Newsletter Articles
SQUARE: Next-Gen Payment Tech in Entrepreneurs’ Hands
Last March, we mentioned in a Retail Paradox Weekly article that Twitter creator Jack Dorsey had formed a new startup, Square, to offer a little square credit card swipe device for the iPhone, Android, and other smart mobile devices, plus the enabling application and the cloud-based service to handle the transactions. In December 2009, CNN [...]
When is Mobile Not So Mobile, and Does it Matter?
Tablet devices are such hybrids that it’s hard for me to call them “Mobile devices.” I mean, it’s obvious that you can move around with them…people take them everywhere. But I don’t think they take them out shopping with them. They’re mobile in a ‘next-gen laptop’ sort of way, not in a smart phone way. [...]
Retailers Turn to Digitally Enabled Consumers
At the RIS News Retail Technology Conference held in Orlando, Florida last week, there was ample evidence that retailers have overcome their skepticism about consumer enablement with smart mobile consumer technologies such as the iPhone/iPad, Droid, etc. RIS News even handed out best of mobile app awards, to Lamps Plus, Toys R Us, and usual [...]
Data Breaches Still Alive and Kicking; Fraud Management Still Lacking
Mainstream media outlets seem to have moved beyond the subject of corporate data breaches to more arcane means of data theft like reading the smart chip embedded in individual credit cards. Most retailers have spent the time and money to become PCI compliant, so all should be well, right? Well, not exactly. Data breaches are [...]
The Big Show 2011: Smiling, Happy People, Mostly
RSR partner Brian Kilcourse is fond of saying after a bad holiday season, retailers come to NRF’s Big Show to drown their sorrows; after good ones, they come to celebrate their success. Even though retail’s numbers aren’t off-the-charts great, the overarching feeling at the show was I survived the Great Recession! and good cheer seemed [...]