The Retail Buzz

“We know merchants are eager to take advantage of their existing smartphones or tablets to accept payment cards,” said Bob Russo, general manager, PCI Security Standards Council. “And the Council and its stakeholders, want to help the market to do this in a secure way. We're excited about this easy-to-use reference that will help merchants understand how to use the suite of PCI Standards to enable their businesses while still keeping data security top of mind.”

80% of identity theft can be traced back to small business breaches in security
With the “mobile revolution” comes a shift in retail security practices by independent retailers looking for cost effective retail technology solutions. Taunted by the allure of a “full mobile POS system” for dirt cheap, it can seem too good to be true when it comes to PCI Compliance. The PCI Security Standards Council state what many have been wondering for some time, “Mobile devices are not necessarily designed to be secure input or storage devices for cardholder data. Your mobile payment solutions thus requires additional technology, including encryption to secure cardholder data acceptance.”

At this point, the exact regulations and guidelines have yet to been fully defined by the PCI Council regarding mobile point of sale systems. So, when a prospective mobile POS provider has stated that they are PCI compliant, this does not necessarily mean that any specific actions have been taken to ensure that the specific system is secure. Factually, PCI compliance is not limited to your software capabilities and while you may be attempting to form up a small business on a dime with an iPad and a $15 a month system, you are in the hot seat if you are not only PCI compliant but truly secure.

How “hot” is the hot seat?
The reason this is of absolute importance to you as a retailer, is you could personally be held accountable for everything from full reimbursement for monies stolen, to a possible $500,000 fine for negligence should there be a data breach which traces back to one of your devices. As you can see, this is very serious business that a fly-by-night POS system should not be trusted with. In this matter, the cheapest option is not necessarily the better option and could effectively close your business.

How to protect yourself and your livelihood
Several heavily marketed and relatively new mobile POS systems are under scrutiny for PCI compliance failure (lack of data encryption is a common oversight). A  long term service provider of point of sale solutions, hardware and supporting systems (security, etc.) will know the ins and outs of how to create a safe point of sale for your retail store.  We recommend a layered approach to security. Our definition of “layered security” would include: Firewall for all internet connections, system back-ups, run regularly and security cameras installed in high theft locations in the store.  In addition to having a security suite, ensuring the mobile POS device you use has data encryption, goes a long, long way to complying with  PCI Compliant regulations.

Summary
A thorough list of best practices is expected before year end. In the mean time, a straightforward paper (link below) gives some hands on advice for merchants including:

• Leveraging the benefits of the Council's recently published Point-to-Point Encryption (P2PE) standard and program
• Responsibilities under PCI DSS, and how to translate to mobile payments

The latest Retail Buzz Newsletter is now available! We publish this newsletter every month, with new articles, tips, news and good things happening in retail. It's free! http://onestepretail.com/OSD/newsletter/newsletter.php

Take advantage of our incredible Dell laptop promotion!

If you've outgrown or are unhappy with your POS system and ready to make a change, we have a great incentive.

One Step Retail Solutions is offering new clients a FREE LAPTOP with their purchase of a complete POS solution to the first 5 customers of this promotion.

The POS solution in this promotion includes POS software, POS hardware, membership and professional services.

More info about this promotion:
http://onestepretail.com/l/laptop-promotion.php

New article at One Step Retail Solutions that talks about factors involved with erosion of brand value and how to evolve to align your brand within the new economy.

Here is what the article says ...

There has been a lot of discussion around the erosion of brand value and the fact that consumer brand loyalty has been slipping for an extended period of time.

Many factors have contributed to this, not the least of which is the ability to compare products and prices on the Internet. Any given retail chain or online store also develops its own "brand image" that can improve or deteriorate based on the overall shopping experience and merchandise lines.

For example, in the early years of online sales there were a number of absolutely livid Web shoppers whose purchases didn't arrive in time for Christmas - those store brands certainly suffered! Now that time has healed the wounds and the retailers involved managed to revamp their systems and rebuild their service and delivery image, online sales continues to reach record numbers.

But rather than looking at it as a single company or brand that is losing value, I would argue that when one brand is slipping more often than not another is gaining. An example of that would be the wireless handset industry - while Motorola lost its place as a leader, BlackBerry held its own and now even new players such as Dell and Google are entering the market.

One Step Retail Solutions CEO Scott Kreisberg Named as Chairman of the Retail Pro Business Partner Advisory Council

Retail Pro International announced that One Step Retail Solutions' CEO Scott Kreisberg has been elected by his peers as Chairman of the Retail Pro Business Partner Advisory Council.

One Step Retail Solutions has been Retail Pro's "Global Business Partner of the Year" for the last four years. Retail Pro's Business Partner Advisory Council is an honor and achievement for a select number of very successful Retail Pro software service providers throughout the world, signifying they have been through extensive training, delivering outstanding customer service, and focused on the issues and needs of small to mid-size retailers.

