The Canadian government recently announced its intention to eliminate the penny as a cost saving measure.  In a last ditch effort to save face (value), the Canadian penny took to Twitter. And now, the determined discus has launched a media blitz to have its two cents heard.

As it turns out, the penny, while short on purchasing power, is long on class and has only one altruistic message for followers:  Donate me to your favorite charity. At Show Your Roll, visitors are urged to submit favorite penny photos and outline last wishes for their donated Canadian pennies.

America’s copper counterpart must be quaking in its coin purse.

Some would argue that we are already well on our way to a penniless society here in the United States (pun intended).

All humor aside — on Main Street a penny is a tangible part of daily life that must be collected, counted and hauled to the bank.

Is the penny worth keeping, or should it go?

Each U.S. penny costs 2.4 cents to make.  Despite being a drain on the U.S. taxpayer they are still in circulation, and retailers have to deal with them.  Never mind that it’s nearly impossible to find anything you can buy for a single penny today.  Good luck finding a mom and pop penny-candy store, or a gumball machine that still accepts the copper colored coin.

But if you are a retailer or you are simply a shopper at your favorite independent retail shop, you may encounter the last bastion of face-to-face commercial civility, when you reach into the “need a penny, take a penny” cup to round out your purchase.  Are we really ready to shed this icon?  And take away that little bit of generosity shared by others?

Some shops automatically round up a few cents just to avoid wasting time making change with pennies, and having to deal with hauling them to the bank to convert.  Some retailers have been known to refuse to accept large numbers of pennies due to the hassle involved in counting and accepting them.  Waiters routinely avoid dealing with them, often rounding up to the nearest nickel, dime, quarter or dollar bill when making change.

Some consumers hate to mess with pennies, too. They are bulky to carry, and you can’t use a penny by itself to buy anything. Penny haters have even taken to YouTube to vent.

Some shops have decided to take it upon themselves to eliminate the penny.  For instance, this chain of bicycle shops has announced that it is eliminating pennies from its stores on the grounds of being wastes of time and money, as well as bad for the environment due to mining activity, noting:

“… we have decided to eliminate pennies from our stores. For all cash transactions where pennies would have been used, we will be rounding down in favor of the customer to the nearest nickel. You might wonder why we might want to do this? The answer is simple, it’s good for the environment and good for business…”

You can find websites dedicated to retiring the U.S. penny and even a Facebook Group, “Citizens for Retiring the Penny.” And this article claims pennies are worth less than nothing.

I think the penny has outlived its usefulness.  The penny is wasteful for businesses and consumers alike.  If businesses just started rounding to the nearest nickel it would be less hassle for everyone; less time wasted counting out change with  shorter check-out lines making happier customers; less time wasted reconciling cash receipts down to the penny.

So the question for you is:  are you ready to get rid of using pennies?  If you run a retail outlet or accept cash in your business, will you continue to accept pennies or are you ready to make as bold a move as the bike shop example?  And as consumers, would you miss the penny in commerce?

Penny Photo via Shutterstock

From Small Business Trends

Time for the U.S. Penny to Go

For almost two decades, interest in a chip-based payment standard such as EMV has barely reached a simmer in the United States. Recently however, some of the card brands have increased awareness resulting in collective interest across the United States in the smart chip standard. In addition to financial institutions, merchants of all sizes, including small business owners, should understand the current state of EMV in the U.S. and the impact of this standard.

While there are many “flavors” of chip-based payment standards, to date the majority of EMV implementations globally have focused on chip + PIN enablement. Whatever the format, smart chips are the basis of the technical standard behind more than 1.24 billion payment cards and 15.4 million point-of-sale (POS) terminals, with almost all of those cards and acceptance devices residing outside the United States.

Small Business Implications of Smart Card Adoption in the U.S.

Payment industry experts generally agree that a chip-based standard will come to the U.S., but the predictions of when and in what form vary dramatically. While pundits say the U.S. is far from ready, there is a distinct possibility that the change may come sooner.

Smaller merchants, as well as larger businesses, have many decisions to make. Once a sufficient number of financial institutions begin issuing smart cards, merchants need to decide whether to process the cards using EMV technology or to accept financial liability and responsibility for fraud losses. Either way, small business owners that choose to wait for widespread implementation will be at a disadvantage when the standard is accepted.

