American Retailers Expanding to Canada

The following is an excerpt from an article in:


The New York Times
Saturday, September 15, 2012

American Retailers Expanding to Canada

By IAN AUSTEN and STEPHANIE CLIFFORD

TORONTO — Nordstrom and Target are about to open stores in Canada, J. Crew and Tory Burch just did so, and Ann Taylor and Kate Spade are scouting locations.

American retailers extending their reach northward seems like the most obvious of moves. But until recently, the Canadian market was hard to crack for many companies. The Canadian dollar was weak, costs were higher, and with limited real estate development, it was difficult to find space.

“You can’t just say that we are close in proximity or we both speak English, so it should be the same,” said Blake Nordstrom, president of the Seattle-based Nordstrom chain. “We recognize there are differences. That’s probably why we’ve probably been slow in coming to Canada.”

Now, the door to Canada is opening wider thanks to a stronger Canadian dollar, a relatively robust economy and a loosening of the commercial real estate market, in part because of the downsizing of some longtime retailers like Sears Canada. Nordstrom said this week that it would open four stores in Canada in 2014, three of them in former Sears Canada locations.

For American retailers, Canada’s allure is basic: Sales per square foot at Canadian malls were almost 50 percent higher in 2011 than sales per square foot at American malls, according to Colliers International Consulting, a real estate research firm.

“Major Canadian markets are at historic lows for vacancy rates, and have been for four to five years now,” said James Smerdon, director of retail consulting at Colliers. “We have a much more conservative development financing and development industry in Canada. There’s not as many lenders for retail and large-scale shopping center development, so finding access to capital is trickier.”

Here in Toronto, the Yorkdale mall is adding 145,000 square feet, in part to accommodate American newcomers like Kate Spade New York, Tesla Motors and Ann Taylor. The high-end mall has been a first stop for other American brands, including J. Crew, Crate & Barrel and Apple.

For more, visit www.nytimes.com.

Press release:

ACI Worldwide Delivers Advanced Retailer Payment Solution Allowing Retailers to Integrate Mobile Wallets into Existing Payments Infrastructure

Wednesday, August 15, 2012

NAPLES, FLA. – August 15, 2012 – ACI Worldwide (NASDAQ: ACIW), a leading international provider of payments systems, announced today the availability of Retail Commerce Server™ 5.0, the newest version of the company’s integrated payment solution for acquiring, authenticating, switching and authorizing retailers' financial transactions across multiple channels. Targeted for the U.S. and Mexican markets, the Retail Commerce Server framework quickly and easily integrates with current and emerging mobile wallet provider applications.

“Our retail customers face a rapidly evolving payments environment and ACI is ready to assist them to seamlessly integrate these changes into their current systems,” said Jeffrey Hale, Senior Vice President, Retail Payments, ACI Worldwide.  “The latest version of Retail Commerce Server empowers retailers to meet the growing demand for mobile wallet services with near seamless integration into their existing systems.  It will result in a stronger relationship with the consumer since they will be able to use the payment means of their choice without having to endure service disruptions.”

The updated mobile commerce framework supports the ability to process payments initiated on mobile devices through the retailer’s existing payments infrastructure. Most mobile wallets currently operating are designed to bypass the retailer’s existing payments infrastructure. As a result both internal and external costs are increased and the retailer’s ability to manage the customer relationship is negatively impacted.

By having the transaction flow through the existing infrastructure, retailers will be able to meet consumer needs without introducing any significant changes to their store or headquarter operations. The framework architecture has been designed to quickly and easily integrate with current and emerging mobile wallet provider applications. Retail Commerce Server 5.0 offers a number of other benefits to the customer including:

• Segmented payment data and configuration rules set for retailers with multiple brands - This new multi-tenant feature allows for a single instance of the Retail Commerce Server payment switch while providing the retailer the ability to uniquely customize each banner or franchise’s payment experience as needed. 

• Enhanced interoperability with other transaction types - The integration toolkit (ITK) allows the merchant to integrate their POS application to the Retail Commerce Server payment flow.  The ITK handles the message processing from the point of sale (POS) to the payment switch.   Retail Commerce Server 5.0 extends in-store support for key transaction types such as a credit application, fleet cards, phone card (PH), and Canadian debit transactions

“In this fast changing payment environment, large retailers require both reliability and flexibility,” said George Peabody, Director, Emerging Technologies Advisory Service, Mercator Advisory Group. “They need systems that perform traditional payments functions flawlessly and offer the flexibility to accommodate new payment methods, including mobile wallets, as well as couponing and other incentives approaches. A platform that provides both positions the retailer to deploy new customer-facing services while keeping integration issues to a minimum.”

Checkpoint Systems wins prestigious industry award with Nano Gate™

Monday, March 19, 2012

Checkpoint Systems wins prestigious industry award with Nano Gate™

Checkpoint Systems, a global leader in high-theft solutions has been honoured with a prestigious industry award by readers of the German publication, Handelsjournal.

Checkpoint scooped the “Best Retail Product” award in the economic efficiency category for its Alpha Nano Gate antenna, a small gate that offers big protection against theft. The award celebrates the industry’s most inventive products and services designed to help retailers increase sales, improve profitability and enhance operations.

Nano Gate is an innovative, small security antenna, which can be easily installed in retail stores, in “unprotected zones” where thieves tend to hide or attempt to remove security devices. Nano Gate works together with Checkpoint’s Alpha^® 3 Alarm™ technology products, extending their reach and enhancing their value, while serving as a comprehensive security solution.

Wolfgang Meltzner, store manager of A.T.U in Cologne-Mülheim, who has used Nano Gate in his outlets, commented: “When high-priced motor oils and tools began to disappear from our shelves, we decided to do something about it. We began using Nano Gate in our stores together with matching Alpha components. From the first day, we not only noticed the deterrent aspect, we also saw a decrease in shoplifting, which is what we hoped for.”

Commenting on the award win, Kai Beilenhoff, Vice President for Alpha Europe at Checkpoint Systems, added: “Nano Gate offers an innovative and easy-to-implement solution for securing high-theft products. It has already paid dividends for many retailers around the globe and we’re delighted to have won this award. Our nomination reaffirms that Checkpoint is meeting the retail industry’s requirements for robust anti-theft solutions.”

Available since early 2011, Nano Gate has an aesthically pleasing design and is simple to install. Nano Gate triggers Alpha’s 3 Alarm technology, preventing thieves from taking retailers’ high-risk merchandise into restrooms, emergency exits, elevators, fitting rooms, or similar unprotected areas within their stores. Merchandise protected with 3 Alarm technology alerts retail staff when products are being tampered with in-store. It activates an Electronic Article Surveillance (EAS) alarm when unpaid merchandise leaves a store and starts a continuous alarming for five minutes when stolen merchandise has left the store. Most thieves end up dropping the stolen merchandise and running away.

Nano Gate is particularly suitable for small retailers who do not have a traditional EAS system installed but still want to protect their high-theft items. It enables store operators to maintain an attractive, consumer-oriented shopping environment while ensuring that merchandise is kept secure. For large retail stores using EAS, Nano Gate provides additional security to prevent goods from being readily moved from proposed sale areas into other sections of the store.