Seen at the 2015 NACS Show: Technology

LAS VEGAS – Whether it was point-of-sale (POS) manufacturers or forecourt dispenser makers, one topic clearly dominated talk in the technology section of the 2015 NACS Show expo floor: EMV (Europay, MasterCard and Visa).

Convenience store retailers needed to upgrade their in-store POS devices to accept EMV credit and debit cards by Oct. 1 or face the possibility of being held financially responsible for fraudulent transactions.

Another deadline is approaching at the forecourt, where dispensers need to be EMV compliant by Oct. 1, 2017. This was an especially hot topic at the show, considering experts say c-store retailers need to begin the forecourt upgrade process now due to the costs and effort involved.

"A major theme is how to prepare for and cost effectively deploy technologies to support the EMV liability shift deadlines,” Travis Bouck, vice president, North America marketing, for Gilbarco Veeder-Root, told Convenience Store News. He added that retailers not only want to be compliant with EMV, but also are seeking to improve the overall customer experience at their sites.

Along with EMV, another area of interest at this year’s NACS Show was payment trends.

“Merchants are interested in mobile payment technology and how to support the latest payment trends, including mobile wallets and custom apps which are becoming increasingly popular among consumers, especially in light of the introduction of Apple Pay earlier this year,” said Nick Overmann, vertical market program manager for petroleum at Verifone Inc.

Technology is also advancing the car wash side of the convenience store business.

The car wash business is growing, and one of the fastest-growing markets is gas stations/c-stores, many of which are retrofitting old equipment, said David Miller, senior vice president of marketing for Ryko, a leading car wash equipment, chemicals and service supplier.

Ryko showed off its new Soft Gloss Mini Express unit, a hybrid car wash unit that provides all the benefits of a full tunnel in a 35-foot bay space. “Soft Gloss Mini Express can wash 50 cars per hour,” noted Miller.

He also highlighted RykoTrax, a new cloud-based remote monitoring and diagnostic program.

For more insights gained from the 2015 NACS Show expo floor, look in the November issue of Convenience Store News

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