Articles about Retail

The retail industry continues to be a top target for cyber criminals, retailers rely heavily on digital infrastructure to manage consumer data and operations so they remain an attractive target for attackers seeking financial or operational disruption.

The cyberattacks earlier this year hitting UK retail (Marks & Spencer, Co-op, Harrods) are the latest reminder that identity is still one of the weakest links.

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As we approach the 31st March deadline for compliance with the new PCI DSS 4.0 payment security standard, new data from Cequence Security shows automated fraud is increasing with retailers facing 66.5 percent of all malicious traffic.

Using data from real transactions and attack data from Cequence's Unified API Protection (UAP) platform, the report highlights the growing attack surface cybercriminals exploit in payment infrastructure, loyalty programs, and product pricing systems.

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Thanksgiving, Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and Christmas bring millions of shoppers online with attractive discounts and limited time offers, but of course they also create ideal conditions for cybercriminals to exploit unwary bargain hunters.

A new report from Fortinet's FortiGuard Labs looks at the evolving threat surface of eCommerce, highlighting how cybercriminals are leveraging Remote Code Execution (RCE) exploits, Man-in-the-Middle (MITM) phishing kits, sniffers, and website cloning services to manipulate online transactions and gain access to steal sensitive data.

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As we approach the peak holiday shopping season a new survey of nearly 400 IT security decision-makers and retail customers from identity specialist HYPR shows that 58 percent of retail organizations experienced at least one authentication-related breach and 65 percent were victims of identity fraud over the last 12 months.

Retailers have suffered losses of up to $6.27 million in the last year alone due to insecure authentication methods. By contrast financial institutions reported only $4.57 million lost during the same period.

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Industry giant IBM is today announcing a collaboration with ERP specialist SAP to develop solutions to help clients in the consumer packaged goods and retail industries enhance their supply chain, finance operations, sales and services using generative AI.

This involves embedding IBM's watsonx enterprise-ready AI and data platform and AI assistants, into SAP solutions to create new generative and traditional AI solutions focused on addressing the complexities of the direct store delivery business process and product portfolio management.

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As we enter the busiest period of the year for retail sales, there's less than cheery news that scraping, loyalty card fraud and payment card fraud have increased by a collective average of over 700 percent as attackers lay the groundwork for holiday sale attacks ahead of retailer security crackdowns.

A new report from Cequence Security finds threat actors are evolving their tactics, opting for a more nuanced approach that spreads attacks across a broader timeframe to blend in with legitimate traffic and evade detection ahead of peak holiday shopping times.

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Recent Salesforce research shows 52 percent of consumers expect their offers to be personalized. To create these tailored offerings and drive a seamless customer experience, retailers gather vast amounts of personally identifiable information (PII) -- from addresses to purchasing history and payment information. This makes them an irresistible -- and relatively low risk -- target for cybercriminals. As a result, data breaches within retail are increasingly common, even for major retailers -- as we saw earlier this year with the JD Sports Data Breach, which exposed the PII of around 10 million people.

To help protect consumers, governing bodies are putting increased pressure on companies to comply with data protection rules -- including the UK’s upcoming Data Protection and Digital Information Bill. Consumer trust is key when it comes to retail too. So, companies unable to protect their customer data not only risk enormous fines, but significant damage to their brand reputation. So, following recent high-profile retail breaches, how can brands protect their customers’ personal data? 

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Amidst the ever-evolving post-COVID-19 era, the tech industry has been met with unprecedented challenges such as budget constraints, mass layoffs, and the urgent need for adaptability. In the face of these uncertainties, tech companies can draw valuable insights from numerous retailers who demonstrated remarkable resilience during the pandemic. How did these retailers triumph amidst one of the most challenging periods in recent history? In this article, we explore key takeaways that hold immense potential to benefit the tech industry in the current economic landscape.

Retailers have demonstrated unwavering dedication to improving customer service, cultivating loyalty, and fostering trust, resulting in strong and enduring customer relationships. Tech companies can adopt a similar approach to enhance their customer service efforts, aiming for frictionless user experiences and delivering personalized recommendations. Embracing innovative channels like chatbots, virtual assistants, and social media platforms enables real-time support and fosters immediate engagement, nurturing long-lasting connections with customers.

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The worldwide supply chain took a massive hit during the COVID-19 pandemic and has yet to recover fully. This pandemic compromised manufacturing and maritime shipping sectors, causing an unprecedented supply shortage in the 21st century. Store shelves were bare and many places could not access the essentials.

Although the situation has greatly improved in recent years, it’s still far from ideal. To this end, technology has been a boon to the wounded retail industry. New digital tools are helping the recovery effort by introducing innovative ways to buy and sell goods.

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As we reported recently, delivering relevant search results on websites can be hard to achieve and for retailers this can lead to searches being abandoned and sales lost.

To address this issue, Google Cloud is announcing a new integration with eCommerce platform Shopify to allow sites to deploy advanced search and browse experiences using Google Cloud.

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Historically, retailers and their IT partners have looked at Black Friday and Cyber Monday as critical markers, wanting all technology and website changes to be locked ahead of the busiest shopping days of the year. They have wanted the customer journey to be free from the unexpected detours that lead to abandoned shopping carts. But these days, while companies must execute flawlessly during the major holiday season, they can't let any balls drop throughout the year. Customers have so many online options. For retailers, every day is a critical shopping day, and companies need to put their best foot forward. Otherwise, customers will walk away.

Sometimes, before a customer abandons a shopping cart, they will contact a customer service representative for assistance. Because companies know how important it is for their customer service teams to help customers navigate through their shopping journeys, companies are investing more tech resources into making sure that the employees’ digital experiences are free from hassles.

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The past three years have been challenging in many ways for the retail industry and this uncertain reality isn’t going anywhere. The industry continues to face challenges; the cost-of-living and energy crisis, and expected period of economic downturn, are understandably unsettling for all sectors, with retail particularly hard hit in a recessionary period.

Retailers need to adapt to smarter technology that can not only support their in-store operations and ensure an excellent customer experience and guarantee secure customer payments and business data, but that can also help them to transition into a truly omnichannel offering: improving customer experience and operational efficiency -- all of which are crucial in these uncertain times. 

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Automated threats, ranging from account takeover, credit card fraud, web scraping, API abuses, Grinch bots, and DDoS attacks, are a persistent challenge for the eCommerce industry, according to a new report.

Cybersecurity company Imperva has conducted a 12-month analysis of threats targeting the retail industry. A continued barrage of attacks on retailers’ websites, applications, and APIs throughout the year and during peak holiday shopping times is a continued business risk for the retail industry.

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The rise of online retail coupled with the pandemic have brought about some unprecedented changes to the retail landscape in recent years.

But as consumers now start to venture back into stores, how can retailers make use of technology to effectively compete with their online counterparts and with other brick-and-mortar businesses?

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One noticeable change brought on by the pandemic was the need for retailers to transform digitally. Retailers big and small are now adopting and implementing new digital retail technologies to achieve operational efficiencies, meet customer needs, overcome labor shortages and more.

However, it can be challenging to understand what types of retail technology trends are taking the industry by storm. Continue reading to learn more about the top retail technology trends and their impact on the industry in the remaining months of 2022.

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