Fresh off the road from a busy Spring schedule of conferences and events such as the recent RIS Retail Technology Conference and MICROS Retail Conference, I reflected on some of the latest trends in retail I picked up on in various sessions, conversations and reports.
Customers are King; Mobile Use and Commerce Increasing
Mobile has placed even more power into the hands of today’s consumer, with the ability to check competitors’ prices while in store (a phenomenon known as “showrooming”) and so retailers are being forced to adopt new pricing and promotional tactics. Marketing investments are focused on mining more data and using it to provide more customized promotions to increase engagement and loyalty. To keep… Read More
From the old knuckle busters, to electronic transactions, to mobile wallets. The world of payments today is evolving at breakneck speed, with more change expected over the next few years than in the last few decades combined. At last week’s Electronic Transactions Association Annual Meeting & Expo, the message was loud and clear: keep up, remain versatile, and continue to innovate, or risk getting left behind.
Having attended the ETA show for many years, it’s interesting to experience the shift in focus. We’re not just talking about basic credit card processing anymore. For example, an exciting new wave of data mining is turning transaction data into marketing gold, providing valuable business intelligence for merchants, and a more personalized experience… Read More
There has been much discussion on credit card security and the use of card-based vs. transaction-based tokens. What is the difference exactly? Transaction-based tokens relate to individual transactions. With transaction-based tokenization, a new token is created each time a transaction occurs. Card-based tokens are generated for each card number. In this approach, the same token is reused every time that card number is used. Hoteliers will find a great deal of value in card-based tokens. Card-based tokens maintain the history critical to guest satisfaction, loyalty programs and marketing analytics.
Guest Preference and History
For the hotelier, a card-based approach means that you can track all guest transactions within the establishment to one folio/card number. All guest purchases, from their… Read More
