example, customer credit card information is being captured in different physical and virtual locations throughout a retailer’s environment. And each time a customer pays with a credit card, there is a risk of fraud and an opportunity for clear text credit card information to enter a point-of-sale system and/or network environment.”

Protecting against exposure of clear text data is only the first hurdle in the race to outrun fraud. FreedomPay removes that hurdle for retailers. “The reality is card security is just the beginning of the journey, not the end,” Smith continues. “For overall payment security, we recommend a trinity of best practices to better protect payment card data: EMV, point-to-point encryption (P2PE) and tokenization.”

With these three best practices, each defense safeguards one section of the fraud pipeline. P2PE will safeguard you and your customers at either end of the data pipeline where clear text data is transmitted. EMV (Europay, Master Card, and Visa) chip cards are invulnerable to magni-strip data theft and help to identify the card to its owner; tokenization masks customer transaction data sent back to the retailer’s network for future use on returns, exchanges, or disputes. These defenses, when combined, give retailers maximum assurance against fraud.

The problem is, only deploying one or two of these payment security solutions doesn’t cover the entire end-to-end pipeline. That’s where FreedomPay comes in. Our solution was the first in North America to offer PCI validated P2PE, EMV, and tokenization protection. Besides, the FreedomPay platform provides omnichannel payment security for card-not-present payment methods with our Hosted Payment Page and Virtual Terminal solution. These solutions encrypt the cardholder data, and our backend tokenization ensures that cardholder data is not being stored in retailers’ networks.

FreedomPay offers ease-of-transaction and peace of mind for all retailers looking to multiply their avenues of a transaction without compromising their reputation or customer data. As an integrated service provider of PCI certified P2PE, EMV, and tokenization protection, FreedomPay is your omnichannel payment security platform. FreedomPay’s P2PE solution is integrated with most leading retail POS systems and provides retailers a broad selection of Ingenico payment devices that can be plugged into mPOS and inbound phone order systems, customer service centers, and multi-lane checkouts.

Seemingly overnight, the landscape of commerce, hospitality, and retail changed in 2020. According to a study conducted by FreedomPay, U.S. eCommerce has seen “10 years of growth in just three months.” The simple art of the transaction became an enormous struggle for people and businesses all over the world.

As a result, touchless technology and other digital solutions rose to the occasion to step in and solve the global economy’s most pressing problem – continuing transactions in a healthy way. Though this new tech helped save industries and businesses worldwide, it also presented new problems and pain points for customers. Consumers struggled to pivot to a new form of payment intuitively. Additionally, customer trust in the process wavers with new digital tech, and brands have struggled to retain their loyal customer base amid doubt and fear.

Whether shopping at a restaurant, airport, or online, technology should enhance hospitality, not replace it. Though digital solutions make transactions easier, they lack the human element and experience that shoppers so enjoy. In the age of COVID-19, online shopping and in-store pick-up have been one solution that delivers a seamless user experience.

Digital technologies are, without a doubt, becoming commonplace. Any possibility of a reversion back to old shopper behavior seems to disappear on the horizon more and more each day. But every customer is different, and each will adapt to new technologies in their own time. For this reason, it is important to meet customers where they are at. The guest experience should be seamless for everyone, no matter how fluent they are in digital tech. For example, touchless technology is brand new to many shoppers, and adapting quickly to this change presents frustrations. As a solution, retailers should provide the customer with choice and not force the transaction down a single path.

Though touchscreen transactions faltered for a short time amid fears of shared surfaces, many customers find familiarity, comfort, and confidence with touchscreens and continue to embrace it as their primary purchase method. Mobile apps and QR codes have also erupted onto the eCommerce space as a novel solution to touchless transactions. They let people shop in a way they are used to while changing just one purchase process element. As a result, mobile apps are reshaping the user experience, intersecting technology and eCommerce to add value to the user.

With touchless payments becoming more commonplace, it’s clear that digital-first technologies are the future of retail, hospitality, and commerce. At the heart of the development is the issue of trust. As these technologies evolve, brands should maintain a laser focus on being transparent with customers and using data to provide rich value back to the consumer.