PCI Superstar Dead of Heart Attack

From Evan Schuman, editor of StoreFront BackTalk: "We’re heartbroken to have to report to our readers that our esteemed PCI Columnist, David Taylor, passed away on Tuesday from a sudden heart attack. A private memorial service is being held in New York and Dave’s family is asking for donations to the American Heart Association.

"Dave spent much of his time running the PCI Knowledge Base, which he launched after a distinguished career as a Gartner analyst. I personally had the pleasure of working with Dave on many projects, panels and podcasts and found his keen observations and sense of humor to be most rare. He called his shots honestly but went out of his way to be kind. Dave’s column was an instant hit with subscribers, as it gave him a forum for his observations and for his wry take on life. We’ll miss him without limit and the industry has lost one of its brightest voices."

Amazon Launches PayPhrase

From WebProNews: Amazon.com has introduced "PayPhrase," a new shortcut for making purchases at the online retailer and other websites.

PayPhrase works by allowing users to choose their own phrase along with a PIN and then set up their shipping information, which is stored at Amazon.

Amazon customers can use PayPhrase to make purchases at any websites that offers Checkout by Amazon, such as DNKY, Patagonia, Buy.com and J&R Electronics.

Amazon says PayPhrase shortens the online shopping process by not requiring customers to share sensitive payment information with multiple websites. Customers can type their PayPhrase into a button on the product page, and click to preview the total cost of the order, including shipping and tax.

Customers can skip steps such as "Add to cart," "Proceed to checkout," by using their PayPhrase information.

"PayPhrase solves the headache of trying to keep track of all the different usernames and passwords people use to shop on various sites across the web. With PayPhrase all you need is one phrase and one PIN to pay online," said Matt Williams, General Manager, Amazon PayPhrase (Matt's PayPhrase is "good to go").

"We think customers will enjoy the simplicity that Amazon PayPhrase offers, and we hope they'll have some fun choosing their own personal phrases," says Williams.

Merchants can accept PayPhrase orders by using Checkout by Amazon, which automatically supports PayPhrase. Parents can use PayPhrase to set up an online allowance for their kids and approve each order via e-mail, mobile phone or text alerts.

Sterling Debuts "Always In Stock"

Sterling Commerce, a division of AT&T, today introduced Sterling Always in Stock. This new solution combines advanced cross-channel order management with seamless integration capabilities to enable retailers to improve the customer experience and preserve customer loyalty, while boosting sales and optimizing inventory efficiency.

When a customer is faced with an out-of-stock product, Sterling Always in Stock enables the sales associate or call center agent to find the desired item in the retailer’s network and the customer to choose a satisfying fulfillment method.

Sterling Always in Stock is a preconfigured solution that combines modules from Sterling Multi-Channel Selling and Sterling Multi-Channel Fulfillment with an easy-to-use interface for sales associates and call center agents to optimize the entire “save-the-sale” business process. The solution utilizes a special order process that also can accommodate "endless aisle" items. Once the transaction is complete, Sterling Always in Stock automatically triggers fulfillment from the designated location and provides complete order status visibility for the customer and the sales associate.

Note: this is a rebranding of a concept that Sterling introduced in February of last year. See this on the "Endless Aisle," a concept introduced by neXpansion almost 10 years ago.

Sanderson (UK) Joins PCI Security Standards Council

Sanderson, the publicly owned UK provider of software solutions to retail and multichannel merchants, has, through Sanderson RBS, joined the Payment Card Industry (PCI) Security Standards Council. As a Participating Organization, Sanderson is working with the Council to evolve the PCI Data Security Standard (DSS) and other payment card data protection standards to protect both merchants and consumers from payment card fraud.

As a member of the PCI Security Standards Council, Sanderson has access to the latest payment card security standards, is able to provide feedback on the standards and is part of a growing community that now includes more than 500 organizations. In an era of increasingly sophisticated attacks on systems, adherence to the PCI DSS is the best protection against data criminals. By joining the Council as a Participating Organization, Sanderson are adding their voice, and therefore the voice of their customers to the protection process.

Bob Russo, General Manager of the PCI Security Standards Council commented: “The PCI Security Standards Council is committed to helping everyone involved in the payment chain protect consumer payment data. By joining the Council, Sanderson is playing an active part in this important end goal.”

eBillme Launches eCommerce Option

About 72 million potential eCommerce shoppers don't have a credit card, according to eBillme.com, which is trying to capitalize on this demographic by offering them the option to pay for their online purchases in cash.