Savvy businesses are starting their education process now and are beginning to formulate plans for adoption. Merchants that take the necessary steps to select the tools to future-proof their investment will be in a better position to evolve as their business needs and the industry changes.

Smart Card Acceptance 101

Understanding the changes will require some learning. It is important to understand what the new POS devices can and can’t do, and there are many device options on the market. Many manufacturers and payments players are adding new functionality to EMV-enabled equipment, making their equipment more innovation-agnostic.

Merchants will need to coordinate with their acquirer or processor to accommodate the transaction messaging for EMV-based payments. Because more data is sent to the acquirer from an EMV-compliant transaction than from a magstripe-based transaction, both message types will need to be supported.

Business owners and operators and their acquirers in coordination with smart card acceptance, can determine whether to require a PIN, a signature or neither for cardholder authentication in a credit or debit transaction. The Durbin Amendment gave merchants the authority to make this decision, and for the first time it is now being phased-in for magstripe transactions.

Overall, as EMV is deployed, there will be procedural changes at the POS. For example, most EMV-enabled POS equipment will include contactless technology, allowing merchants to accept contactless and mobile payments, which provides a higher level of convenience for customers and speeds up check-out time. Some of the new smart chip-enabled POS devices will help drive loyalty and repeat business by pushing coupons and special offers to mobile phones, allowing consumers to redeem offers through the device. Additionally, while smart cards won’t solve every security problem, they will go a long way toward boosting customer confidence at the POS.

Next Steps for Small Business Implementation of EMV

While no one really knows when all of this will come together in the U.S., one thing is certain – some form of chip-based payment standardization is coming. Clearly the need to reduce fraud and increase security exists, and now some of the industry’s largest players are starting to put incentives in place to encourage merchant, acquirer and financial institution migration.

The small business is a key player in this very serious game. Business owners and operators should conduct a full assessment to understand the impact of EMV and participate in industry discussions, not only to get educated, but to have the opportunity to influence how the payments ecosystem moves forward with smart card implementations.

Third-party POS software providers understand the business strategy of becoming EMV-compliant. By engaging the POS provider experts and assessing what a smart chip enablement plan would look like to upgrade consumer-facing POS devices, small businesses can plan ahead while staying in synch with payments provider readiness for smart card processing. Finally, consider ways to reduce fraud and data theft risks as part of a comprehensive payments security plan.

While there is no mandate for EMV adoption, both Visa and MasterCard have indicated that a liability shift will apply to merchants who have not upgraded their POS terminals to process EMV card transactions and fraud occurs. Thus, when evaluating their overall payments transaction security needs, savvy businesses are increasingly realizing the value of taking a multi-layered approach to data security and fraud prevention—incorporating a combination of recommended end-to-end encryption and tokenization technologies—with the ability to better manage vulnerabilities throughout the payment processing sequence.

Now is the time to get educated to fully understand the issues and the choices ahead.

Smart Card Photo via Shutterstock

From Small Business Trends

EMV: The Upside Of Smart Card Adoption, Will Small Businesses Be Ready?

Here are my three favorite insider tips:

Create a grammatically correct, professional looking home page with no spelling errors: When pitching the media, you must include a website where people can buy your products, and usually that website is yours. If the media has any interest in your pitch, they will generally take a look at your website to make sure it looks acceptable.  Acceptable means that the site, and mainly the home page, looks clean and polished and has no spelling and grammar errors.

Fact:  More than one media contact has told me that a website being pitched is not professional enough for them to consider sending their readers to it.

Provide clear, colorful, photographs:  As the media needs to see a visual of your product, your media pitches will also include a link to the products you are pitching, preferably on your website. The photo that the media contact sees should be clear and include all color options (color is important and often is a deciding factor when laying out products on a magazine page). This picture is the first, and sometimes the only, time (if samples aren’t requested) that the media will see a visual of your product.  Many editorial coverage decisions are made on that first impression.  Spend the money to get professional photos taken.

Delete mention of national media coverage of the product you are pitching on your press page:  While it’s exciting to you to list your national media coverage, the media isn’t so excited.  They want to be the first to cover products.  If someone else has done that already, it’s an instant turnoff.

