Mobile POS Payments Could Save Your Business Life

Honest Restaurant Owner Held Responsible For Fraudulent Transactions

Here’s a true story you may be able to relate to. You’re a merchant running a large local or national restaurant or other retail business. You work very hard and you’ve been fortunate to attract quality people along the way, people that are loyal and very hard working, people that have become family. 

You have 5 different locations and the management team that you’ve finally assembled in place does a great job and despite the challenging economy you are beginning to do quite well again. Mostly due to your cost saving efforts and hard work.

You’re comfortable and the future looks good when all of a sudden and without warning your business checking account is debited nearly $200,000. The money literally disappears overnight without notification. 

You only find out because your morning coffee purchase at Starbucks was declined on your company debit card, which should have just over $185,000 available on it.

You’re calm on the outside and anxious on the inside because in this economy every sale counts and you’re certain there’s a mistake that someone must have made.

After several attempts you’re finally able to make contact with the bank manager and to your horror the banker calmly answers your question about the available funds, “your money is gone and we can’t help you get it back”. Your $185,000 is gone.

You find out for the first time that a couple of your customers had their credit card accounts compromised over a year ago. The cardholder information used to perpetrate the fraud was traced back to your point-of-sale location. 

Unbeknownst to you, a card-skimmer had been attached to your point-of-sale device(s). A criminal conspirator with a laptop computer wirelessly collected the cardholder data required to perpetrate fraudulent transactions with each and every swipe of your customer’s credit cards.

Within a period of about 2 weeks a series of online and retail purchases totaling the $185,000 had been quickly executed using the compromised cardholder data that was obtained. 

Although the criminal investigation began shortly afterwards it was completed approximately 1 year later. Because the electronic terminal that the cards were swiped through wasn’t PCI-DSS compliant as required and because the cardholder data was obtained at this point, the merchant, you, became responsible and liable for the fraudulent transactions.

This kind of a financial hit will put most of us out of business. These sudden fund disappearances from merchant accounts have been occurring more and more, since the migration of fraudsters operating in EMV mandated Europe to the unprotected shores of the U.S., where EMV is finally about to begin, but isn’t in use yet.

Merchant accounts have been debited a few hundred dollars, tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands and yes, even millions of dollars literally overnight and without notice. This can often mean the difference between business life and death.

The quickest and most reliable solution for a business owner/operator is to immediately implement a mobile POS payment solution that is PCI-DSS compliant. These systems and devices are now available in different formats from a few select providers. 

Upon use of PCI-DSS compliant terminals to process your credit card transactions, the burden of financial responsibility shifts immediately from the merchant to the processing company and/or the issuing bank, eliminating your financial risk.

By utilizing iPads, iPods, iPhones, Windows and Android powered mobile devices that provide powerful and robust POS features, the merchant can capture an increase in sales and enhance the customer experience, while maintaining PCI-DSS security and safety.

This new technology and these mobile devices are quickly reshaping how we conduct business across the country and around the world. To name just a few, Apple, Nordstrom, Home Depot, Lowes and many more have recently instituted various forms of mobile POS or mobile payment functionality.

By enabling mobile POS payments you can accept payments from your customers right where ever they are on the sales floor or in the warehouse, and you eliminate potential 3^rd party compromises. The devices are mobile and in possession of your trusted personnel, so they won’t ever be compromised because of your security and control policies.  

The devices don’t cost an arm and a leg and an operating system or technology such as that in use at national Apple stores can be quickly and easily obtained and implemented through a reliable and trustworthy provider. 

Rick Berry is President/CEO of ABC Mobile Pay; a mobile POS payment solution provider based in Valencia, CA. and can be reached at rick@abcmobilepay.com, 661-259-2185, http://www.abcmobilepay.com

Mobile Commerce (Reprinted courtesy of Internet Retailer)

Most retailers that have identified mobile commerce as a strategic priority are today focused on building an m-commerce site or maintaining and learning from a site they’ve built in the past year or two. Some retailers, however, are taking things up a notch: They’re not designing m-commerce sites; they’re already redesigning sites. And in the process they’re adding the latest technologies, like two-dimensional bar code scanning, to their efforts.

The Catholic Company launched its m-commerce site in March 2010. A lot has changed in the mobile realm since then, especially smartphone capabilities and mobile web browser functionality. The religious goods merchant came to appreciate the evolution of mobile technology and what it meant to its m-commerce site and decided it had to upgrade the site to keep pace with the times.

“Last year mobile was doing really well, but this year it has slowed a bit, and we attributed that to a design matter,” says Nicholas Cole, director of marketing at The Catholic Company.

When it designed the site in early 2010, all smartphone web browsers only operated in portrait mode, which means the display is longer vertically than horizontally. Unlike with many smartphone apps, the browser would not change the web page onscreen to landscape mode when the user turned her smartphone to a horizontal position. That changed last year, and now most smartphones can browse the web in landscape mode, which significantly alters the size of text and images on the screen.