Through the site’s “walk-in” payment option consumers can purchase items online from 840 different eCommerce sites, then pay for their purchases in cash at one of Ebillme’s payment locations. Once payment is confirmed, the merchant is notified, and the product is sent.

Sears.com, Kmart.com, and Kenmore.com are recent additions to the eBillme family.

If this service catches on, more online retailers may have to rethink the types of payment options that they offer their customers, and expand these options accordingly.

While paying in cash for online purchases may allow customers to take advantage of special online deals, critics also point out that it may also be time-consuming and confusing for some “cash only” customers who are, according to eBillme CEO Marwan Forzley, primarily seniors or recent immigrants without access to banking.

Open Source eCommerce Platforms

The Website Hongkiat.com lists its "Best of Open Source E-Commerce Shopping Carts." Well worth a look.

Cabela's Adopts Webtrends Analytics 9

Webtrends, an enterprise customer intelligence company, recently announced that Cabela's Inc., a leading multichannel merchant for hunting, fishing and outdoor gear, has selected Webtrends Analytics 9 and Webtrends Marketing Warehouse to help measure and take action with the data that drives its online experience and digital marketing campaigns.

"We are excited about our new partnership with Webtrends as our Web analytics vendor. Webtrends, with its flexible architecture, allows us to integrate Web analytics into our business processes instead of having to build our business processes around a tool. This is the best fit for our analytics strategy," said Mark Thompson, Cabela's Director of E-commerce. "Researching online consumer behavior allows us to make good decisions across all channels with open access to all of our Web data, integrated with the rest of our enterprise data. Webtrends truly understands this and has built a culture to foster it."

Exact Abacus (UK) Offer 3EX.NET

Harnessing over 25 years of software development experience, Exact Abacus have developed 3EX.NET – an integrated eCommerce and back-office platform capable of simultaneously running: Websites, sales, order processing, customer relationship management, stock control, marketing, and financials as well as the supply chain.

3EX.NET enables users to trade via multiple channels with a single comprehensive application available as a boxed set and pre-configured solution. The set includes:

BASE— Contains everything you will need to build and run a content-managed information-only website. Ideal for Companies building product/service/brand awareness and capturing sales enquiries, with prices starting from £100 per month.

LITE— Designed for entrepreneurial businesses looking to take their eCommerce offer to the next stage, LITE provides a comprehensive shopping cart and range of Website tools to take your business to the next level, available from as little as £250 per month.

PRO— A solution for companies demanding a truly integrated front-end and back-office platform. With the PRO product you get everything that 3EX.NET (our back-office solution) has to offer, from Plugins and Payments to CRM and Financials, starting from £500 per month.

CUSTOM— For those looking for a customized website solution. The CUSTOM package selects appropriate modules and functionality from the 3EX.NET suite to meet your requirements, with a tailormade commercial package.

Lee Gregson, Managing Director of Exact Abacus comments: “Exact Abacus has been providing leading edge software solutions for mail order, distribution, fulfilment and ecommerce companies for over 25 years. Our new 3EX.NET range enables us to offer our product to a much wider marketplace, from startup companies capturing sales enquiries, through to bespoke website solutions with integrated backoffice. Whatever your requirement, there is a 3EX.NET solution to suit your needs and budget.”

Achieving PCI Compliance

WCF, the UK company that runs mail order brands including James Meade and Country Collection, recently achieved PCI compliance. WCF use Exact Abacus' Customer Relationship Management software and Company Secretary, Jo Ritzema, has provided some hints and tips on the Exact Abacus blog gained from their 18 month long process in getting to the goal line with PCI.

If you are still uncertain about how to manange PCI Compliance, I strongly urge you to read this brief but very detailed and informative run-down of how to do it right.

S.E. Marshall Select Elucid

Sanderson, a publicly-owned provider of multi-channel order management and fulfillment solutions in the UK, has won a major new contract to supply their Elucid system to S.E.Marshall & Co Ltd., the Huntingdon, UK-based specialist multi-channel retailer of perishable gardening products supplies seeds, plants, gifts and hardware to avid gardeners of fruit and vegetables.

