Store Systems

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%).

Kroger customers who don’t have time to do their own shopping have another option.

At its investor meeting, Kroger officially announced the name of its click & collect program – “ClickList.” Click & collect lets customers select (and in many cases pay) for groceries online. Store employees then gather the items off store shelves for convenient customer pickup.

Moms are now much more likely than ever to complete a purchase via mobile, rather than simply using their devices to compare prices and find coupons.

According to a new infographic from pregnancy and parenting website BabyCenter, in just one year, there has been a 33% increase in moms using their smartphones for making actual purchases. Sixty-four percent of moms say they had completed a purchase via mobile in the last month, in comparison to 48% who said the same in 2014.

Two leading retailers highlighted different aspects of their digital customer experience efforts at the recent SAP Retail Forum in Miami.

Keri Stelle, director, Target Technology Services, said Target Corp. is trying to modify its entire corporate culture to respond to changing needs of the new digital customer in a session titled, “Who is the Evolving Target Guest?”

“It’s not just about Mom anymore,” said Stelle. “Today, the entire family wields influence over the retail purchase.”

Two weeks after publicly stating it had lost $56 million processing payments for Starbucks, Square no longer has to worry about future losses.

Starbucks has selected Chase Commerce Solutions, the global payment processing and merchant acquiring division of JPMorgan Chase & Co., to transition processing of all non-mobile payments and U.S. retail card payment transactions in company-operated stores. Chase will also partner with Starbucks on the rollout of chip-enabled payment terminals.

Velocity Retail Group, a full-service commercial real estate services company based in Phoenix, has secured a 10-year lease for Beall’s Outlet.

Beal’s Outlet will join the lineup at Westporte Village in Glendale, Arizona. The 23,600-sq.-ft. space is slated to open in November 2015. Velocity Retail Group VP Michael Clark and associate VPs Larry Miller and John Jackson represented the landlord. Newmark Grubb Knight Frank represented the tenant.

Ikea plans to install a solar energy system atop its Las Vegas store, opening summer 2016.

Panel installation will begin this winter, with completion expected in spring for what Ikea says will be the largest single-use rooftop solar array by a retailer in the state of Nevada. The 351,000-sq.-ft. future Ikea Las Vegas, and 1,300 parking spaces, currently is under construction.

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.