The Green Sheet Online Edition
January 1, 2016 • 16:01:01
Readers Speak
Collaboration ahead
Thank you for sharing AirREGI POS for Quick Serve Restaurants in the New Products section of The Green Sheet [See "High-speed, fast-casual POS tablet solution," published Nov. 9, 2015, in issue 15:11:01]. We would like to thank your readers who have contacted us for their interest in our products and services. The AirREGI team looks forward to our continued collaboration with our new U.S. partners.
Saeka Tani, Recruit Lifestyle Co. Ltd.
An article on loyalty as currency?
The definition of currency is evolving. While traditionally it's been dollars and cents, whether through cash, credit cards or digital wallets, our economy is shifting to include loyalty as an accepted form of currency.
Rewards program memberships nearly doubled between 2000 and 2010 to over 2 billion memberships, and the average household now participates in more than 18 programs. The mobile payment space is incorporating loyalty into their platforms ‒ Apple Pay, Samsung Pay and Android Pay all offer loyalty capabilities, and Canada’s suretap wallet allows customers to transact their loyalty points.
Will 2016 be the year that loyalty breaks through as a mainstream form of currency? I think this would be a great topic for The Green Sheet to explore in 2016.
Katie Beyer, Walker Sands Communications
Dive into big data
I thought you might find interest in our upcoming program Predictive Analytics and Big Data 2016 taking place in San Francisco on March 14 and 15.
Some of the topics will include:
- Predictive analytics and insights
- Big data and real-time analytics
- Data products and innovation
- Advanced and prescriptive analytics
Jared Anderson, AG Summits
Walmart Pay means more than mobile payments
Now that Walmart is enabling mobile payments, they can track what each shopper purchases in-store at an individual level and understand the profile of each shopper making the in-store purchase – something they have previously not been able to do, unlike their competitor Amazon.
They can then use this information to notify their shoppers when rollbacks occur on items that they have previously purchased, driving them back into the store and increasing shopper loyalty. They can also make recommendations on other products that shoppers are likely to enjoy based on similar shoppers.
In essence, you should expect Walmart to apply the same personalization and recommendation techniques that Amazon and Netflix use, thereby providing a one-to-one personalized shopping experience. As this succeeds, we can expect to see incentives that will drive shoppers to use Walmart’s mobile payment system even more to increase the audience to which they can provide this enriched shopper experience.
The modern shopper expects one-to-one personalization, and now that Walmart is setting itself up to deliver on those expectations, it is critical for merchants to invest in competitive solutions that will deliver the same and retain their shoppers' loyalty.
Chris Bryson, Unata
EMV global update
EMVCo released transaction volume data for the first time 12 months ago to accurately reflect real-world usage of the technology. The figures published today [Dec. 21, 2015] represent a 10 percent year-on-year rise in the number of card-present transactions using EMV chip technology, from nearly 30 percent of all transactions a year ago to 33 percent in the most recent reporting period.
With EMVCo reporting that 3.4 billion EMV chip payment cards were in circulation globally at the end of 2014, it is great to see that not only are the cards in the marketplace, the infrastructure is also in place to accept and process secure-chip payments worldwide.
The data represents both contact and contactless EMV chip card-present transactions as processed by EMVCo’s members, American Express, Discover, JCB, MasterCard, UnionPay and Visa. To qualify as an EMV chip transaction, both the card and terminal used during the payment must be EMV chip-enabled.
Mike Matan, EMVCo
What's up in your sector?
Do you have new insights or information pertaining to your areas of expertise? Is there a topic you'd like us to delve into in a feature article? What are your hopes for the coming year in payments? Please let us know at greensheet@greensheet.com. 
Whether you want to upgrade your POS offerings, find a payment gateway partner, bone up on fintech regs or PCI requirements, find an upcoming trade show, read about faster payments, or discover the latest innovations in merchant acquiring, The Green Sheet is the resource for you. Since 1983, we've helped empower and connect payments professionals, starting with the merchant level salespeople who bring tailored payment acceptance and digital commerce tools, along with a host of other business services to merchants across the globe. The Green Sheet Inc. is also a proud affiliate of Bankcard Life, a premier community that provides industry-leading training and resources for payment professionals.
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