Financial/Banking

Every retailer wants to acquire new customers, but apparently not every retailer knows how to draw them in. New data from loyalty intelligence provider Colloquy and sponsored by Chase Merchant Services show that a whopping 60% of retailers admitted they don't have a good process in place for effectively targeting new customers.

In addition, 85% of retailers are in search of ways to add value to their retail offering outside of discounts, promotions and /or loyalty programs.

Cary, N.C. – Things are hopping at convenience store/gas station chain The Pantry Inc. According to the Wall Street Journal, the operator of Kangaroo Express and other convenience store banners is preparing to sell itself and already took bids in an auction run by a private investment bank the week of Dec. 8.  

Atlanta – Payment technology provider First Data and secure payment acceptance technology vendor Verifone, are partnering to help retailers reduce exposure to large-scale consumer payment data breaches and expedite acceptance of EMV-enabled credit and debit cards in advance of the October 2015 liability shift for EMV-enabled payment card fraud.    

Fast-growing payments startup Adyen has secured $250 million from investors who have valued the Amsterdam-based startup at $1.5 billion.

Adyen serves as a middleman for Facebook, Spotify, Airbnb and other merchants, enabling them to accept Visa, MasterCard and soon bitcoin in nearly 200 currencies worldwide.

The eight-year-old company allows merchants to accept payments on the Web, mobile and more recently at individual points of sale.

Seattle – Top executives of Starbucks Corp., including chairman, president and CEO Howard Schultz, reportedly sold a combined total of 448,320 company shares for about $37.54 million, an average of $83.74 each, on Dec. 9 and 10, 2014. According to Barrons.com, Schultz exercised options and sold shares for a total of $28.95 million, and also gifted 175,000 shares, leaving him holding about 16.78 million shares.  

VeriFone and First Data are teaming up to help U.S. merchants reduce their exposure to data breaches and expedite merchant acceptance of EMV-enabled credit and debit cards.

Large-scale theft of consumer payment data from merchants’ integrated point-of-sale (POS) systems is among the biggest challenges facing the payments industry.

Fort Worth, Texas – Struggling consumer electronics retailer RadioShack Corp. has named Carlin Adrianopoli, a consultant with strategic advisory and interim management services firm FTI Consulting, as its new interim CFO. Adrianopoli replaces Alix Partners managing director Holly Etlin, who was named interim CFO in September 2014 to replace previous CFO John Feray after he resigned.  

Los Angeles – Three out of four (76%) online buyers are dissatisfied with the strength of credit card and personal information security among retailers. According to a new survey of 6,200 online consumers aross all generations and both genders from Bizrate Insights, a shopper’s own bank is trusted the most with credit card data and personally identifiable information (72%).