These three tips will lead to media worthy, publicity friendly website . Here’s to more great publicity!

Media Photo via Shutterstock

From Small Business Trends

Insider Tips on Creating a Publicity Friendly Retail Website

“What?” Was my reply. By then my friend who was running errands with me was already out of the car and had gone into the station. Before I could process what the relationship was between filling up with gas and “little donuts,” he was walking out with a little donut, telling me:

“These are delicious!”

I filled up the car with gas and then went into the station. There on the inside was the “American Entrepreneurial Spirit” alive and well and hard at work. Half of the interior of the station was dedicated to a donut shop named: “Peace, Love, and Little Donuts.” If you are from Pittsburgh, this may not be news to you because I have learned there are three such shops there.

What most impressed me about this one was that it was staffed by the owner, Mark Couch, whose enthusiasm about his products was infectious. Not only was there a cart full of the most delicious looking little donuts, but Mark engaged me in making my choice and encouraged me to try a cup of his “Intelligentsia” brand of fresh roasted coffee. It’s a little expensive, he said, at $2.00 per cup, but it’s really good. “So are the donuts,” Mark told me with a proud smile. He was right. The coffee was great; so were the donuts.

What was even better than that was the feeling I had at seeing this former military and commercial pilot having fun, building his own small business.

I didn’t talk to him long enough or dig hard enough to see whether the shop was making money or not. (Mark Couch licensed the use of the name and the concept, but it is not a “franchise” shop. Mark continues to fly and instruct pilots, which he also loves.) I was too delighted to see how a solo entrepreneur doing what made America great—building a business around a creative idea—and better yet, partnering with a complementary business—a gas station on a busy highway.

Maybe not everyone in America can do something quite like this, but the point is, that this is America, and here, Mark could do it and so could millions of others. Instead of whining, complaining, or hoping for some government largesse, there was a young man, “doing his thing, and loving it.” I’ve said for a long time that the future of the new middle class in America will not be the old model of factories and factory workers (even though there will still be a lot of those jobs).

The new American middle class will be startups that grow.  Small businesses that thrive and get bigger, hiring people who care enough to be loyal and do a good job. This country can thrive again. All it needs is for big government to get out of the way and let the people make “Peace, Love and Little Donuts.”

If you are in Naples, Florida, stop in for a donut and some gas—but first go down the street a few blocks (on the other side of the street) to Pastrami Dan’s, the absolute best pastrami sandwich shop I’ve ever been in. But get there at the right time because Dan and his family run it and it’s only open (and mobbed) between 11 AM and 4 PM.

God bless these small business people and entrepreneurs and God bless the USA for making them possible.

Donuts Photo via Shutterstock

From Small Business Trends

Peace, Love and Little Donuts: The American Entrepreneurial Spirit

These tools will help you save money that you can put back into your business:

1. Cell Phone
We’re past needing complicated PBX phone systems, especially for stores. If you’re the only employee, a cell phone with a large minute plan should be enough to handle business calls. If you have other staff, set up a free Google Voice number and route it to whoever’s working.

Money-Saving Tip: Set up your Google Voice to direct calls to the appropriate person. For example, you can record store hours and address, then callers can push 1 to speak to a sales associate, 2 for accounting, etc.

2. Signage
In this era of DIY, it’s become unnecessary to hire a designer and fancy printer for your signage needs. Use an online option like StoreSigns, which offers stock photos and signs you can customize for a fraction of the cost of more traditional options.

Money-Saving Tip: Buy holiday-themed signs when they’re on sale and reuse each year.

3. Mobile Payments
On a recent trip to San Francisco, I noticed many restaurants and shops accepting credit cards through an iPad and Square card reader. While mobile payment technology was born in the Bay area, it’s not exclusive to it. You can avoid costly merchant card processing service fees and equipment rental or purchase by paying a per-transaction fee and using a card reader.

Money-Saving Tip: Investing in an iPad to process your credit card transactions may seem like a large expense, so make sure it serves multiple functions. After hours you can use an inventory app or update social media using the tablet.

