At pcAmerica, a new year means many things: new technology, new challenges and changes in shopping expectations and behaviors to consider.

What can your business expect in 2014? David Gosman, CEO of pcAmerica, gave his opinion to Vertical Systems’ Reseller Magazine for its sixth annual Review and Outlook issue. Here are some highlights:

Customer service will become more attentive than ever before. Consider leveraging CRM modules and loyalty plans to track your customer’s purchases and use the data to build a “bigger picture” of their buying habits, allowing you to make additional product recommendations or reward repeat business. Rather than focusing on larger campaigns or blanket emails, use the data you collect to issue more individual offers to your best customers or to people who haven’t made a purchase in a few weeks or months.

Consider expanding your mobile payment and POS platforms now. If you haven’t started accepting mobile payments, now is the time. If you don’t have mobile POS, you’re already behind. This year, we can expect to see transactions happen anywhere in stores and as a result, retailers will begin to experiment with removing traditional checkouts and counters, freeing up valuable real estate for larger displays and additional merchandise.

Omni-channel retailing will continue to be a formidable opponent. Smaller, B&M only retailers will be pushed to take their business online to stay competitive. Although they may initially resist, these types of retailers will realize new opportunities from web stores, allowing them to attract business from around the world, 24 hours a day/7 days a week.

For more information about how you can leverage your point-of-sale system to prepare you for 2014, please contact your pcAmerica sales representative at 1-800-722-6374.

pcAmerica CEO David Gosman will attend the Retail Solutions Providers Association’s (RSPA) Inspire 2014 conference at the Gran Melia Golf Resort in Puerto Rico on February 2-5. This will be Mr. Gosman’s first conference as a Member of the Board of Directors. Mr. Gosman occupies a vendor seat on the 14-person board and serves as vice chairman of the Strategic Technology Solutions Committee.

RSPA Inspire gives leaders in the retail technology industry three days of executive level, interactive education designed specifically to promote thought leadership, offer solutions to current obstacles facing the industry and improve business practices. One of the most valuable aspects of INSPIRE is the unique opportunity for attendees to network and share ideas with industry peers.

pcAmerica is an education partner of the RSPA. Mr. Gosman will be tweeting some of the action at Inspire, you can follow him @Golem5.

Social media applications like Twitter and Facebook have opened up a direct avenue of communication with retailers, their followers and friends. This massive audience can take whispers of discontent and retweet, share and discuss them to the extent they go viral, potentially turning into a public relations nightmare for a company that doesn’t address these comments quickly enough.

A recent article in Stores Magazine revealed that “a significant portion of tweets are sent by customers while they are in the store” seeking assistance. A failure to respond could result in a lost sale, unhappy customer or worse– negative attention.

A study conducted by Conversocial for the National Retail Federation measured the Twitter response time for the top 25 retailers who are active on social media. Using a Twitter profiler tool, Conversocial found that some companies respond to nearly every tweet, while others only comment on four to five percent. The research showed that about 50 percent of tweets required some sort of response, so companies only tweeting back to a small number of inquiries were missing out.

The fastest companies in the study were Wal-Mart, whose average response time clocked in at 17 minutes and 26 seconds, followed by Best Buy, (30:45) and Whole Foods Market (55:49).

The companies with the fastest response time have a dedicated customer service username monitored by employees. The best responses came from those whose social media team are directly tied into their customer service department.

Customers who voice concerns over social media are likely some of the most vocal and may have already tried the more traditional customer service numbers or emails. Responding quickly and productively to these types of Tweets or Facebook posts will help solidify customer loyalty and show the customer, their followers and online community that you care about their business.

pcAmerica put its new weather-related technology improvements to the test during winter storm Hercules in early January. The slow-moving snow storm closed the East Coast office but employees were able to keep working from home, answering calls and serving their customers.

“We learned several lessons from the wild weather we’ve seen over the last few years, so this time we had the proper protocol and equipment in place to keep the company working even though our office was closed due to a snow storm,” said Mr. Rotbard.  “Our customers know that if the power goes out or the New York Metro Area is hit by a storm, pcAmerica is still open for business, and we can answer their questions, take an order or help solve a problem.”

As part of the company expansion over the summer, pcAmerica implemented a robust new VoIP phone system, which enables employees to take the phones with them and dial or receive calls as if they were in the office from home or anywhere with an internet connection. Mr. Rotbard notified employees to take the phones with them prior to the storm’s arrival.

The phones were not the only improvement the company made. pcAmerica’s servers are housed in a data center that is equipped with redundant electric circuits and backup generators. The new facility is also connected to the data center via a high-speed fiber optic line. The company also has redundant internet and phone lines, so if one provider goes down, the system automatically switches to the back up.

Target’s far-reaching data breach has raised new questions about payment security at the checkout line. As the third-largest company in the US, Target’s size makes it an attractive target for hackers. The investigation into the theft of 40 million credit card and debit card numbers during the holiday shopping season is still ongoing.

Large companies aren’t the only ones who should be worried, said a recent article in Digital Transactions Magazine. Small merchants are increasingly vulnerable because they are less likely to have the proper data protections in place.

In fact, according to Visa Inc. data, nearly 95 percent of all credit card breaches affect smaller merchants. Despite the evidence, 71 percent of small business owners don’t see themselves at risk, according to an annual survey commissioned by ControlScan and Merchant Warehouse.

Only five percent of survey respondents said they had been victims of a data breach, but the impact of the breach had, in some cases, nearly forced them out of business. The stakes are high, but most businesses do not pay enough attention, time or money to data security. More than 50 percent have spent less than $500 over the last year on the issue, with 17 percent spending nothing.

