May 2009 Be Your Best Year Ever!&nb...
Worst holiday shopping season since "at least 1970" CNN Money reports that the recession, discounts and bad weather are to blame.NEW YORK (Reuters) -- The U.S. holiday shopping season is the worst since at least 1970 due to the recession, heavy discounting and harsh winter weather just before Christmas, the International Council of Shopping Centers said Tuesday.Sales at U.S. chain stores fell 1.8% in the week ending Dec. 27 compared with the previous year, while sales fell 1.5% compared...
ForeSee Results - Holiday 2008 Top 40 Online Retail Satisfaction IndexHoliday 2008 Top 40Online Retail Satisfaction IndexThe Top 40 Online Retail Satisfaction Index assessed customer satisfaction with leading online retailers during the holiday shopping season, the most critical time of the year. 2008 was the fourth year in a row that ForeSee Results conducted this research, allowing for valuable insights on year-over-year performance by individual retailers.Overview Commentary: This report ranks...
Javelin Strategy and Research » Consumers fear mobile banking security threats – studyConsumers fear mobile banking security threats – studyThe Paypers- Another widespread opinion among consumers who chose not to sign up for mobile banking is the fact that since mobile transactions are not yet mainstream, mobile banking services providers cannot anticipate the type of attacks fraudsters could launch against users once mobile banking adoption rates climb. Despite inherent safety features such as...
E-payment fraud projected to hit $4 billion in 2008, up 11% over 2007E-commerce fraud losses in the U.S. and Canada are expected to reach $4 billion in 2008, an 11% increase from $3.6 billion in 2007, according to CyberSource Corp's 10th annual survey of e-commerce fraud.Chargebacks accounted for almost half of 2008 online payment fraud losses. The percentage of online revenue lost to fraud held steady from 2007 at 1.4% of online sales, the report says.Merchants fight only about 50% of the fraud...
It looks like 2009 is going to be the "Year of the Debit Card." According to a US Banker poll, only 1% of U.S. Consumers are going to use their credit cards more this year. In the wake of 3% growth in 2008, look for a decline in 2009. Meanwhile, according to The Nilson Report, debit card usage grew at 13% in 2008. Look for growth in prepaid and debit cards to surge in 2009...New Poll Finds Only One Percent of U.S. Consumers Plan to Charge More - 01..2009 - U.S. Banker...
Credit Line Cuts Could Boomerang - 12.29.2008 - American Banker ArticleCredit line reductions, account repricing, and other steps that card issuers are taking to control risk could soon start causing their customers to do something many homeowners did this year: walk away from their obligations. In the past month current and former industry executives and observers have raised concerns that prevalent risk management tactics may spur such behavior — even among customers who still have the capacity...
According to "Inside Facebook" the company has temporarily abandoned its initiative to launch a platform payment system which would enable retailers to conduct e-commerce transactions and accept payments directly inside their Facebook applications." Facebook announced the beta test version of a payments platform initiative in December 2007. It was originally billed as a means to allow Facebook users to carry out transactions and purchase virtual and physical goods and services without...
The Paypers. Insights in payments.China's online transaction volume to reach EUR 9.4-9.9 billion in Q4 2008In Q4 2008, the online transaction volume is expected to reach between EUR 9.4 and 9.9 billion in China.In spite of the financial crisis, the online transaction volume is on an upward curve as a result of the expansion of payment channels and application fields and boosted by the launch of new online payment services. Alibaba's online payment services provider Alipay has made an online payment...
Sending money overseas instantly could soon become a reality with the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) considering proposals to allow non-bankingentities like online money transfer portals to undertake wire transfers for outward remittances from India. At the moment the facility is limited to inward remittances, while only banks are permitted to carry out outward remittance orders.According to sources close to the development, the central bank has been approached by a number of players to enable outward...
Americans switch purchasing optionsAmericans are turning away from credit cards and "shifting" to debit card usage.Debit card purchases...at the end of 2008...are forecast to climb by 13% for the year, according to an industry newsletter by The Nilson Report. Credit card purchases are predicted to be up a mere 3%.The numbers seem to indicate a strong "shift" away from credit as the economy tries to find its way out of recession. Look for more disparity in 2009...
