All posts by Sabrina Smith, European Marketing Manager, Lucidworks

Sabrina Smith is the European Marketing Manager for Lucidworks, an enterprise software company. Sabrina writes about marketing and online retail strategy.
News, Security

Government authorities are likely to see an increase in cyber warfare attacks, says Holm Security

Stockholm, Sweden, 17 March 2022 – Holm Security is backing the calls of the European Commission and Swedish Civil Contingencies Agency (MSB), who in recent weeks have urged government authorities to check their cyber security defenses for possible vulnerabilities in response to predictions of increased levels of cyberattacks. At the Munich Cyber Security Conference last month, the European Commission Vice-President Margaritis Schinas said that cybercriminals were targeting ‘ever more sectors and entities that are critical to the functioning of our economies and of our societies’.

“Cyberattacks can pose a threat to our way of life by targeting government authorities that provide us with essential services that we take for granted. In the last few years, we have seen firsthand the impact of cyberattacks on companies like SolarWinds and the Colonial Pipeline. It is often one weak link that opens the door to entire infrastructure,” says Holm Security CEO Stefan Thelberg. “Fortunately, there are intelligent, but simple, solutions available that are able to identify gaps in your cyber security defenses before it is too late.”

In response to rising predictions of cyberattacks, Holm Security is now offering free vulnerability scans for all government authorities across Europe. This initiative aims to assist government authorities in detecting possible unknown vulnerabilities in their current cyber security defenses so that these can be addressed, and, in turn, help to increase the level of cyber security defense readiness.

“I am happy to announce that Holm Security will offer a free vulnerability assessment scan that assists authorities in identifying unknown gaps in their cyber security defenses. By utilizing our vulnerability management platform, these vital government authorities can take concrete steps towards increasing their level of readiness and protect themselves against future cyberattacks.”

If you are a governmental authority within Europe and would like to know how to avail of this free vulnerability scan, please click here to find out more: https://www.holmsecurity.com/free-vm-eu?utm_campaign=Press%20Release%20-%20EU%20Cyber%20Security%20Defense&utm_source=ppr

FInance, News

Osper Wins Best Established Fintech at Pay360 Fintech Pitch LIVE Awards in association with Mastercard

The company was recognised for its pitch of Prosper, its new Youth Banking-as-a-Service (YBaaS) platform

London, UK Monday 21st February 2022 Osper, the parent-managed debit card for young people, has announced that it has been named as Best-Established Fintech at the 2022 Pay360 Fintech Pitch LIVE Awards in association with Mastercard. Osper will now proceed to the final, along with the winners of the Best Startup and Best Scaleup fintech categories, and conduct a live pitch to a panel of judges at the Pay360 event in London on March 22nd.

The company was recognised for its pitch of Prosper, its brand new Youth Banking-as-a-Service (YBaaS) platform, which allows Banks, Startups and Consumer brands to rapidly launch their own parent-managed banking for customers aged 6-18 – at a fraction of the cost of developing their own solutions. The fully customisable, white-labelled platform is based on the proven Osper technology platform.

The Pay360 Awards are among the world’s foremost fintech awards programs, recognizing innovation and excellence from companies involved in advancing and transforming today’s fintech ecosystem across all levels of maturity from startups, through scaleups, to more established players in the market. The winners of the individual categories were announced on 10th January 2022. To find out more about the Pay360 Awards, how the live pitch is conducted, and to view a list of the 2022 winners and see their presentations, visit the awards website.

“We are delighted to have been recognised by the Pay360 judging panel for Prosper. To date the youth banking segment has been poorly served by traditional banks, who all want to be a young person’s first banking experience and then keep that customer for life. But banks face major challenges in developing and integrating with existing systems, which are both costly and time consuming,” said Tom Bishop, CMO of Osper. “Youth banking is ripe for fintech innovation, with a Banking-as-a-Service solution that can unlock this increasingly important market. Prosper allows banks, fintech start-ups and consumer brands to launch their own customised youth banking and payment services, and we’re excited to tell the world about this product.”

News

Star Micronics launches TSP654IISK linerless label printer with enhanced functionality

High Wycombe, UK, 2 September 2020 International POS printer manufacturer Star Micronics announces the launch of its latest direct thermal linerless label printer, the TSP654IISK. Designed for use in quick service and fast-food restaurants, cafés and takeaway outlets to print repositionable labels, food orders and bag labels as well as product labels for retail and logistics, the printer excels in its versatility.

With the recent growth in online orders across multiple channels alongside increased allergy legislation and custom orders, Star has developed the TSP654IISK to provide reliable and accurate label / order printing. Featuring a 180mm/second print speed and compact design, the TSP654IISK prints high resolution text and graphics on linerless MAXStick® media of 40mm, 58mm or 80mm roll widths.

With more labels on linerless media than on standard label rolls and the flexibility to use a 40mm roll for smaller items, cost savings can be achieved. Moreover, as repositionable thermal labels can stick to virtually any surface and be removed easily and reapplied without residue, the label can track an order through the entire preparation process from initial order to delivery, providing the potential for greater order accuracy and efficiency.

The TSP654IISK includes a high quality anti-jam guillotine cutter and paper taken sensor for efficient order management at busy times when multiple orders are being processed. The paper taken sensor can be enabled to hold each new label / order until the previous one has been taken, allowing the host software to identify the time at which the ticket was taken and how long after printing or before delivery the print job was started. An optional buzzer can be connected to alert the operator either once or at repeated intervals that the label is waiting to be taken.

