Weekly Payments Round Up

The APEX team brings you your weekly payments round up. Below you will find recent industry news that we found compelling and felt that we needed to share with our readers! Enjoy.

Top Stories:

American Eagle Outfitters Banks On Store Consolidation And Omni-Channel To Improve Store Productivity
With e-commerce not turning into a big business for many retailers despite continued robust growth, the need for omni-channel retailing has emerged. The entire apparel industry is gradually shifting towards this concept, which appears to be the future of retailing. Over the past 15 months, American Eagle has taken several steps towards the development of its omni-channel platform and all of them have shown good promise so far. Its “buy online and ship from the store” pilot program has helped it attract those customers, who could have shied away from the retailer if the inventory pool wasn’t integrated across all the channels. The initial roll out was slow, but the company soon went aggressive on its deployment. In its Q1 earnings call, American Eagle had stated that this service would be available in 100 stores by the back-to-school season. However, it had 255 stores offering this service at the end of Q2.

Lamassu: Bitcoin ATM Owners Earning Up to $36,000 Per Year
Lamassu has reported its bitcoin ATM operators now process an average of $20,000-worth of bitcoin each month, while units placed in prime locations receive as much as $40,000–$60,000 in monthly transactions. Lamassu's survey estimated that its operators earn between $1,000–$3,000 each month on an average commission of 5.5%. This equates to annual earnings for ATM operators of between $12,000 and $36,000 per unit.

Hackers exploit NFC phone payment technology
Several bugs in Near Field Communication (NFC) payment systems have been found by security experts. NFC allows people to pay for goods and services by touching their handset to a payment terminal. But the inclusion of the technology on phones has proved useful to hackers seeking a stealthy way to take over a mobile phone. In most cases the bugs would give an attacker complete access to a device's data.

Snapchat introduces Snapcash for P2P payments
The question "how do you monetize Snapchat" has finally been answered and it's going to open up a lot of possibilities for users. Snapchat has introduced Snapcash, a way to send mobile payments to friends using the image sending-then-destroying service.


Have a great weekend!

- The APEX Team

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Register for All Payments Expo by Friday to Save $400!

Designed to Help You Find New Partners and Grow Business

2015 promises to be a big one for payments players with the world shifting toward lightning-speed disruption from technology and data players; new currencies and form factors entering the fray; and a vast need to uncover new customer segments to avoid market saturation.

Start the year right at All Payments Expo, the only payments event designed to help you find new partners and do business on-site.

You'll save $300 if you sign up for All Payments Expo by Friday, Nov. 21, but use the code XU2848BLOG and save an extra $100 – total savings of $400!

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Five Ways in Which Fraudsters Steal Identities

Below is a Whitepaper from Jumio, an All Payments Expo 2015 exhibitor. To see a complete list of sponsors and exhibitors, learn more about the event, or register. Click here.

Nearly two thousand years ago, the famous military strategist, Sun Tzu, wrote in his infamous book, “The Art of War” that to beat the enemy you had to get to know the enemy. It’s with this in mind that Jumio is publishing this white paper to help to get to know the enemy so that we can all win more battles against the fraudsters.

The Jumio researchers spent many days talking to convicted ex-fraudsters, professional criminologists, law enforcement practitioners and fraud managers to uncover some of the exploits that fraudsters use.The content of this white paper presents what we heard first hand - how convicted fraudsters steal and exploit identities. This is the first of a series of white papers in which Jumio examines how fraudsters steal identities and then go on to conduct acts of fraud against businesses.

The first conversation with one of the convicted fraudsters we spoke to revealed a whole new dictionary of fraud terms and yielded insight into the roles of players in the underground economy. A deeper understanding of this underground economy will help us all, as professionals in fraud prevention, and as consumers to make life harder for the fraudsters.

In this, the first instalment of “The Fraudsters’ Playbook” we share our insight into the first stage of the fraud process: identity theft. In our second instalment we will share our insight into the second and subsequent stages of fraud, the act of ID fraud and card fraud and how criminals profit from it. Here are our findings on five ways in which fraudsters are trying to steal your identity…

Five ways in which fraudsters steal identities...

 To view the complete whitepaper, click here.

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With the Holidays Coming Up, Most Retailers are Gearing Up for the Biggest Day of the Year: Black Friday

At the APEX offices, we are keeping a close watch on the payments-fueled technology retailers will use to gain traction with shoppers. Because the 2013 season was not the monster hit for retailers (according to Forbes), the pressure is on to lure shoppers away from the turkey on the table.

Our bet? Retailers will deploy more mobile coupons, geolocations/beacons and context-aware technology.

These immersive technologies are a huge opportunity to (literally) point customers toward certain deals or products, incentivize them with time-sensitive door-busters, reap data on customers’ movements during the rush and make customers’ lives easier.

There is a lot of promise in this technology. APEX recently tried the Snip Snap-powered beacon app at Lord &Taylor’s Manhattan flagship, where beacons stationed by the shoe department and Alex + Ani jewelry display populated our iPhones with offers, product information and details on new facets of the store layout, including Birdcage, a new store-within-a-store concept on the 2nd floor.

