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."