When collecting KPIs, there are certain foundational questions that organizations must ensure they can answer: How can you be certain all of your system processes ran without error? What are the KPIs you are tracking? How long would it take to find out what data your KPIs are measuring? Would you know if those KPIs…
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C-store Operators Move Technology Investments to the Must-Have Column
This article originally appeared in a print edition of Convenience Store News, written by contributor Melissa Kress. Convenience Store News’ online content can be found here. Not that long ago, technology initiatives were a nice-to-have in the convenience channel, a bonus to stand out in the competitive set. But today, convenience store operators are moving technology from…
Before You Check Out of 2019...
The winter holiday season is around the corner, but that doesn’t mean time stands still and projects need to grind to a halt. While most who work in service industries and operational roles cannot automatically schedule week-long or more vacations around the holidays, many do have the luxury to “check out” for a bit beginning…
Averting the Digital Dilemma
This article originally appeared in a print edition of Convenience Store News, written by contributor Thomas Malloy. Convenience Store News’ online content can be found here. Most c-store operators are by now already familiar with the Internet of Things (IoT). Small sensors and tiny tech machines talk to each other and to us via our…
EMV Co. and W3C, United for a World Without Friction
One of the hardest parts of the payments universe is increasing transaction speed and reducing friction for the consumer. Let’s be realistic, we have gone from paying with cash to using a mobile phone in a very short time, but the last five years have brought significant change. In the United States, we approached the…
Defend Against Dollar Stores: C-stores can protect their turf against value retailers by focusing on strengths and differentiation
This article originally appeared in a print edition of Convenience Store News, written by contributor Tammy Mastroberte. Convenience Store News’ online content can be found here. Convenience Store Operators face competition from within the industry, as well as outside of it. This includes quick-service restaurants, drugstores and the expanding dollar store market. While dollar stores…
Touchpoints: The New Point of Sale
The following has been reposted from Convenience Store Decisions. The original post can be found here. New touchpoints are challenging traditional point-of-sale (POS) systems used in the convenience/petro retail industry, as customer-experience-driven technologies, global solution providers and industry leaders look to move their companies forward. For example, as more convenience store retailers wade into foodservice,…
Generational Consumer Preferences: What Does It Mean for Your Business?
We hear it all the time – “Millennials are killing ___”, with any number of products or services filling in the blank. Millennials are currently the largest generation of spenders, and will continue to be for at least the next 10 years [1]. For merchants, this means that the methods for capturing millennial interest…
What Happened to Cryptocurrency?
In early 2018, in an email to a colleague, I wrote this about cryptocurrency, and it remains prescient even today: “Regardless of when this is being read, the cryptocurrency market will have wildly shifted within the last few days. As cryptocurrency remains prevalent in the news, merchants and all others in the payments ecosystem are…
Multi-Factor Authentication and Security Practices Within Office 365
Nearly all organizations experience incoming security threats. Whether it’s via email, malware, or otherwise, organizations must equip themselves with the set of tools to be proactive in blocking and defending themselves against such threats. Organizations in the financial and payment processing sector are unfortunately targeted at a higher rate than others, simply due to the…
The Evolving Data Revolution
The following has been reposted from Convenience Store Decisions. The original post can be found here. Not so long ago, scan data meant monitoring how many of which items sold. It gave category managers a new response to vendors using purchase data to allocate shelf space. It relieved store employees from taking a best guess at…
Visa and MasterCard Offer Rules Changes
The following article comes to us courtesy of Brian Kehn from HomeServeUSA, and describes rule changes that are current as of August 12, 2019. Visa and MasterCard have new rules related to merchants who provide introductory offers, up-sells and free trial offers that turn into an ongoing subscription. The program rules vary by card brands. …