As Chairman of the Business Partner Advisory Council, Mr. Kreisberg stated "The Council looks forward to working with Retail Pro to even more fully service the specialty retail industry and help to create a resurgence and rebound for retailers all across the country."

One Step Retail Solutions Named As An HP Elite Partner

Hewlett-Packard (HP) recently named One Step Retail Solutions as an HP Elite Partner, designating HP’s highest level of sales and technical certification requirements.

The HP Elite Partners have an extensive proven industry qualifications validated by HP. One Step’s collaboration with HP enables the company to deliver collaborative point of sale (POS) service offerings relating to POS hardware solutions for small to mid-size retailers, providing tailored solutions fully supported by HP.

One Step Retail Solutions has serviced the retail industry for 25 years, and is one of the nation’s leading resellers and service providers of point of sale solutions for the retail environment, providing retailers with on-going consulting, training and technical support to thousands of retail stores across the US, as well as in Europe.

One Step’s track record of satisfied HP POS customers combined with HP Elite Partner designation positions One Step as an experienced partner able to fully support customers in the selection, installation and configuration of customized HP solutions in their IT environments.

About One Step Retail Solutions:
One Step Retail Solutions is celebrating its 25 years of experience in the retail point of sale / inventory control industry, with over 3000 stores currently being serviced and supported across the US. As one of the largest retail service providers in the United States, it has supplied retail technology solutions to large name retailers in apparel, sporting goods, museums, jewelry, shoes, entertainment venues and sports arenas. Its corporate headquarters are in Phoenix, Arizona with offices in Los Angeles and New York. Website: www.onestepretail.com.

About Hewlett-Packard
HP was founded in 1939 and is a technology company that operates in more than 170 countries around the world. HP explores how technology and services can help people and companies address their problems and challenges, offering consumers a wide range of products and services from digital photography to digital entertainment and from computing to home printing. This comprehensive portfolio helps HP match the right products, services and solutions to their customers' specific needs. Corporate headquarters are in Palo Alto, CA. Website: www.hp.com.

One Step Retail Solutions is having its BIG Year-end Specials on POS Systems. Retailers can take advantage of getting a complete POS system (hardware, software, and pro services) and big savings.

Check out the Year-end Specials now!

Get the most from your retail technology systems in order to increase your survival potential. Use this retail checklist to gain a competitive advantage in 2010:

• Ensure your retail technology equipment is PCI Compliant

• Use reliable retail-hardened POS hardware to run your POS system

• Add more POS stations to help prevent long check-out lines.

• Upgrade your POS software to the latest version to better manage inventory, customers, and vendors

• Get any customized programming that tailors your system to meet unique or specialized needs

• Have an efficient reporting tool with your POS software to gain valuable insight into your business

• Optimize merchandise distribution to increase sell-through and prevent markdowns

• Ensure merchandising and finance are working together as an integrated system

• Have reliable, up-to-date security systems set up (loss prevention systems) for both your hardware and store

• Back up your files and POS system regularly (Retail Backup recommended)

• Integrate credit card processing and gift cards with your POS system

• Integrate your online store (e-Commerce) with your POS system using EDI (Electronic Data Interchange)

• Keep Technical Support contracts in place to get the help you need to run smoothly

• Review your Returns Policy to minimize returns fraud

Here are some tips for 2010:

• Gather customer information at point of sale to use for targeted promotions

• Track your customer purchases and review customer's history at POS to improve customer relations

• Have a customer loyalty program in place

• Hold periodic events at your store

• Have contests with either employees and/or customers

• Run reports regularly to gain insight that helps you manage your business better

• Train your sales employees on basic customer service and find ways to reward them for this

• Minimize return fraud using upgraded POS software and security systems

• Expand your channels of retailing (videos, blogs, social networking, etc)

• Do planned pricing to unload stock through scheduled markdowns

• Offer classes to individualize your store

• Use framed signage to show why your merchandise is unique

• Provide a shopping experience that includes respect, honesty, and trust

Visit our website for informative articles, whitepapers, and retail industry eBook - all complimentary of One Step Retail Solutions: http://www.onestepretail.com/

Our latest retail industry article by retail expert Scott Kreisberg talks about an "inflection point", which occurs when an industry or segment faces lasting changes so large and significant that it calls for companies to adapt with a new strategy or ability to compete, or face what becomes an irreversible decline and failure.

Almost every company faces ongoing changes of one type or another in its
industry, and retail is no exception. However, various news and events of the
past year or two make me think that there are fundamental permanent changes
going on that will leave some retail chains behind if they are not on top of it.

I am not referencing the banking crisis or recession itself, which we will
eventually pull through after some period of time. Nor am I referring only to
some of the long-term trends we outlined in our report “Six Biggest Challenges
Facing Retailers Today”, which is available on our website.

Issues such as dealing with national chains and big box retailers have been
on the table for a while, and most smaller and mid-sized chains have figured out
how to successfully deal with that type of competition.

