Which Types of Retail Merchants Are EMV-Ready?

TSG gathered data from credit and debit card-accepting retail merchant categories to determine which types of merchants are ready to take chip cards.

OMAHA, Neb.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The Strawhecker Group (TSG) released data today, ahead of the October 1^st liability shift, that represents EMV-readiness by merchant type. Among merchants in the retail category, 69 percent of Shoe Stores and 59 percent of Department Stores have EMV-ready terminals. On the lower end of the spectrum, 23 percent of Stationery Stores and 24 percent of Book Stores have EMV-ready terminals.

“It makes sense that certain retail merchant types are more ready than others for the liability shift, as some are much more likely to potentially see fraudulent transactions,” says Mike Strawhecker, Principal at TSG. “While many retailers have not yet upgraded their terminals, big-box merchants such as Walmart and Target are ready for October 1^st.”

EMV, or “Europay, MasterCard, and Visa,” is a globally accepted card standard that uses an embedded microchip to provide unique data protection when the card is inserted into a chip-card reader. Most card-accepting U.S. merchants may be liable for fraudulent transactions if they are not “EMV-ready” by October 1, 2015.

The sample was based on a minimum of 75 current credit and debit card-accepting merchants in the U.S. per retail category. In conjunction with this release, TSG has published a chart looking at 30 retail merchant types and their respective EMV-readiness: http://bit.ly/EMV-Retail. These results follow TSG’s previous research of all merchant-types that illustrated 27 percent of all merchants will be EMV-ready by October 1^st.

“Come October 1^st, unprepared merchants may be in for a rude awakening as they realize they are now liable for fraudulent transactions that occur at the point-of-sale. Many merchants, especially those that are more prone to counterfeit and lost and stolen card fraud, will be scrambling after the liability shift for the next 12-18 months to upgrade terminal equipment and software,” added Jared Drieling, TSG’s Business Intelligence Manager.

About TSG
The Strawhecker Group (TSG) is a management consulting company focused on the payments industry. The company specializes in providing financial institutions, merchant acquirers, card associations, ISOs, processing companies, large merchants, and the investment community with advisory services to maximize their growth and profitability. TSG is also a source of consumer spending data, industry research, benchmark studies and developing trends. For more information please visit www.TheStrawGroup.com.