The TSP654IISK is available with interchangeable plug-in interfaces including Serial, USB and Ethernet LAN for system versatility and upgradeability. An MFi certified Bluetooth model is also available. Additionally, the TSP654IISK is compatible with Star’s unique HI X Connect interface offering Star WebPRNT™ and CloudPRNT™ technology to enable direct local or remote server communication and printing. This is ideal for direct printing of food orders and delivery labels from online ordering and delivery software without a local tablet or POS system. Furthermore, the printer benefits from hub functionality with 2 USB host ports allowing a USB scanner or customer display to be connected.

As Simon Martin, Director & General Manager, Star Micronics EMEA, states: “Building on the success of Star’s existing label printing range, the new TSP654IISK boasts unrivalled functionality and versatility. With SDK support for iOS, Android and Windows to allow simple integration into a variety of POS, Tablet and Cloud solutions, the TSP654IISK provides the wide range of Star software partners across retail and hospitality with a versatile linerless label printing solution that effectively meets the demands of an omnichannel environment.”

 

E-Commerce, Retail

How To Drive E-Commerce Success for the Holiday Shopping Season

Sabrina Smith, European Marketing Manager, LucidWorks shares useful tips for online retailers this Christmas season

As we approach the holiday shopping season, progressive online retailers should carefully assess their search capabilities, in terms of the product discovery experience for their customers, and whether they are creating an ideal shopping experience for them or creating online frustration.

Effective search capabilities will drive higher conversion rates, order sizes and loyalty by presenting the right results for customers. So, in preparation for the biggest shopping period of the year for online retailers, we’ve highlighted five key focus areas that online retailers should assess before the official code freeze, at the peak of holiday shopping, and in preparation for January’s analytics report.

Prepare For High Traffic Levels

According to our recent report, almost three-quarters (73%) of retailers noted downtime, degraded site performance and poor customer experience, collectively, as their biggest concerns during peak demand periods. As an example, American retail giant Target experienced a 90-minute outage earlier this year, which could have reportedly cost it $100 million in sales, triggering the development of much-overdue contingency planning across the sector.

Take precautionary measures and work with your partners that manage different components of your site, to ensure that they can handle significant spikes in traffic. In theory, if a million people shopped on your site last year over the Christmas period, for example, ensure that your site can handle the same number of people searching and navigating simultaneously, even if you didn’t encounter issues last year. Page-speed improvements are important as potential customers often bounce if a page takes too long to load.

Understand Year On Year (YoY) Performance

To gain a better understanding of your performance year-on-year, retailers should analyse statistics from the past holiday shopping season and compare it against the prior year. Criteria to assess include click-through rate (CTR), add-to-cart (ATC) percentage, product returns, bounce rates, conversions, traffic, page load speeds and site downtime. As a general benchmark, not specific to the holiday shopping season, here are some guidance statistics from retailers with over $100 million in revenue to support your business planning and insights.

• Forty-two percent of retailers have a CTR of 16% to 25%, with 31% of respondents claiming that their average is above that.
• Nearly half of retailers (47%) say their ATC percentage is between 11% and 15%, with a quarter of retailers (28%) averaging an ATC of 5% to 10%.
• Sixty percent of shoppers visit a site up to four times before making a purchase, with 40% making five visits or more before they buy.

By completing this data analysis, sooner rather than later, will allow yourself time to make changes to any technology and business strategies before the cycle begins again.

Focus on Seasonal Merchandise

Update your site pages to include themed banners and relevant content, and ensure that you showcase any special holiday promotions on the home page. Sharing promotions and special offers with loyal shoppers ahead of time is a positive way to build anticipation, and provide a sneak peek into what deals you’ll be offering. Previewing upcoming offers to shoppers can also potentially attract them to revisit the site in anticipation of the deal.

You can also pre-merchandise products for specific search terms. For instance, when shoppers enter “decorations” into your search during the Christmas shopping period, for example, which is an incredibly broad search term, it should include holiday decorations specific to that holiday season. There should be a clear distinction between results during different holiday periods like Christmas, New Year and Valentine’s Day.

You can also pre-merchandise product categories and pages, so when a shopper searches for “decorations”, the drop-down menu immediately shows the option to view all seasonally-themed products labelled under “Christmas Decor”.

Connect Inventory Across Online and In-Store

PwC’s 2019 Holiday Outlook report revealed a change in shopping culture, with 54% of people planning to shop online and 46% planning to shop in-store for the 2019 shopping season, a notable shift from 2015 when 58% shopped in-store and 42% online. Progressive retailers need to effectively balance staffing patterns between a combination of ecommerce and brick-and-mortar, for example, by increasing holiday hires to manage e-commerce orders at stores.

In addition to catering for staffing, retailers need people to fulfil these online orders in store, ensure that your inventory is updated frequently, and in real-time, to avoid the dreaded “no longer available” message at the online checkout. According to our research, more than half (53%) of retailers reported that they needed up to 24 hours or more to make a new catalogue item available to be sold online. If not, during peak demand periods, this could leave customers with avoidably empty carts while checking out.

Establish Customer Support Begins At The Search Bar

A holiday shopping report from Bazaarvoice found that from early October 2018, there had been an 8% spike in user-generated content (UGC) interaction rate across its network of more than 6,200 brands and retailer websites. This means that shoppers have a tendency to conduct their own research, engaging with customer ratings, providing reviews and visual content on product pages before finalising a holiday season purchase.

So, ensuring that essential customer support information including return policies, shipping information and sizing charts are easily accessible to shoppers is key. Making key information easily accessible to customers also helps them become more self-sufficient shoppers, which can be a welcome holiday miracle during peak demand times.

Conclusion

While the holidays represent an important and highly concentrated shopping period, which retailers should look to capitalise on, it is a small part of a much bigger picture, with more shopping now taking place online throughout the year. The year-round need for relevant search results, personalised recommendations and real-time responsivity will be what helps some retailers pull ahead of its competitors in the long run.