4. Social Media
Twitter. Facebook. G+. Foursquare. Daily Deals. We’ve got a deluge of social media marketing options, and they’re all free or inexpensive to use. As consumers become more accustomed to checking business Facebook Pages for promotions and specials, retailers are jumping at the chance to connect with customers more affordably.

Money-Saving Tip: Daily deal sites are struggling to get new clientele. Negotiate the rate you’ll get paid on a deal with newer deal sites that don’t have the clout of Groupon, and help promote the deal to get foot traffic.

5. Online Sales
When in-store sales are slow, it’s great to have the backup of selling online. But who wants to set up and manage an online store? Etsy, eBay and Amazon offer built-in ecommerce solutions; all you have to do is provide the product. They take a fee on every sale, of course, but working through channels that do their own marketing makes the cost of entry ridiculously low.

Money-Saving Tip: This isn’t so much a money-saving tip as it is a money-making. If you’re an Amazon seller, using Amazon Fulfillment (they ship your products from their locations) can get you more business, because people can use their Free Prime Shipping service with your products.

Mobile Payment Photo via Shutterstock

From Small Business Trends

5 Money Saving Tools for Retail

Procrastinators, Your Time Has Come (to Shop)

Notice that @CouponCabin was spreading the word to encourage shopping.  ”And the shoppers went wild!” as you can see from the person responding to @CouponCabin ….

And then you had interested people like Susan Wenner Jackson (@SusanWJackson) spreading the word to help her followers with a tip.

And these tweets were just the tip of the iceberg.  All over Twiter, consumers tweeted free shipping codes and shared links on Free Shipping Day. According to ComScore, 36% of shoppers say they wouldn’t make an online purchase without free shipping, so the frenzy was understandable on Friday.

Click below to continue….

From Small Business Trends

Did Free Shipping Day Do the Trick for Small Biz?

The initiative’s Facebook page generated more than 2.6 million likes, an increase from 1.2 million last year. American Express offered its card members a $25 credit for any $25 or more spent at qualifying small businesses nationwide.

Millions of consumers made it a point to shop locally in support of small, independently owned local businesses that create jobs, boost the economy and invigorate neighborhoods. The initiative was created in response to small business owners’ most pressing need: more demand for their products and services.

Many found it a welcome reprieve from the Midnight Madness that large retailers created by opening at 12:00 a.m. on the day after Thanksgiving.

President Obama, who has made small business growth a priority of his administration, led by example and shopped locally. The President and his daughters visited a bookstore in Washington D.C.’s Dupont Circle neighborhood and made their purchases on Small Business Saturday.

Retailers should be cautiously optimistic about the initial holiday rush. This year Thanksgiving fell on the 24th of November, which left a full 30 days of shopping before Christmas. Cyber Monday provides a third boost during the initial weekend of the 2011 holiday shopping season. The key will be whether the spending continues through December.

A strong fourth quarter could be exactly what the U.S. needs for a full-fledged recovery to occur. Increased consumer demand is what small businesses need to grow. Since they create the majority of new jobs in the economy, we have experienced what could be a positive start for the days, weeks and months ahead.

Image from Kenishirotie/Shutterstock

From Small Business Trends

Black Friday, Small Business Saturday and Cyber Monday Kick Off a Big Shopping Weekend

Why should you care about seniors?

• First, they’re growing in number: By 2030, nearly one-fourth (22 percent) of Americans will be over age 60.
• Second, they’re growing wealthier: Worldwide, the share of income for those over 60 is increasing and will continue to rise through 2020. And seniors spend proportionately more of their income on discretionary purchases like eating out than do other age groups.

But seniors uniformly say that retailers aren’t meeting their needs. Here’s why: Most retail shopping centers are focused on younger consumers who are busy with work and family and want to get in and out of stores quickly and efficiently. That’s not what older shoppers want. For seniors who are retired and may have little social interaction, shopping is an enjoyable, leisurely activity they want to prolong. They don’t like big stores, and they hate being treated impersonally.

Can you say “small-business advantage?” The very stores you’re competing with—big-box chains—are the ones who aren’t serving seniors in the way they want to be served. So what do seniors want when they shop? Here’s some of what the study found:

Seniors shop often: While younger consumers with busy schedules try to cram all their shopping into big weekend trips, seniors make more frequent trips. Two-thirds of respondents aged 70 to 80 say they shop twice a week or more. They typically shop on weekdays, and prefer to go in the mornings.

