Retailers make surprising admission at NRF

More than 200 retail and technology professionals surveyed on show floor at the recent National Retail Federation convention offered a mix of disturbing and enlightening thoughts on the state of EMV readiness, omnichannel investments and mobile wallet winners.



The survey conducted in person by representatives of payments company ACI Worldwide at NRF’s Big Show revealed that:

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  When it comes to EMV readiness nearly one fourth of respondents are still not fully prepared for the migration to chip and PIN technology, despite an impending October deadline. Retailers comprised a little more than half of the 200 respondents surveyed and of those 14% said they still have work to do, 19% are not prepared and 22% are evaluating their options.


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  Regarding breaches and data security, more than half (59%) of respondents said the past year’s data breaches have impacted investments in payment security initiatives. Thirty-nine percent have already increased investments in payment security initiatives while 20% plan to do so in the next 12 to 24 months.


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  Omnichannel is a big area of emphasis too, according to those surveyed. After payments security, respondents anticipate the top three biggest investments will be in omnichannel sales/seamless customer experience (37%), mobile payments acceptance technology (20%) and online/e-commerce initiatives (20%).


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  In the mobile wallet area, survey respondents predict Apple (47%) will emerge as the dominant mobile payment technology provider followed by Google at 21% and PayPal at 15%.

According to ACI Worldwide’s analysis, there is a lack of urgency among retailers to migrate to chip and PIN, otherwise known as EMV, an acronym for the Europay, MasterCard and Visa standard in use throughout most of the world. The industry deadline for U.S. retailers to adopt EMV technology is October 2015, at which point retailers without EMV-enabled point-of-sale systems will become liable for credit card fraud at their locations.



[quote-from-article]“Data breaches are top-of-mind for retailers, which have already or are planning to increase payment security spending, yet a sizable number of those surveyed are not fully prepared for meeting EMV timelines. At the same time, consumers want assurances that their data will never be compromised when they make purchases,” said Lynn Holland, Vice President, ACI Worldwide. “Many retailing customers with which we speak to are taking steps to address the EMV requirements, but like any major undertaking, are trying to manage this along with other payment security, IT and technology initiatives.”