In selecting Elucid, S.E.Marshall hope to gain wide-reaching benefits, from sophisticated warehouse management functionality controlling pick/pack/despatch and back order operations, underpinned by a greater visibility of stock control across their three primary product brands, to strong database management.

Martin Harvey, Managing Director, S.E.Marshall & Co Ltd said "it was essential our chosen supplier has proven capabilities of delivering complex solutions, which is why we have selected Sanderson.”

CRE Offers Hosted Payments Page for PCI-compliance

As the remaining Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) deadlines approach, e-commerce merchants must quickly determine how to bring their checkout process into alignment with the new required standards for protecting sensitive cardholder data. To ease the burden, CRE Secure Payments, LLC has unveiled a Hosted Payment Page technology aimed at reducing the scope and cost of PCI Compliance for eCommerce merchants by moving the storage, processing and transmittal of payment information from the merchant's environment to a PCI-Compliant data center without interrupting checkout flow.


Hosted Payment Page with Patent-Pending HTML CLONE™ Technology
CRE Secure's Hosted Payment Page is a PCI-compliant service that presents itself in the normal checkout process to provide a smooth and familiar experience to customers for payment collection. Unlike traditional services that redirect customers off-site for payment, CRE Secure's patent-pending HTML CLONE technology calls on the merchant's shopping cart or website CSS to provide an exact replica of the merchant environment to ensure a seamless checkout experience for the user, including access to all links and live navigation of the merchant site.

Pod1, SagePay Partner for Magento Module

Pod1 has partnered with Sage Pay (formerly Protx, and a leading UK payment services provider) to develop an open-source payment application module for the open-source eCommerce platform Magento.

The module will allow Pod1 clients and any other retailer who wants to work with Sage Pay to use the Sage Pay Server solution, which serves all payment pages from Sage Pay’s server to assure PCI-DSS data security.

UK Direct Commerce Suppliers of the Year

Eight supplier companies in the UK were celebrated for their contributions to the catalogue and online retail sector at last week’s Catalogue Exchange/ECMOD Supplier of the Year Awards ceremony. The winners were:

• 3^rd Party Order Fulfilment & Contact Centre Services: CITIPOST
• Catalogue & Promotional Print Production: EC2I
• Catalogue Creative & Design Services: TA DESIGN
• Delivery Services: ONEPOST
• IT Platforms inc SAAS: MAGINUS
• Website & Digital Development Services: MAGINUS
• Most Innovative Solution Online Customer Engagement: YUDU
• Most Innovative Cost Saving Solution Off-Line Customer Facing: ABACUS DIRECT and GARNETT DICKINSON PRINT (Joint Winners)

Maginus Launches "My Genius" Microsites

Maginus, a major UK-based multichannel solution provider (call centre, eCommerce, retail, fulfilment solutions on the Microsoft Dynamics/AX platform), has launched a very clever microsite for the company "mascot," My Genius. Very much worth a look. Very cleverly done.

CREATETHE GROUP Launches La Perla Site

CREATETHE GROUP, the digital commerce leader for elite global brands, today announced that La Perla Fashions Inc. has launched a new global Website on the CTS/SELL platform. Recognizing the need for a richer online presence to drive sales for its expanding product offering, La Perla selected CREATETHE GROUP because of its platform’s scalability, global multi-language, multi-currency capabilities and the flexibility to create a unique brand experience that showcases their products.

The revamped LaPerla.com features a branded eCommerce storefront supporting 26 countries, six languages and three currencies. The site highlights the breadth of La Perla’s products with an easy-to-use navigation that enables customers to find and buy exactly what they want quickly and easily. For example, customers can locate merchandise available in their size without having to click on every category or collection. In addition, oversized product images with multiple views and a rich zoom help convey the details and artisanship that goes into the creation and construction of La Perla products.

La Perla will also showcase new offerings on the site, such as a bridal line, and will introduce its line of men’s products in the U.S., a highly popular line for the company in Europe. Beyond eCommerce, the site will enable customers to engage with the La Perla brand and to learn about the company’s rich history in intimates.

Ecometry PA-DSS-Compliant

Escalate Retail reports on Twitter that Ecometry vers. 10.0.4 passed it's PA-DSS audit and that its PCI Council Website listing will be coming soon.