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Retail

Leak Suggests Android Pay Launch On August 26th

August 25, 2015

Android Pay Launch McDonald's

It seems that Google may want to ensure they beat Samsung Pay to market. A document leaked from McDonald’s (of all places!) pegs Android Pay’s launch date as Wednesday, August 26th…that’s right, tomorrow. We don’t know how reliable McDonald’s internal documents are since obviously there is little precedent. That said, if Android OS Marshmallow (which includes Android Pay) launches tomorrow it would follow Google’s usual Wednesday release cycle. It also wouldn’t be surprising that Google is not making a lot of noise around the launch. When Apple Pay launched last October, it did so rather quietly – likely a move to ensure there were minimal launch issues. Even with a launch tomorrow, you probably shouldn’t rush out to pay with your phone at Bloomies through, these updates usually take a while to percolate down to your specific handset.

But perhaps things aren’t so binary; there could be a third option besides ‘yes’ and ‘no.’ The document also lists an August launch for Samsung Pay. While Samsung Pay does not officially launch until September 28th, the service opened to select users in the US (read: beta) on August 25th. If tomorrow comes and goes with no general release of Marshmallow, the August 26th date for Android Pay could be indicative of the start of a wide beta test of the service.

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by Doug Parker
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Verizon Blocks Samsung Pay
Retail

Not All Carriers Ready To Support Samsung Pay

August 24, 2015

Verizon Blocks Samsung Pay

With the official launch of Samsung’s mobile payment service just over a month away, not all US carriers are onboard. Samsung has revealed that Verizon, the country’s largest wireless provider, has yet to announce support for Samsung Pay. For Verizon’s part, all the company will say is that they are “in the process of evaluating” the service. Yes, there is still ample time for Verizon to join hands with Samsung (and the other US wireless carriers) in offering the mobile payment method, but given Verizon’s pledge to support Android Pay immediately after it was announced, I am skeptical. Verizon has a history of blocking proprietary features that only a few handsets would benefit from; the company blocked Google Wallet for years. It will be interesting to see if Samsung might be pushed to support Android Pay (in the US at least) if Verizon doesn’t allow the handset maker’s proprietary payment system.

The news of Verizon blocking a service to users on its network may make you wonder how that is possible. Anytime there is a software update to a mobile device, the carrier needs to test and approve it before it launches. Whether an Android or iOS device,  

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by Doug Parker
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Retail Ministry Of Supply SoHo Store NYC
Retail

Retail Therapy: A Look At Ministry Of Supply’s SoHo Store

August 21, 2015

Ministry Of Supply Soho Store
Walking around the streets of SoHo on a hot August afternoon last weekend, I came across an intriguing window display featuring a Spacesuit that immediately drew me into a new store. As I walked into the space and took a look around, the name on the door, “Ministry of Supply” rang a bell. I quickly recalled this was the shirt company founded by former MIT students and launched via Kickstarter in 2012, promising temperature regulating fabric made of spacesuit material. The original shirt they launched with was appropriately called the Apollo. I had backed this Kickstarter and received one of the shirts for my husband but was extremely disappointed by the feel of the fabric. Over the past year, I recall receiving emails about new products but having been disappointed by the first shirt, the emails were ignored.

Remembering who Ministry of Supply was, I became excited to see an actual storefront and find out whether their products had improved.

Upon entry, I was struck by the comfortable simplicity of the space and intrigued by the new products.

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by Alicia Uhlman
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Retail

CurrentC Exclusivity Expires As Rite Aid Accepts Apple Pay

August 12, 2015

Rite Aid CurrentC Apple Pay

Things seem to continue to look bleak for CurrentC. We have covered the technology in the past and have made no secret that we do not understand how it is a viable alternative to payment solutions such as Apple Pay and Android Pay. As a refresher, the CurrentC system was designed by a consortium of merchants through a joint venture called MCX, formed in 2012. After significant delays, the, now antiquated, QR based service is finally beginning public trials in the coming weeks. This sounds like it could be good news, right, better late than never? Problem is, the 3 year exclusivity contract that MCX required for CurrentC is set to expire this week; that’s right, the exclusivity contract is ending before CurrentC has even begun public testing. In fact, while MCX expects to soft launch the payment system in Columbus, OH in the coming weeks, it doesn’t expect a roll out of the technology nationwide until 2016.

