentivize shoppers to come to stores and the website alike. Loyalty programs have proven to be a powerful experience for customers but it should be evolving to better please customers and retailers need to invest in modern data architecture that helps build a new personalized, customer centric loyalty model.

Find out more about customer centric models, by downloading the whitepaper: Personalization and Digital Identity: The Keys To Unlock Loyalty.

The payment terminal beeps at a customer after she inserts her chip card into the slot on the bottom of the reader. The cashier has to tell her to swipe the card instead, in the latest case of what seems like the zillionth person to get it wrong.

You can’t blame the customer or the cashier for the confusion. A year after the liability shift of October 2015, there’s still a high level of inconsistency in the deployment of EMV acceptance among merchants. To accept the new chip cards, merchants must use EMV certified terminals by the major card processors and the card issuers, like Visa and MasterCard and replace their outdated payment devices.

But the reluctance to pay for updated payment devices and longer-than-expected certification processes have slowed the transition to what was supposed to be a more secure way to accept payments. And, it’s ironic that some merchants haven’t begun accepting EMV-enabled cards for fear of slowing down checkout lanes.

As promised, those merchants who didn’t make the transition to the EMV standard are seeing higher fraud chargebacks from the card brands showing up in their statements.

More than a year later, many merchants are behind the curve to secure cardholder data. What should they be concentrating on to catch up?

The key is to understand the three layers of the card data security environment. EMV is only one of those layers. The PCI Security Standards Council recommends that merchants also integrate Point-to-Point Encryption (P2PE) and Tokenization. FreedomPay’s Commerce Platform offers a turnkey solution that incorporates all three layers and is integrated into most major point-of-sale and property management systems, making implementation simple and seamless.

The FreedomPay Commerce Platform is a PCI validated, all-in-one solution for EMV, P2PE and Tokenization. It’s fully certified with the major card processors, so deploying the solution with Ingenico’s certified payment devices eliminates the need for merchants to undergo their own EMV certification. It’s a turnkey solution that saves time, money, and eliminates the swipe or dip dilemma at the checkout.

One of the key benefits of FreedomPay’s platform is the fact that it’s already validated. If a merchant uses another non-validated solution, the merchant is still liable to meet stricter PCI DSS requirements.

To address customer desire for faster checkouts, the solution also enables NFC mobile wallet payments such as Apple Pay, Samsung Pay and Android Pay.

So far, more than half of the payment cards in the U.S. have been upgraded to chip cards, with the card brands predicting that number will be much closer to 100% by the end of 2017. With chip cards in hand, consumers will expect merchants to be able to accept them to provide higher levels of security.

Merchants, particularly smaller merchants, shouldn’t undertake the EMV certification process on their own. It can take a lot longer and cost a lot more than expected and without P2PE and tokenization, the data is not as secure as consumers and merchants assume it to be.

Merchants of all sizes can use the FreedomPay Commerce Platform for an omni-channel card security solution for both card-present and card-not-present transactions, by using our Hosted Payment Page for e-commerce and a Virtual Terminal solution for call center transactions.

To learn more about complete card payments security solutions, click here.

October of 2015 marked a big month for FreedomPay customers – it represented the deadline for merchants to transition more than one billion payment cards to the EMV standard, and upwards of 12 million credit card terminals at merchant locations.  FreedomPay’s advanced commerce platform made the transition easy, and merchants are lauding the service expertise FreedomPay provided along the way.

 “Ensuring the security of consumer payment data is a top priority for merchants across all industries,” said Chris Kronenthal, Chief Technology Officer of FreedomPay. “Working with leading organizations in lodging, gaming, retail, foodservice, healthcare and higher education to implement PCI best practices including EMV, tokenization and Validated P2PE, FreedomPay is helping merchants secure their payment environment, prevent EMV liability exposure and reduce scope for PCI compliance.”

While FreedomPay’s innovative technology is the key to making transactions easier and more secure for customers, providing service that goes the extra mile is what sets us apart. This emphasis on service is why we offer on-site support for our stored-value program rollouts.  Clients of all sizes benefit from hands-on training and support for product launches.  For instance, we spend one day a week at the headquarters of one of our largest foodservice clients to ensure that we are meeting their needs as a partner.

We supply day-to-day account management to merchants to ensure their satisfaction. Our ten-person management team delivers expertise and experience in the payment industry, assisting our partners to solve for multifaceted challenges on demand.

Here at FreedomPay, we take pride in the fact that all members of the product support department are passionate about solving problems and finding technical solutions that truly address the needs of our customers.

We understand that our merchants aim to provide quality customer service, which is why we provide the same in return – especially during industry shifts like the transition to EMV.

When you partner with FreedomPay, you can rest assured that our team will provide exceptional, ongoing support to ensure that the products and services you use are deployed to your full satisfaction and are 100% operational.

Need help with anything? Our support team is available to current customers, partners, and future prospects. Visit FreedomPay online to learn more about our phenomenal customer service!