The Pellucid Perspective - January 2015 - (Page 11)

State of the InduStry State of the Industry preview: It's not all bad news By Stuart Lindsay W e know that all of you don't attend the PGA Show, that their goal is "zero interchange." That may be an unrealistic so I thought you might like a sneak peek at what Jim goal, but it underscores the fact that many major retailers are Koppenhaver and I will be talking about next week in trying to cut their cost of processing payments. This, in turn, Orlando during our annual State of the Industry (SOI) pre- means that existing payment processors are really going to have sentations at the show. As we all suspect, the industry metrics to make some major changes in how they do business and the Jim will be presenting are going to pretty much stink. 2014 services they offer their merchants. was simply another year of results that confirm golf is sufferThe need to invest in new terminals is really not "optional," ing from an assault on many fronts - socio-economic trends, but it provides an opportunity to shop for processing solutions demographic shifts, increased regulatory pressures and the ef- that will most likely result in lowering your processing charges. fects of bad business decisions within the industry over the past We simply advise you to shop wisely. several decades. The other major challenge will be for the existing golf POS While my part of the SOI will start with a visit to one platforms and how they handle this transformation. A couple of the spookiest places in the US, I honestly believe that we of the new EMV terminals (Clover and POYNT) are actuhave a unique opportunity to transform ally designed to be "app driven" - much how we serve our customers and add valGolf courses will need like mobile phones - and use these apps to ue to the experience of playing golf. The generate a wide variety of analytics using to pay attention and big question is whether the established APIs into POS software platforms. These infrastructure(s) in the industry will emmake good choices - API links will be much safer because the brace these improvements and how effeccredit card and other payment data are one of our processing segregated, secure and separated from the tively they do it. As we continue to research new payPOS platform. industry sources ment options and the new terminals all We have seen samples of the analytics tells us there are courses will need to install in 2015, we are generated from these new terminals and astounded by what is possible. New moover 1,000 different the opportunities to help you monitor bile payment options will allow "bank acyour business performance and enhance payment concepts count to account" transfers that avoid the your customer service are essentially end"interchange charges" of the MasterCard/ less. We can also say with confidence that in development. Visa platforms. All the new terminals have the query tools built into some of these Many current PIN pads so that the reduced fees tied to apps are superior to any comparative query debit transactions will be available for golf tools available on any current golf POS processing options course operators without having to buy platform we have seen (and we've dissectare also becoming additional equipment. ed data from 8 major golf platforms used Golf courses will need to pay attenprematurely obsolete. by over 5,000 courses). tion and make good choices - one of our We can only hope that the industry processing industry sources tells us there takes advantage of these new opportuniare over 1,000 different payment concepts ties. Successful integration of these new in development. Many current processing options are also technologies will require some cross the aisle cooperation that becoming prematurely obsolete. Jim just sent me an article has proven somewhat difficult in the past; but the rewards in outlining the split of Square and Starbucks, which is very in- terms of helping golf course operators provide better value and teresting given that their alliance was at the forefront of get- service to golfers is a pretty good goal to set. ting mobile payments into the mainstream of retail commerce. In short, we will be outlining these exciting trends in more Without going into too much detail, Square has had to adjust detail in Orlando next week. For those of you who are going their entire business model - mainly because their current card and haven't reserved a seat, there are only a few seats availreaders can't handle the new EMV "smart cards" in a way that able for the AM session and a few more for the PM session. avoids the fraud liability shift from the issuing banks to the Web streaming availability which sold out last year has been merchants that is the whole reason for the shift to the EMV expanded for this year for those of you who aren't going to protocol cards in the first place. the Show - you can register at http://www.pellucidcorp.com/ n One of the payment programs we researched actually states event-registration. www.PellucidCorp.com The Pellucid PersPecTive 11 http://www.pellucidcorp.com/event-registration http://www.pellucidcorp.com/event-registration http://www.PellucidcorP.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of The Pellucid Perspective - January 2015

TOC
The FootGolf faceoff
What do GoDaddy.com and golf have in common? Now, Bob Parsons
Hack Golf initiative dormant, but not dead, TaylorMade says
Industry shows registering exhibitor upticks
State of the Industry preview: It’s not all bad news
Andrew Wood: Legendary indeed
December golf weather impact: Santa Claus came to town
Operators find hearts in San Francisco
Pebble Beach Resort adds TaylorMade as brand partner
WHIP it good?

The Pellucid Perspective - January 2015