Survey: Retailers’ top IT priority is payment security

Boston -- Survey results released by Boston Retail Partners found that the top IT priority for retailers in 2015 is focused on improving payment security, and protecting the confidentiality of sensitive information.



For the first time in 16 years, more than 63% of the retail respondents in the BRP 2015 POS/Customer Engagement Benchmarking Survey indicated that payment security is among their top priorities for 2015.



The emphasis on payment security is revealed in the fact that 650% more retailers will support EMV (Europay, MasterCard and Visa) by October 2015. Recent data breaches at several top retailers, high profile hacking plus the looming October 2015 deadline shifting credit card liability back to the retailer for those not compliant with EMV policies seem to be likely causes.



“EMV is getting lots of attention, but it’s not the Holy Grail in the defense against credit card hackers,” said Perry Kramer, VP, Boston Retail Partners. “According to our survey, retailers understand a multi-tiered approach, with a combination of EMV, encryption and tokenization are key components of a payment security platform.”



Another top priority in the survey is unified commerce.



“Today’s connected/online customers expect the same interactive experience regardless of where they shop. Retailers must deliver a holistic customer experience that transcends channels,” said Brian Brunk, principal, Boston Retail Partners. “Under the unified commerce approach, retailers are transforming their organization, business processes and technology to better align with their customers.”



Ken Morris, principal, Boston Retail Partners added, “While only 8% of retailers have implemented a single commerce platform, more than half of the retailers indicated they will have a single commerce platform implemented within the next 4 years – that’s a 663% increase! It is encouraging to see the commitment from retailers to provide the seamless shopping experience consumers want.”