Readable signage: Seniors felt that signage, prices and store directions were hard to read. Fifty-two percent of those in the 60-70 age group, 58 percent in the 70-80 group, and 66 percent of those over 80 say they can’t read labels clearly, even when wearing corrective lenses. While you may not control labels, you do control shelf signage and other elements, and you can make sure staff is available to help seniors read the “fine print” on product packaging.

Friendly, well-trained staff: Seniors complain that stores are generally understaffed and, when they do manage to find a clerk, the staff is not well trained enough to help them. They also enjoy chatting with staff, so make sure your employees don’t rush them through checkout.

Seating: Since many seniors walk to nearby stores rather than drivie, the experience can get tiring. Most respondents (63 percent of those under 70 and 75 percent of those over 70) said they would like to be able to sit down in stores. (I think adding some comfy chairs is a benefit that anyone, not just seniors, would appreciate.)

Small size: Seniors prefer smaller stores with a well-edited selection of items.

High quality: Seniors buy fewer items than other age groups but generally spend more per item. This holds true even for low-income seniors—they are more focused on quality than price, and are very brand-loyal. For higher-income seniors, there is a trend toward “trading up”—cutting back on quantity but buying higher-quality items, especially in the food, beverage and clothing categories.

Online experience: Because seniors have the time to do lots of research before making a purchase, they are typically heavy Internet users. Half of survey respondents use the Internet, and 20 percent use it for buying or researching products, with the youngest, oldest and wealthiest groups the most likely to shop online. The same principles that apply to store signage and packaging also apply online: Make sure your website is easy to navigate, that fonts and color combinations are easy on older eyes, and that you post a phone number or other way to contact a live person prominently.

Some of these findings may surprise you, while others may not. But either way, there’s a clear advantage for small retailers who can cater to senior shoppers’ needs and wants.

From Small Business Trends

Small Retailers: Don’t Ignore Senior Consumers

What Payments Types Are Right for Your Business?

Imagine a customer waiting in a long line to pay, only to realize at the register that the retailer doesn’t accept the payment type presented. No one wants that to happen to them, and businesses don’t want to turn that customer away during the holidays or any other time. The good news is that, depending on your current capabilities, you may not need to overhaul your system to add or support new payment types.

Online or in-store, every customer purchase results in an interaction at the point of sale. Small business owners should not be afraid to call their payments processing partner to talk about what might be best for their business.  Accepting the right mix of payments and having reliable, efficient and secure equipment helps create a positive experience for both customer and business all year long.  For instance:

Give your gift cards a boost ~ Christmas is second only to birthdays when it comes to giving gift cards. In addition to providing great last-minute holiday gifts that extend the life of gift-giving seasons, prepaid gift cards create additional foot traffic, help generate brand awareness, increase same-store sales and add revenue from “uplift” on card redemption.

If you already offer gift cards, consider whether encouraging customers to reload will help keep your card in the top of their wallets. Gift card malls are increasingly popular places for customers to purchase cards.  Another trend that is beginning to gain popularity is virtual “gifts.” Check with your program provider to find out whether it makes sense for you to get your card into the gift card malls and/or online.

Mobile payments are almost here ~ The mobile revolution is touching nearly all aspects of modern life, from how we play to how we pay. Google Wallet offers a fast, easy and simple way for consumers to pay with their phones. Updating your point-of-sale equipment to accept mobile payments is easier than you think. It may be a matter of adding a peripheral device to your existing system, which will help merchants to be ready once mobile commerce reaches critical mass.

Use social networking to sell ~ Social networking sites like Facebook present a huge opportunity to expand gifting programs to new channels. The eGift Social solution allows consumers to use Facebook to send virtual gift cards to friends and family. Consumers can choose to have their eGifts delivered as a Facebook post, sent via email or have a physical gift card mailed directly to the recipient.

Evaluate and upgrade point-of-sale (POS) and other equipment ~ Can your POS system handle the increased holiday traffic? An upgrade can mean greater flexibility in accepting payments and being ready for innovations in payments—potentially lowering infrastructure costs, decreasing customer wait times and making transaction processing more reliable and secure.