What I am referring to is the type of change called an ‘inflection point’
as defined by Andy Grove, the long-time CEO of Intel, in his book “Only The
Paranoid Survive.” This occurs when an industry or segment faces lasting changes
so large and significant that it calls for companies to adapt with a new
strategy or ability to compete, or face what becomes an irreversible decline and
failure.

Such an inflection point may bring even greater opportunity than before
for organizations who do figure out how to take advantage of it.

An article by Scott Kreisberg takes a look at factors that weigh in for improving the bottom line for a retail store.

There has been a tremendous amount of discussion by economists and government experts in regard to the type of recession we are in, as well as the possible ways we could come out of it.

The good news is that it seems to be a fairly unanimous sentiment that we are at or very near the bottom. Plus there are other positive signs such as retail sector sales picking up slightly (with autos excluded) in both August and September. However, there are varied opinions and speculation as to where things go from here.

This is pretty clearly demonstrated in the different models, or 'shapes', that the recovery might take, which have come to be characterized by various letters of the alphabet.

It is likely that many of you have seen these so I will only briefly touch on what they are. We have the classic 'V' shape recession, which is a clear downturn and bottom followed by clear and sustained recovery, the 'U' which is a longer time spent at the bottom and in recovery, and the 'W' or double-dip.

Read full article ...

One Step Retail Solutions, a leading reseller and service provider of retail point of sale software systems, recently launched a Retail Executive Advisory Panel (REAP) to conduct routine retail industry studies among retail leaders.

Retail executives participating in REAP will take advantage of being part of a panel of their peers to gain and share knowledge of retailing, including approaches to new and innovative retail strategies. Members of the Panel who participate in the studies then receive an Executive Summary of the study’s research findings, which provides them access to information from other top retail executives.

One Step’s objective is to bring top level retail executives together in a forum for pursuing excellence in their own retail business. Believing that these executive’s opinion measures heavily on the retail landscape, One Step plans to make strides in gaining more insight into what current challenges retailers face and what they are doing or not doing to boost their bottom line.

A new monthly newsletter publication, The Retail Executive, will get mailed out primarily to REAP members, providing another form of sharing articles and knowledge from top retail experts and REAP members about the retail business. The publication will also distributed to retail CEO’s, CFO’s, CIO’s and other top level executives in the industry who are not a member of REAP but wish to subscribe to the newsletter.

Information about joining REAP and subscribing to the newsletter is at the One Step website: http://onestepretail.com/OSD/REAP/

Recent article by Peter Pishko:
"It's Over and Done But The Heartache Lives On"

Consumer confidence is up once again, albeit a small increase attributed to the Cash for Clunkers program initiated by the Federal government.

We have gone through all of the hard decisions during the past 12 months, cutting to the bare bones of our organizations, jettisoning some staff and operations that should have been cut from our organization long ago, but also letting go of some talent and expensive endeavors or plans for expansion that in these economic times are not cost effective; all very smart moves for survival, but now where do we go?

The decision to cut staffing levels at our executive levels have made for some grateful employees who are 1) very happy to be employed, 2) loyal employees because the loyalty thing goes both ways, 3) over worked because they are picking up tasks and functions their former colleagues, bosses, underlings used to perform.

Our store level employees have been cut to bare bones, staffing is at a minimum, affecting customer service and loss prevention. One employee reported to me that they have no security in their building on a regular basis, maybe two or three times a week for 6 hours.

The decision to terminate employees is not an easy one; it has been shown that it is often more stressful to let staff go than to actually be the one being let go. Yet our employees carry on and they are asking the same questions we do: where do we go from here?

The defensive moves have been made, but the game is not won on defense alone. Time to return to our playbooks and take a look at the offense and who to put into the game, evaluate the whole playing field. We have survived but the game is not over...

Read rest of article ...

Watch our latest recorded Webinar, "Social Networking for Retailers" about the social media revolution and how retailers can utilize these channels to increase sales.

The Webinar discusses Web 2.0 strategies in the 21st Century and the shift in the way businesses communicate with their public. It shows how we've moved from "push" marketing to "pull" or "engagement" marketing.

Find out how to best use social media in your retail business, how to select the right social media channels, set boundaries, and establish a game plan to implement these social channels in your retail business.

Watch Webinar

New product release! One Step Retail Analytics!

One Step Retail Analytics is a solution that includes a new Retail Pro 9 Appliance with the new exclusive reporting engine.

One Step Retail Analytics provides the capability to build, modify, pivot, sort, rank, drill down, and process the data from your business.

• Increase efficiency and sales by quickly investigating hunches or changes in trends using a pre-built data mart and drill down analysis
• Manage using key performance profiles like turn, GMROI, sell through, days of supply or stock to sales by vendor, dept or merchandise
• Pivot, sort, rank data to get the view of your business you need to make the right decisions
• Build reports specific to your needs and your business

Read all about the new Retail Analytics!