Picture the throngs of shoppers who line up before sunrise (or immediately after Thanksgiving dinner) to shop. Imagine that captive audience plotting their shopping mission by scrolling through the app while they are waiting in line. Pair that with easy-to-clip mobile coupons, and deals exclusive to the app and you have a recipe for bigger basket sizes, and increased engagement and richer customer data.

We anticipate that these trends will be in use for the rest of the year – not just on Black Friday. (All the better to lengthen the shopping season, right?)

At APEX, you’ll  hear direct from the retailers deploying this technology, as well as the entrepreneurs pioneering new ways for retailers and shoppers to virtually interact – including the CEO of SnipSnap and the former VP of Corporate Strategy for Lord & Taylor. Download the full agenda here.

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Prepaid Debit Cards Set to Face Rules on Overdrafts and Disclosure

Via Bloomberg

The U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau will propose to limit overdraft charges on prepaid debit cards and require more disclosure from issuers about all fees they charge, a person familiar with the matter said.

The market size for prepaid debit cards has nearly doubled to an estimated $80 billion since the CFPB began reviewing the products after the initial criticism that transaction fees on some products were too high.

The competition in the prepaid marketplace has driven lower fees over the past four years. The person familiar with the proposal told Bloomberg that it could come in early November and won’t include broad restrictions on transaction fees.

CFPB officials have been studying the prepaid market since 2010, when cards including one issued by reality TV stars the Kardashian sisters were charging as much as $1.50 for withdrawals or for speaking with a customer service. Such fees became rarer after increased competition from new market entrants.

According to Madeline Aufseeser, senior analyst with the Aite Group, a Boston-based consultancy, these cards have risen in popularity. In 2010, consumers had about $37 billion loaded onto prepaid cards, a number that is expected to rise to nearly $80 billion by the end of this year.

To read the complete story from Bloomberg, click here.

With more consolidation and saturation in key niches of the marketplace, it's never been more important for prepaid to continue to drive new growth and unearth new business opportunities. To support prepaid players, that is why at All Payments Expo 2015, we've created the Prepaid Forum, a dedicated forum focused on relevant and important content for the prepaid industry.

Click here to view the updated event brochure. 

Make sure you join us this February 23-25 at the Caesars Palace in Las Vegas - As a blog reader, use the code XU2848BLOG when you register and save $100 off the current rate | Register Here.

See you in Las Vegas!

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All Payments Expo Agenda Now Available!

All Payments Expo is your Q1 meeting place to execute 2015 strategy:
 
• Meet with Existing Partners & Clients in Prepaid, Gifting and Incentives
• Meet New Prospects in Omnichannel Retail and Disruptive Technology
• Get Free Meeting Space and Intuitive Technology to Find, Vet and Manage Meetings

 

Download the Agenda Here

New Ideas from these Payments Movers and Shakers to Keep You Competitive:
1-800 FLOWERS
Macy's
Emerge Financial Wellness
Softcard
Gliph
Boom Financial
GoCoin
Digital Currency Council
Paybefore
Darden Restaurants
NBPCA
PayPay Financial
SavedPlus
Flash Foods
Ethereum
Overstock.com
Coin Capital
CVS
Connexions Loyalty
TechCafe
Transcard
Locke Lord
Gx
Hudson Bay Co.
Paybefore
Dorado Industries
Cabela's Inc.
YellowPay
Dravis Group
SeaWorld
Home Depot
Strategic Counsel Corp.
Women's Annex Foundation
Cold Stone Creamery       
Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta
Wallaby Financial
Papyrus
GoBank
Fandango
FBI
Verifone
Sears Holdings Corporation
Icon Capital Reserve SA
Mobetize, Corp.
Groupon
Bain Capital Ventures
Xerox
Regions Bank
Mercator Advisory Group
Moven
RK Incentives
Cirque du Soleil
Coinsetter
Socure
Sparkpr
SnipSnap
Unidos Financial
National Anti-ORC Association
451 Research
Square
MacAngel LLC.
Transact24
Datzing
Domino's
BankingUp
Rebellion Lab
DineEquity   
Momentum Groups
Accion Venture Lab
Drizly
Bryan Cave
Toys R Us
Plug N' Play
Rushcard
Tally Capital
Keefe Bruyette & Woods
Claire's
U.S. Senate
BitGo
BitPay
Mercator Advisory Group
BigDoor
Central Bank
Wal-Mart
Cracker Barrel Old Country Stores
General Catalyst Partners
HouseTab
Bitcoin Strategy Group
EMV Migration Forum
NCFTA
Self Synthesize!
Gift Card Network
Fiserv
MintCombine
Giftcards.com
Logbar, Inc.
Hyatt Incentive Rewards
Libra
Davis Polk & Wardwell
Kofax

Register for All Payments Expo 2015 now! Use code XU2848BLOG to save $100 off the current rate – total savings of $400 when you register by 11/21 – Register here.

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