Take a multi-layered approach to reducing risk ~ Layered payment security is critical to helping protect sensitive payment card data. Because there is no single approach to security that can prevent or eliminate card data theft and fraud, four trends have been identified impacting payments that, together, are already shaping the way businesses protect their payments and customers, while also reducing the cost of complying with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS).

From Small Business Trends

Ring Up Point of Sale Success Year Round

Here are 11 customer service trends to watch in 2011:

1. The time to react to your customer is shrinking. In this 24/7 instant gratification world, the time in which your customer expects you to be able to resolve their problem is getting smaller. Most customers expect to be able to reach you 24/7, and for you to resolve their concern on the very first call (or at least the same day). This is putting increasing stress on companies’ infrastructure and pressuring companies to ensure the profitability of each customer. Look for companies to begin to “fire” customers that don’t meet their profitability metric.
2. Customer service has become the new marketing. Small business owners used to be afraid that a dissatisfied customer would tell 7 people. Now, through social media sites, they can tell 7 million people. On the flip side, “raving fans” can be your biggest source of new business as they tell everyone how great your company is. Consumers believe what their peers say about your company more than they believe any of your own paid advertising.
3. You can find out exactly where your customers are talking about your company. Every business is being talked about on the Internet, but where? New customized software from companies like Flowtown allow the business owner to insert a contact’s name or e-mail address and identify the social networks in which that contact participates. Knowing where your prospects and customers congregate online is critical for engaging your customers where they are.
4. The “social support” experience grows. Consumers now talk and bond directly with each other over using your products. Companies like Get Satisfaction and Feedback 2.0 are building online communities that facilitate conversations between companies and customers. Get Satisfaction states that 46,000 companies use its product to provide a social support experience to listen and talk to their loyal customers.
5. Faster resolution of customer service issues through blog and social media site comments. Calling a company’s customer service number is no longer the fastest way for a customer to get an issue resolved. Since most brands are tracking what is being said about them on all the social media sites, tweeting your concern or posting it on Facebook will often yield quicker results. This has especially been effective for me with my vendors like Comcast, Vonage, American Airlines and Discover Card.
6. Integration of Web customer service and traditional phone support. Customized software now allows integration of what prospects and customers are saying on the Web about your company. More solutions like Parature for Facebook are available to integrate that information with your website and customer service center. Software now enables Facebook users to search their knowledgebase, submit help tickets and chat with customer service agents. Look for online and offline customer input channels to continue to merge in the coming year.
7. More self service: It started with ATMs 40 years ago and now we rarely go to the airport without using a self-service kiosk. This past year, more complicated transactions like renting a car are now being done via kiosks at companies like Hertz. Although it takes a bit longer, it is effective for impatient customers who do not want to wait in lines. Many stores have also implemented self checkout. Can buying a car or house via self serve be far behind?
8. Faux personalization becomes an expectation. With many consumer interactions now happening online or through automated kiosks instead of live people, customers have come to expect the type of “personal service” they get at websites like Amazon. Easily being able to track your current, past and recommended future purchases has become an expectation that is not easily matched in a brick and mortar store. Amazon always remembers who you are, but does your local retail store? As a result, where would you rather shop?
9. Retail stores are now an experience. Successful retail stores like Apple and Brookstone have become demo centers with a lot of service people around to help. On Black Friday, when other stores were struggling to keep up, I was in and out of an Apple store in 5 minutes with my iPad purchase. In order to compete with online shopping, successful stores are now fun places to come out and shop. Gone are the days when you couldn’t find someone to help you at Toys R Us (and I don’t miss it).
10. You need to chat. Helping a customer on your website used to providing an e-mail address or listing the company phone number. Real-time chat is now becoming a requirement in order to help your clients. Can video chat be that far behind for an even more personal touch?
11. Online inventory tracking from your customer’s phone. Your customer will no longer come into your store to see if you have a product. Companies like Milo.com can now tell the customer if a product is on your shelf. The company says it tracks real-time availability of 3 million products in 52,000 stores. Is this the end of “window shopping”?

What customer service trends are you seeing in 2011?

From Small Business Trends

11 Customer Service Trends to Watch in 2011