“In landscape view, the way our site was designed the text became very small and very hard to read, so we felt people were getting a bad experience. That experience was translating into weak sales,” Cole explains. “So we updated the style sheets to function better in landscape, as well as with higher-resolution screens that have been entering the market. Now fonts and images in landscape mode appear bigger in a better fashion.”

One of the biggest changes in mobile commerce has been in the market itself: more retailers, catalogers and consumer brand manufacturers are reaping rewards. M-commerce sales hit $2.9 billion in 2010 and are expected to jump to $5.3 billion this year, according to investment bank Barclays Capital. Merchants realize that more consumers are buying smartphones and using them to access the web, engage with mobile apps. More shopping inevitably will follow.

“Mobile commerce is a must-have,” says Julie A. Ask, vice president and principal analyst at Forrester Research Inc. “The number of people using their phones to do research and make purchases has grown dramatically in the last year. M-commerce sales are in the billions, and the dollars that mobile will influence will be three times that or more. I don’t see how you stay out of that game.”

Cole stresses the urgent need for merchants to get into m-commerce. It’s growing fast at The Catholic Company—mobile sales are ahead of target for the year to date.

“Last year was the time to get started,” he says. “People are waiting for trends to emerge, but things are moving so quickly. Retailers need to get a fully functional m-commerce site up as quickly as they can. Traffic no doubt is coming from mobile devices and these people expect a mobile-optimized site, so you’ve got to give it to them.”

Most retailers begin in m-commerce with a site. A site can be accessed on any smartphone and on many feature phones—the predecessors to smartphones. Thus, sites provide the greatest reach. But then there are mobile apps, which can provide much richer experiences than sites and make full use of the innate features and functions of a smartphone. But an app only provides access to a slice of the pie; for example, iPhone users, not all smartphone users, can only use an iPhone app.

But smartphone users love apps. And when done well, which includes offering some cool and crafty features, apps can keep consumers coming back for more.

“If I’m targeting people over 55, mobile will be less relevant. If I’m targeting 13 and 14, they will have a lower-end device not capable of downloading apps,” Forrester Research’s Ask explains. “But for the very lucrative Gen Y and Gen X, and even into the Boomers, an app is a better experience than the web. The apps are the ones that do all the cool things. They scan bar codes, they scan QR codes, they let me bump my phone with my friend’s phone and give them money. That’s the fun stuff that consumers get excited about.”

However, some mobile experts suggest while a mobile app may be good for some retailers, others need not devote the time and resources necessary to create one.

“If you’re a big enough brand it can make sense, but it’s not like you have to do it,” says Neil Strother, practice director at ABI Research. “If you decide to do it, you should also simultaneously have a really good mobile web site experience. If you do one thing you should do an optimized web site. A mobile app is not a simple thing. It’s a lot more expensive in people and dollars than you think.”

In addition to sites and apps, retailers should consider another m-commerce tool: text messaging. Text messaging is an inexpensive way to reach consumers with any kind of mobile phone in a way that is immediate and time-sensitive.

“Text messaging is a really good way to say, ‘I have a new sale this week’ or ‘Come in for this discount.’ It’s a good way to stimulate your mobile consumers,” Strother says. “You have to do the heavy lifting of capturing the mobile phone numbers.” That’s required in order for a retailer to text customers.

“But it can be very successful, Cole adds. “The open rate for text alerts is extremely high; if you can get enough phone numbers and set them up on text alerts, it can be very effective, but you need to send a limited number out and ensure they are relevant.”

Also worth considering is a mobile technology that has started to gain traction in the last year: two-dimensional bar codes, such as Quick Response, or QR codes. 2-D bar codes can contain much more information than the conventional one-dimensional bar code used on consumer-packaged goods. A smartphone user with a 2-D reader app hovers his smartphone over the 2-D code and the reader scans it; the app reads the cost and automatically links him to mobile web-based content.

The Catholic Company is pioneering QR codes by including them in its July catalog. Scanning the code with the St. Roch statue will send shoppers to a mobile video of the artisan handcrafting the statues plus more information on the patron saint of animals.

“Our goal is to raise awareness of and drive more traffic to the mobile site,” Cole says. “The video is hosted on the mobile site, and on that video page there is a link to the product page. The site search box is also on the video page, and shoppers will be able to navigate from that video page throughout the site.”

M-commerce offers many tools to reach the ever-growing number of mobile shoppers. Merchants must consider diving in with an m-commerce site, then examine other avenues that may lead to greater engagement with their brands and more sales.

Mobile Commerce

Most retailers that have identified mobile commerce as a strategic priority are today focused on building an m-commerce site or maintaining and learning from a site they’ve built in the past year or two. Some retailers, however, are taking things up a notch: They’re not designing m-commerce sites; they’re already redesigning sites. And in the process they’re adding the latest technologies, like two-dimensional bar code scanning, to their efforts.

The Catholic Company launched its m-commerce site in March 2010. A lot has changed in the mobile realm since then, especially smartphone capabilities and mobile web browser functionality. The religious goods merchant came to appreciate the evolution of mobile technology and what it meant to its m-commerce site and decided it had to upgrade the site to keep pace with the times.