It is therefore not surprising that we now know who the first MCX member planning to accept Apple Pay is (and later Android Pay and Samsung Pay): Rite Aid. The company made headlines last Fall when both it and CVS turned off the ability to accept Apple Pay hours after the service’s launch. After making a point to honor the MCX exclusivity, it is interesting that Rite Aid is now leading that charge of MCX members to accept NFC based mobile payments. It was announced earlier this year that fellow members Best Buy will also begin accepting Apple Pay, but not until later this fall. None of this can be surprising to anyone who has been watching the mobile payment space; there was nothing consumer friendly about CurrentC and even if it launched earlier this year, as promised, it still would have been too late to market. It will be interesting to see what some of the other major merchants who are part of MCX do over the coming months. These include 7-Eleven, CVS, Hy-Vee, Lowe’s, Michaels, Publix, Dunkin’ Donuts, Shell, Sunoco, and Walmart.

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by Doug Parker
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Jet.com website
Retail

Is Jet.com Serious Or Just Looking To Be Bought?

July 30, 2015

Jet.com website

Online retailer Jet.com recently launched to a tremendous amount of press. Some publications heralded it as the next great concept in online retail. But is it really? In case you haven’t yet heard of Jet.com, the site was founded by Marc Lore of Quidsi (Diapers.com / Soap.com) fame. The idea behind it is that you pay a $50 per year membership fee and that is the only place in the chain where the site makes money. The website claims it does not mark up any items. If this concept sounds familiar, then you likely have been a member of a warehouse store such as Costco or Sam’s Club. Those stores utilize membership fees so that they can change no greater than a 15% markup versus the 25 – 50% markup of their brick and mortars competitors. This sounded fantastic to us, so we decided to take a closer look.

We can all agree, the concept behind Jet.com is pretty amazing, but how does it actually play out. First let us take a look at the site.

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by Doug Parker
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Retail

Forever21’s Threadscreen Puts Your Face On Fabric

July 27, 2015

Forever21 Thread Screen

Forever21 is recreating your Instagram images with fabric and streaming them 24/7. A far cry from hi-def, the connected screen uses 6,400 spools of threaded fabric to display the photos as an 80×80 image. Each spool contains 36 colors that transition every inch and a half. All together that is 6.7 miles of threaded fabric. Based off of the image that is being displayed, the spools rotate to move the fabric so the appropriate color is visible for that pixel. The so-called Threadscreen was created for Forever21 by the amazing folks at Breakfast New York. We are always excited to see a new project emerge from Breakfast NY; they are responsible for one of our favorite innovative concepts, a connected street sign called Points (if you haven’t seen it yet, please check it out!). The Threadscreen took the rapid prototyping company over a year and a half to create and is incredibly complex. Besides the algorithms needed to accomplish things such as grabbing your selfie off of Instagram and transforming it into a 36 color image the screen understands how to display, the mechanics of screen are incredibly complex. How complex? Well most everything in the 2,000 pound display had to be built from scratch. To give you an idea of how daunting that is, there are approximately 200,000 parts, or 8 times as many parts as in your car!

Want to see your face in fabric? Simply add #F21ThreadScreen to your Instagram photo. Your image will then be added to the queue to be displayed. It could take a couple of days, but once the Threadscreen shows your image, a video of it will automatically be uploaded to YouTube and you can download a video of it from the Threadscreen’s website. While you won’t be seeing anything like this at your local Forever21 anytime soon, it is an impressive PR stunt! We love seeing ordinary materials, such as threaded fabric, used in such unusual ways. Head past the break for a video of how the screen works:  

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by Doug Parker
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Retail

Square Confidentially Files For IPO

July 24, 2015

Square IPO Filing

Square has had a profound effect on retail since its launch in 2010. The San Francisco based company came to market with the goal of making credit card payments easier. Small businesses quickly embraced the service for just that reason. Not only did Square offer a lower transaction fee than any competitor, the transaction fee also was not dependent on card type and there were no monthly minimums or expensive equipment to be leased (which usually required a credit check of the business). Five years later, a huge number of small boutiques and independent businesses have come to rely on Square every day to conduct business. It therefore should come as no surprise that Square has filed for IPO. According to Bloomberg News the company has confidentially submitted paperwork to proceed with an initial public offering, with the plan of going public this year. The offering will be done under the Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act which allows companies with under $1 billion in revenue to privately file for an IPO with the SEC. Square, which was cofounded by Twitter’s Jack Dorsey, processed $30 billion in payments for merchants last year and is rolling out a number of new services this year including payroll services, small business cash advances, and NFC based payments.

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by Doug Parker
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