A Smooth Transition to EMV

Several points are key for retailers to know if they want to master EMV migration.

June 19, 2015

NEW YORK – As retailers and card issuers transition their point-of-sale systems to accept EMV technology over the next few months, there’s no question that the process is particularly complex for the U.S. market, compared to many of the other markets that have long implemented EMV-enabled cards.

These challenges are in part due to the size and number of organizations, the complexity of implementations at the merchants’ point-of-sale and the challenges of U.S. regulations. Still, writes Chain Store Age, it can be done.

Employee training will be essential, advises Conexxus Executive Director Gray Taylor: “With all of the huge costs associated with EMV, training is often minimized or forgotten. There will be a huge learning curve for consumers used to ‘swipe and go’ and our sales associates will be on the front line of training consumers,” he said.  “Our sales associates should be over-trained in guiding our customers through this transition.”

The publication recommends three key understanding for retailers in order to pave the way for a smooth transition come October:

  1. Migrating from magnetic-stripe card technology to EMV will have an impact on merchant businesses, but when done the right way, the transition can be seamless. Although EMV “dips” are often criticized for being slower than magnetic stripe “swipes,” with proper employee training and terminal installation, much of this delay can be avoided. Retailers need to become educated about how EMV technology is likely to impact day-to-day business operations before they make any final decisions.
  2. EMV is only half the solution to eliminating card fraud, but it will make card present transactions more secure. However, retailers need to continually examine all aspects of their security infrastructure, not just POS terminals. Ideally, EMV should be paired with complementary security technologies such as tokenization and end-to-end encryption.
  3. Since EMV is by no means the last step in the evolution of more secure payments, retailers should be sure that as they are migrating to EMV technology, they are also creating a payment infrastructure that is flexible for future technologies. Chain Store Age advises taking the opportunity to consider a more holistic approach to the next generation of payments while investing the resources into system upgrades.
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