“Last year mobile was doing really well, but this year it has slowed a bit, and we attributed that to a design matter,” says Nicholas Cole, director of marketing at The Catholic Company.

When it designed the site in early 2010, all smartphone web browsers only operated in portrait mode, which means the display is longer vertically than horizontally. Unlike with many smartphone apps, the browser would not change the web page onscreen to landscape mode when the user turned her smartphone to a horizontal position. That changed last year, and now most smartphones can browse the web in landscape mode, which significantly alters the size of text and images on the screen.

“In landscape view, the way our site was designed the text became very small and very hard to read, so we felt people were getting a bad experience. That experience was translating into weak sales,” Cole explains. “So we updated the style sheets to function better in landscape, as well as with higher-resolution screens that have been entering the market. Now fonts and images in landscape mode appear bigger in a better fashion.”

One of the biggest changes in mobile commerce has been in the market itself: more retailers, catalogers and consumer brand manufacturers are reaping rewards. M-commerce sales hit $2.9 billion in 2010 and are expected to jump to $5.3 billion this year, according to investment bank Barclays Capital. Merchants realize that more consumers are buying smartphones and using them to access the web, engage with mobile apps. More shopping inevitably will follow.

“Mobile commerce is a must-have,” says Julie A. Ask, vice president and principal analyst at Forrester Research Inc. “The number of people using their phones to do research and make purchases has grown dramatically in the last year. M-commerce sales are in the billions, and the dollars that mobile will influence will be three times that or more. I don’t see how you stay out of that game.”

Cole stresses the urgent need for merchants to get into m-commerce. It’s growing fast at The Catholic Company—mobile sales are ahead of target for the year to date.

“Last year was the time to get started,” he says. “People are waiting for trends to emerge, but things are moving so quickly. Retailers need to get a fully functional m-commerce site up as quickly as they can. Traffic no doubt is coming from mobile devices and these people expect a mobile-optimized site, so you’ve got to give it to them.”

Most retailers begin in m-commerce with a site. A site can be accessed on any smartphone and on many feature phones—the predecessors to smartphones. Thus, sites provide the greatest reach. But then there are mobile apps, which can provide much richer experiences than sites and make full use of the innate features and functions of a smartphone. But an app only provides access to a slice of the pie; for example, iPhone users, not all smartphone users, can only use an iPhone app.

But smartphone users love apps. And when done well, which includes offering some cool and crafty features, apps can keep consumers coming back for more.

“If I’m targeting people over 55, mobile will be less relevant. If I’m targeting 13 and 14, they will have a lower-end device not capable of downloading apps,” Forrester Research’s Ask explains. “But for the very lucrative Gen Y and Gen X, and even into the Boomers, an app is a better experience than the web. The apps are the ones that do all the cool things. They scan bar codes, they scan QR codes, they let me bump my phone with my friend’s phone and give them money. That’s the fun stuff that consumers get excited about.”

However, some mobile experts suggest while a mobile app may be good for some retailers, others need not devote the time and resources necessary to create one.

“If you’re a big enough brand it can make sense, but it’s not like you have to do it,” says Neil Strother, practice director at ABI Research. “If you decide to do it, you should also simultaneously have a really good mobile web site experience. If you do one thing you should do an optimized web site. A mobile app is not a simple thing. It’s a lot more expensive in people and dollars than you think.”

In addition to sites and apps, retailers should consider another m-commerce tool: text messaging. Text messaging is an inexpensive way to reach consumers with any kind of mobile phone in a way that is immediate and time-sensitive.

“Text messaging is a really good way to say, ‘I have a new sale this week’ or ‘Come in for this discount.’ It’s a good way to stimulate your mobile consumers,” Strother says. “You have to do the heavy lifting of capturing the mobile phone numbers.” That’s required in order for a retailer to text customers.

“But it can be very successful, Cole adds. “The open rate for text alerts is extremely high; if you can get enough phone numbers and set them up on text alerts, it can be very effective, but you need to send a limited number out and ensure they are relevant.”

Also worth considering is a mobile technology that has started to gain traction in the last year: two-dimensional bar codes, such as Quick Response, or QR codes. 2-D bar codes can contain much more information than the conventional one-dimensional bar code used on consumer-packaged goods. A smartphone user with a 2-D reader app hovers his smartphone over the 2-D code and the reader scans it; the app reads the cost and automatically links him to mobile web-based content.

The Catholic Company is pioneering QR codes by including them in its July catalog. Scanning the code with the St. Roch statue will send shoppers to a mobile video of the artisan handcrafting the statues plus more information on the patron saint of animals.

“Our goal is to raise awareness of and drive more traffic to the mobile site,” Cole says. “The video is hosted on the mobile site, and on that video page there is a link to the product page. The site search box is also on the video page, and shoppers will be able to navigate from that video page throughout the site.”

M-commerce offers many tools to reach the ever-growing number of mobile shoppers. Merchants must consider diving in with an m-commerce site, then examine other avenues that may lead to greater engagement with their brands and more sales.