Mobile Phones Will Be the Primary Internet Connection by 2020In a December 2008 survey, 77 percent of Internet activists, developers, and commentators said they believed that mobile phones would be the primary tool for accessing the Internet within the next 12 years.The Pew Internet & American Life Project survey asked 578 leading Internet experts and 618 other respondents whether they agreed with several "scenarios about the effect of the Internet on social, political, and economic life in...
The Washington Post's Chadwick Matin wrote an interesting story last Friday providing further insight into the paradigm shift that is occurring within the retail bricks and mortar world. Call him a "Mall Bearer" as he's basically saying that the death of the malls is e-minent.... Here's some of what he has to say...to read the article in it's entirety click the title below... Tear Down That Mall - washingtonpost.comIt's hard to figure out what's changed about malls since...
Discover reports economic confidence improves among small merchantsEditor's Note: Small Biz Owners being "cautiously optimistic" is good news amidst a flurry of bad...to see the data, click here to download in Microsoft Word Format.Riverwoods, Ill., Dec. 29, 2008 -- After falling to its lowest measurement ever in November, economic confidence among small business owners rose slightly in December. The Discover(R) Small Business WatchSM rose to 72.8 in December, up 5.3 points from November....
Amazon had it's "best season ever." (results from Macy's 2008 holiday season results have yet to be released) But make no doubt about it. Macy's is in trouble. Sure, they just negotiated looser terms on its $2 billion in currently unused bank loans, but...There's about $950 million of debt coming due in 2009 and the company still has $226 million of debt maturing in 2010, $650 million coming due in 2011 and $1.3 billion payable in 2012, along with its bank line of revolving...
Discounts Not Enough to Revive Online Retail Sales - WSJ.comThe Wall Street Journal reports on a dismal holiday season for retailers. Based on the fact that the holiday season constitutes upwards of 30% of annual sales for some bricks and mortar retailers, this is indeed bad news. Combined with the credit crisis, this could be the a death blow for some. But it doesn't surprise me in the very least. The paradigm shifting in consumer shopping behavior would have dealt a nasty...
Amazon...and you're done!Amazon overtakes eBay as most-visited retail site, Nielsen saysFor the first time, Amazon.com passed eBay.com in November as the most popular retail destination on the Internet, according to Nielsen Online. Kmart had the highest percentage gain in "unique visitors", up 35% while Overstock's had 7 million less unique visitors compared to last year, a 36% drop. (wonder what caused that?)In addition to Kmart's 35% upswing, other double digit gainer's included Wal*Mart (13%)...
Paul Beverly, President of Gemalto North America, in an article published in Contactless News, is calling for the US to follow the lead taken by the rest of the world and implement EMV standards here in the US.Editor's Note: The name EMV comes from the initial letters of Europay, MasterCard and VISA, the three companies which originally cooperated to develop the standard. EMV is a standard for interoperation of IC cards ("Intergrated Circuit (Chip) cards") and IC capable POS terminals...
Click here to read what I consider to be a fantastic story "on Wired (One Hacker's Audacious Plan to Rule the Black Market in Stolen Credit Cards) about one Max Butler, better known amongst security researchers as "Max Vision" who's about to (yet again) see what happens when subjected to "blind justice." At the end of the day, you can steal all the credit card information you want, but if you don't know the PIN code, you wouldn't be able to use them...except online, where PIN debit is frightening...
Dutch news - Radio Netherlands Worldwide - EnglishOn Christmas Eve, there were 10.4 million pinpas (pin debit card) transactions, the highest number ever recorded in the Netherlands on a single day. The figures come from Equens, the company which operates the electronic payments. Christmas Eve smashed the record set only the day before, Tuesday, when the cards were used 9.7 million times.There were many more pinpas transactions during the last four days before Christmas, 39 million, than in the...
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PC's are insecure and hackers constantly exploit flaws in their security. This article provides some insight as to why software based solutions designed to run on a PC are sitting ducks for potential hackers... which, once again, is why HomeATM has taken a personal swiping device approach to bringing PIN debit to the web. It's how they've done it in the stores, and it's how it should be done online. Keep in mind that the Internet was not designed for eCommerce, it was originally...
