Artificial Intelligence

It appears fraudsters are shifting their tactics online even in advance of the migration of in-store POS to EMV compliance.

The U.S. Retail Fraud Survey 2015 has reported a substantial increase in online credit card fraud. Published by Retail Knowledge and sponsored by cash handling technology provider Volumatic, the survey shows the biggest area of online loss remains, overwhelmingly, from the fraudulent use of credit cards (66%).

The Internet of Everything (IoE) has moved from vision to reality in retail and food industries, creating a “Connected Food” movement that is transforming everything from the way consumers shop, to how products are sold and how retailers can run their businesses.

IBM is looking to give retailers an edge in dealing with the effects of the weather, with help from the Internet of Things (IoT).

The technology firm has entered into an agreement to acquire The Weather Company’s B2B, mobile and cloud-based web properties, including WSI, weather.com, Weather Underground and The Weather Company brand.

Walmart wants to use drones to check warehouse inventory and assist with curbside pickup and delivery services, and has applied for permission from regulators to do so, according to CNBC. “Drones have a lot of potential to further connect our vast network of stores, distribution centers, fulfillment centers and transportation fleet,” company spokesman Dan Toporek told CNBC. “There is a Walmart within five miles of 70% of the U.S.

When it comes to respecting their privacy, consumers are less than satisfied with the retailers they shop.

According to analysis of social sentiment of more than 220,000 consumers by Capgemini Group, “Privacy Please: Why Retailers Need to Rethink Personalization,” 93% of all consumer sentiment on retail privacy was negative

A new study from Juniper Research has found that the increased rollout of contactless payment services using fingerprint scanners will push the number of biometrically authenticated transactions to nearly 5 billion by 2019, up from less than 130 million this year.

The research observed that at present, only two services, Apple Pay and Samsung, used fingerprint scanners for authentication, with availability currently limited to the U.S. and U.K. for the former, and the U.S. and South Korea for the latter.

E-commerce and payment solutions provider First Data is in a new partnership with a financial services company led by a PayPal co-founder that is said to increase average order values by as much at 80%, and conversion rates by more than 20%.

The mobile payment arena keeps getting more crowded.

Two weeks after U.S. bank Capital One partnered with MasterCard and Visa to offer contactless mobile payment capability in its Capital One Wallet app, another major bank plans to offer a mobile payment app.

J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. is launching Chase Pay, a tokenized mobile payment service for in-store, in-app and online purchases. Interestingly, Chase is partnering with MCX, a retailer-backed mobile payment consortium, as its premier partner.