'Future of the Forecourt' Highlighted at Tech Conference

GREENSBORO, N.C. -- Industry experts Gray Taylor, Tony Sabetti, Scott Cheek and Matthew Stoudt predicted what technologies retailers will use to increase profitability, improve payment security and enhance the customer experience during the keynote discussion that opened Gilbarco Veeder-Root's fifth annual Retail Technology Conference this week -- the theme of which was "Technology That Pays."

Roughly 150 retail industry members attended the keynote discussion, according to the company. Taylor, executive director of the Petroleum and Convenience Alliance for Technical Standards (PCATS), spoke about the challenges of payment security. "Evolving payment technologies and security measures continue to be highly relevant issues for NACS retailers today," Taylor said. "Point-to-point encryption appears to be one of the promising solutions addressing the continued increase in attacks on credit and debit card data."

Sabetti, director of POS and payment terminal alliances at Isis, a joint venture between AT&T Mobility, T-Mobile USA and Verizon Wireless, discussed mobile commerce and how it affects consumers' shopping habits, as well as the ways retailers can make use of loyalty and merchandising opportunities. "Isis creates new opportunities for retailers to engage customers across retail formats," said Sabetti. "We expect consumers will welcome the ability to carry cash, credit and debit cards, reward cards, offers, tickets and transit passes in their phones. The Isis mobile commerce platform creates opportunities for retailers to expand and hone their customer loyalty programs, increasing customer retention and brand differentiation."

Cheek, Sunoco Inc.'s retail technology manager, shared Sunoco's view of mobile payment adoption and his opinion of the new Google Wallet.

Finally, Park, vice president and general manager, payment business unit at Gilbarco Veeder-Root, ended the discussion by touching on the considerations retailers will face as technology develops. "It is clear that retailers will have more choices to make in the next two years than they have had in the past 20 years about how they differentiate their brands and improve their customer experience and operations costs,” he said.

“Progressive retailers that are proactive in the face of change will gain a profit advantage over the competition. Gilbarco will continue to provide solutions that enable our retail partners to improve the customer experience and payment security."