Evan Schuman

A high percentage of retailers are using unprotected customer information when they test their credit card processing systems, leaving the door open to a host of security problems, analysts say. The problems arise when retailers, seeking to test any system that might impact credit card processing (point-of-sale upgrades, operating system patches, database changes, and so […]

Unless the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit intervenes early next year, retailers who have been sued for printing federally prohibited information on consumer credit card receipts will almost certainly get off the hook. Two federal judges this week rejected a critical class-action certification request from the consumers suing the retailers. Those two […]

Magnus Gustafsson is a marketing executive with a very clear mission. As vice president of direct marketing for Aerosoles, he uses the chains more than 250 Aerosole stores and thousands of department and specialty store partners to push one form of apparel—shoes—and to only form of customer: women. The chain recently kicked off its mens […]

Retailers with concerns about credit card data protection face an uncertain legal landscape as a series of lawsuits and federal court decisions render contradictory rulings. The outcome of several lawsuits against retailers for violating federal law by printing full credit card numbers on receipts remains unresolved, with two federal judges issuing contradictory rulings and the […]

The traditional argument against item-level RFID is that it only makes economic sense for products costing more than $100, but that assumes one-time use. In a trial with reusable tags, Staples is throwing out all the old rules. Staples in late May started its trial at one of its Montreal stores, selectively tagging about 2,000 […]

A survey of 20,000 consumers offers good news for Amazon, QVC and Netflix and not so good news for Macys, BestBuy, PCMall and Saks Fifth Avenue. The survey, done for years by consulting firm ForeSee Results, takes the top 100 revenue-grossing Web sites and applied the methodology of the University of Michigan’s ACSI (American Customer […]

Statistics are wonderful things, especially survey results. Numbers in general can be selectively chosen to suggest the reality the stat-issuer wants to suggest. But surveys hold a special place in the perception-illusion game. We can start with how the question was phrased, who was asked and—my personal favorite—how the interviewee interpreted the question. All of […]

When Hewlett-Packard unveiled this week its prototype Retail Store Assistant—a kiosk that offers customized promotions transmitted directly to a customers smart phone—it took a business-pragmatic position in the personal shopper battle. Theres little debate that customized shopping—taking the CRM customer-specific data one major step beyond the minimally effective coupons at the end of checkout—is almost […]

Low tag read rates are still preventing RFID from gaining momentum as of mid-2007, even though the potential benefits of the wireless technology are making it look more attractive, according to a report issued May 29 from Cambridge, England.-based research company IDTechEx. “The tagging of pallets and cases to meet retail mandates is still struggling […]

Confronted with a seemingly impossible task, its human nature to long for a neighbors solution, even if that neighbor curses at that solution every day. This comes to mind as we look at two aspects of the PCI world this week. Recent reports about PCI have raised questions about how many retailers are truly PCI […]