POS Terminals with P2PE: Global Omnichannel in a Secure Way
Ratchet, click or beep: which sound occurs when your customers make cashless payments at the point-of-sale (POS)? If you still belong to the ratchet group, a change of card terminals is overdue. The magnetic stripe technology is faulty and easy to breach.
The current credit and debit cards snap into place with a click, and data is transferred from the integrated EMV chip, which provides a clear benefit in security due to the built-in authentication via PIN. If even a beep sounds at your cash registers, then you are technologically almost at the forefront: with NFC, you can not only read the latest credit cards contactlessly, but also accept future-oriented payments via smartphone. And what is still missing from the technological lead? A highly encrypted connection to your payment service provider via PCI P2PE. The new encryption standard not only makes data transmission secure, it saves money at the POS — and is the ticket to international omnichannel business.
Credit and debit card data is at the top of the wish list for criminal hackers. Therefore, attacks on POS systems in retail, restaurant and hotel chains are increasing. Just recently, card data was stolen from Saks Fifth Avenue and Lord & Taylor till systems. This is not only disruptive for customers, but it also damages the image of the companies concerned.
No storage means no theft
To counteract the loss of trust, Visa and Mastercard have introduced new security standards that protect retailers from data theft through strong encryption: point-to-point encryption (P2PE). The payment data is strongly encrypted directly on the POS terminal without intermediate storage. Each payment receives a new key. The data is only decrypted by the payment service provider. Thanks to the strong coding, the data can be transmitted via any device. No real data is displayed or stored and therefore cannot be stolen — significantly reducing risk to both merchants and customers. For this reason, merchants using the PCI P2PE standard are almost completely exempt from the otherwise necessary PCI certification of their IT system landscape. A few crosses on a PCI questionnaire are enough. That saves money.
The security of the P2PE POS solution also facilitates integration into an omnichannel environment, as the POS devices can be connected with smartphones and tablets as desired, although mobile devices are generally classified as unsafe. Thanks to the high P2PE encryption, the security of the card data is nevertheless guaranteed. This eliminates restrictions on the selection of mobile devices and apps for the omnichannel strategy in retail.
True omnichannel is more than just aligning transactions
Your payment service provider must meet a number of important requirements in order to implement the integration of the various sales channels. For example, the platform must be suitable for the uniform connection of both e-commerce and m-commerce as well as POS terminals. This is the only way to ensure true omnichannel reporting through the evaluation of sales in all channels, in all branches and in all online shops. The accounting department must be able to use settlement files that are standardized worldwide in order to automatically mark unpaid orders as "paid" on receipt of payment (reconciliation). The right provider will not only support online and mobile payments, but also the POS data through uniform processing. Computop was one of the earliest payment service providers to be certified as a P2PE solution provider back in 2015. It provides POS solutions with P2PE encryption using its terminals.
Say goodbye to national networks
Until now, facilitation of payment at POS terminals was strictly domestic. International merchants had to establish separate contracts with local service providers in almost every country, causing high processing costs because different terminals, reports, statistics and file formats are used in each country. The modern POS terminals can be used worldwide, and via the central access point of an independent payment service provider, merchants can easily select the most important local payment methods and the best acquirers for their international business. This gives them the greatest possible flexibility for international expansion and optimizes ongoing costs.
The symbiosis of POS and e-commerce worldwide offers retailers new sales potential through customer-oriented sales and services such as in-store returns, click-and-collect and in-store orders. Therefore, make sure that the POS hardware available ranges from counter-top terminals for use in the POS environment to mobile POS terminals and multimedia terminals to self-service terminals for vending machines. Support for a wide range of current POS solutions from leading manufacturers such as IBM, Microsoft Dynamics AX, NCR or Oracle also makes integration easier.
Check out omnichannel POS payments at IRCE, Chicago
So if you want to give your customers — and your business — more comfort with a click and more security with a beep, check your provider carefully! More security, easier omnichannel integration and global reach are good arguments in favor of the new P2PE solutions.