A point of sale system can help ensure compliance, protecting a business from breaches and the costly fines and damaging investigations that accompany them. Systems running on the Windows platform can achieve PA-DSS (Payment Application Data Security Standard) certification.

However, iPad-based solution users beware: it’s impossible for tablet POS systems running on iOS or Android to achieve PA-DSS because the standards have yet to be developed by the PCI Council.  This means the onus falls on the merchant to ensure his software is compliant and keeps customers’ payment card data secure.

pcAmerica’s point-of-sale solutions Cash Register Express™ and Restaurant Pro Express™ are PA-DSS certified. For more information about how you can ensure your business is protected, please call your pcAmerica sales representative at 1-800-722-6374.

According to the National Retail Federation, gift cards remain a popular choice this holiday season. A Bankrate survey of 1,001 people revealed that two-thirds of those surveyed had given a gift card as a gift, while two-thirds reported receiving one.

One-third of people requested gift cards from stores and restaurants while just over half (53 percent) preferred “general purpose” cards.

Whether shoppers opt for general purpose or store-specific gift cards, these cards are simple to buy and redeem–for the giver and the receiver–at participating restaurants and stores. These cards are sold and redeemed through the point-of-sale system with no activation or transaction fees.

Wondering how much is left on the card? No problem—Cash Register Express™ and Restaurant Pro Express™ make balances and transaction information available in real time, either at the store it was originally purchased in or between multiple locations. Franchisees or chain locations that issue gift cards can elect to use a processor-based gift card system that will allow multiple stores to claim the redemption.

For more information about how you can issue and redeem gift cards for your store or restaurant, please call pcAmerica at 1-800-722-6374.

For shoppers that can’t decide on just one gift, a gift basket is a great way to give a little bit of everything. Practically any retailer can offer gift baskets in several prices and sizes or give shoppers the option to create their own.

Now that it’s holiday time, gift baskets are everywhere, containing gourmet foods and wines, cookies, bath products and more. These baskets are also good for retailers, which could gain new customers from people who receive the gifts and enjoy its contents.

For stores using pcAmerica’s Cash Register Express™, it’s easy to create customized gift baskets and other sets—known as kits–for special occasions. The software has kitting functionality that gives retailers the option to bundle a group of items from the store’s inventory into a basket or set to be sold together at a discounted price.

The system’s kitting option enables retailers to sell any number of items to a customer for a set price while tracking the individual inventory levels of each item that makes up the gift. The system will deduct each item from the inventory when the kit is sold.

For more information about the kitting option or how it works, please call your pcAmerica representative at 1-800-722-6374.

Each year, a number of respected polling agencies and retail trade associations conduct their surveys to forecast how the holiday season is going to shake out. Will people spend more? Will they come out in droves or stay home to shop online?

This year it looks like shoppers are watching their wallets, according to Accenture’s annual shopping survey. The firm revealed that 62 percent of respondents said they would look for a discount of  30 percent or more before they would make a purchase. This is up 10 percent from last year, when a 20 percent discount was enough to seal the deal. The survey also said that 45 percent of shoppers are planning to use price-matching policies to find rock-bottom prices at the stores they want to visit.

An article in Forbes Magazine noted that people are practicing more self-restraint than last year when it comes to treating themselves. We all love to buy ourselves a little something once in awhile and December seems like the perfect time. But the National Retail Federation’s annual survey said that people have learned a lesson from the belt-tightening of previous holiday seasons and will be sticking to their lists and budgets more closely instead of making impulse buys for themselves.

The holiday shopping season is in full swing, and people will spend the next several weeks looking for gifts that their friends and family will love. But finding a gift for the person who has everything can be tough for even the most dedicated shopper. These decisions are a little easier when purchases are made at stores using pcAmerica’s Cash Register Express™, which issues gift receipts to expedite exchanges and returns. Gift receipts, which omit purchase prices, may be presented as proof of purchase in lieu of the original receipt.

Gift receipts can save a lot of headaches after the holiday rush is over—especially considering a story in The Wall Street Journal that noted “10 to 15 percent of holiday gifts are returned or exchanged.”

Retailers also have the option of offering digital receipts, so shoppers can print out as many as they need. People are rarely able to keep track of all the receipts they receive, but these proofs of purchase are important, especially during holiday shopping time. If a receipt is lost among wrapping paper and gift bags, shoppers may simply print out another copy instead of being forced to keep or re-gift an item they would rather return.

The ability to make hassle-free returns moves customer service lines faster and increases the chance that people will shop at the store again. These email records also allow customers to keep, sort and retain purchase information for tax purposes or to double check credit card statements.

To find out how your store can issue gift receipts or activate the e-receipt option, please call your customer service representative at 1-800-722-6374.

If you heard “Frosty the Snowman” playing in the mall before Halloween, you aren’t alone…holiday shopping season began before we’d even sent kids out to trick or treat. What can retailers expect this year? Deloitte’s 28th Annual Survey of Holiday Spending and Trends has some predictions.

It’s probably no surprise that 68 percent of people surveyed plan to use their mobile device for holiday shopping. More than half of respondents will use their tablet or Smartphone to look for store locations and compare prices, while 47 percent will search for product information.

Local shops will be busy this year, predicts Deloitte. Although the Internet still reigns supreme as the top shopping destination, two-thirds (66 percent) of those surveyed plan to shop at smaller, independent businesses in lieu of larger chains.

Sixty percent of people expressed a desire to support their local economy, while others search for one of a kind gifts and 44 percent favor local stores for the convenience factor.

The survey reported that 54 percent of shoppers indicated that knowledgeable employees and pleasant customer service would lead them to make a purchase. Thirty-two percent said that the assistance of mobile technology in-store would convince them to head to the checkout.