Get your personal impression of global omnichannel payment at the IRCE exhibition hall in Chicago, June 5-7 – Hall F, booth 286. Meet Computop – the payment people!
The current credit and debit cards snap into place with a click, and data is transferred from the integrated EMV chip, which provides a clear benefit in security due to the built-in authentication via PIN. If even a beep sounds at your cash registers, then you are technologically almost at the forefront: with NFC, you can not only read the latest credit cards contactlessly, but also accept future-oriented payments via smartphone. And what is still missing from the technological lead? A highly encrypted connection to your payment service provider via PCI P2PE. The new encryption standard not only makes data transmission secure, it saves money at the POS — and is the ticket to international omnichannel business.
Credit and debit card data is at the top of the wish list for criminal hackers. Therefore, attacks on POS systems in retail, restaurant and hotel chains are increasing. Just recently, card data was stolen from Saks Fifth Avenue and Lord & Taylor till systems. This is not only disruptive for customers, but it also damages the image of the companies concerned.
No storage means no theft
To counteract the loss of trust, Visa and Mastercard have introduced new security standards that protect retailers from data theft through strong encryption: point-to-point encryption (P2PE). The payment data is strongly encrypted directly on the POS terminal without intermediate storage. Each payment receives a new key. The data is only decrypted by the payment service provider. Thanks to the strong coding, the data can be transmitted via any device. No real data is displayed or stored and therefore cannot be stolen — significantly reducing risk to both merchants and customers. For this reason, merchants using the PCI P2PE standard are almost completely exempt from the otherwise necessary PCI certification of their IT system landscape. A few crosses on a PCI questionnaire are enough. That saves money.
The security of the P2PE POS solution also facilitates integration into an omnichannel environment, as the POS devices can be connected with smartphones and tablets as desired, although mobile devices are generally classified as unsafe. Thanks to the high P2PE encryption, the security of the card data is nevertheless guaranteed. This eliminates restrictions on the selection of mobile devices and apps for the omnichannel strategy in retail.
True omnichannel is more than just aligning transactions
Your payment service provider must meet a number of important requirements in order to implement the integration of the various sales channels. For example, the platform must be suitable for the uniform connection of both e-commerce and m-commerce as well as POS terminals. This is the only way to ensure true omnichannel reporting through the evaluation of sales in all channels, in all branches and in all online shops. The accounting department must be able to use settlement files that are standardized worldwide in order to automatically mark unpaid orders as "paid" on receipt of payment (reconciliation). The right provider will not only support online and mobile payments, but also the POS data through uniform processing. Computop was one of the earliest payment service providers to be certified as a P2PE solution provider back in 2015. It provides POS solutions with P2PE encryption using its terminals.
Say goodbye to national networks
Until now, facilitation of payment at POS terminals was strictly domestic. International merchants had to establish separate contracts with local service providers in almost every country, causing high processing costs because different terminals, reports, statistics and file formats are used in each country. The modern POS terminals can be used worldwide, and via the central access point of an independent payment service provider, merchants can easily select the most important local payment methods and the best acquirers for their international business. This gives them the greatest possible flexibility for international expansion and optimizes ongoing costs.
The symbiosis of POS and e-commerce worldwide offers retailers new sales potential through customer-oriented sales and services such as in-store returns, click-and-collect and in-store orders. Therefore, make sure that the POS hardware available ranges from counter-top terminals for use in the POS environment to mobile POS terminals and multimedia terminals to self-service terminals for vending machines. Support for a wide range of current POS solutions from leading manufacturers such as IBM, Microsoft Dynamics AX, NCR or Oracle also makes integration easier.
Check out omnichannel POS payments at IRCE, Chicago
So if you want to give your customers — and your business — more comfort with a click and more security with a beep, check your provider carefully! More security, easier omnichannel integration and global reach are good arguments in favor of the new P2PE solutions.
Get your personal impression of global omnichannel payment at the IRCE exhibition hall in Chicago, June 5-7 – Hall F, booth 286. Meet Computop – the payment people!