In October 2015, amid rising fears about the security of credit card transactions, financial institutions and businesses made the transition to using chip cards. Unlike the quick swipe of a magnetic stripe on the back of traditional credit and debit cards, chip cards have to be left inside the terminal while the embedded chip verifies the transaction. While there is no consistent method for measuring transaction speed, news agencies report average chip speeds of anywhere from 8 seconds to 13 seconds. The switch to chip readers was precarious, with many businesses taping over the chip card slots in the terminals until the kinks were worked out. Even after a year, some businesses still could not process chips and continued to utilize the magnetic stripe for transactions. Financial institutions thought the additional security benefits of the chips would overshadow the added wait times. Yet a survey conducted by Harbortouch, a leading point-of-sale company, in 2016 showed that nearly four times as many consumers prefer speedy transactions over the additional security. “Consumers and business owners alike loathe waiting for chip cards to process,” said Jesse Dorogusker, Square’s Hardware Lead. Founded in 2009 and headquartered in San Francisco, California, Square started with the simple idea that all businesses, regardless of size, should be able to accept credit cards. It offers cohesive products to run an entire business, including point-of-sale service tools for accepting credit cards, tracking inventory, real-time analytics, and invoicing. Square also offers sellers financial and marketing services. Square Cash is an additional service available for businesses and individuals to send and receive money. In response to customer inconvenience at the slow chip readers, in September 2016, Square announced that it had reduced the speed of its chip card reader by 25 percent, from 5.7 seconds to 4.2 seconds (measured from when a card is inserted to when payment is complete). It also announced a goal of around 3 seconds for the final transaction time. “We’re committed to saving time for our sellers and the customers they serve. Conversations with business owners should be about the delicious cheeseburger you ate or the new haircut you just stopped in for, not the amount of time it takes to pay for them,” said Dorogusker. Square was able to tackle the problem of speed better than others because it designed both the hardware and the software used in the payment operation. Therefore, engineers had the opportunity to optimize the entire system to work better together and faster. More than 75 percent of cards processed on Square now contain a chip, up from 40 percent a year ago. Square released a $49 contactless payment and chip reader terminal with a simple design and a compact feel. In addition to quickly accepting chip cards, it takes contactless payments like Apple Pay and Android Pay. More than half a million of the new readers have been ordered by sellers across the U.S. Square is not alone in its efforts to reduce chip card transaction times. Visa debuted Quick Chip in 2016, claiming it would make the checkout experience comparable to magnetic stripe transactions. The release of the new $49 contactless payment and chip reader terminal creates which type of buying situation?   a. Modified rebuy     b. Straight rebuy     c. New buy     d. Flexible demand buy

ENGR.ECONOMIC ANALYSIS
14th Edition
ISBN:9780190931919
Author:NEWNAN
Publisher:NEWNAN
Chapter1: Making Economics Decisions
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In October 2015, amid rising fears about the security of credit card transactions, financial institutions and businesses made the transition to using chip cards. Unlike the quick swipe of a magnetic stripe on the back of traditional credit and debit cards, chip cards have to be left inside the terminal while the embedded chip verifies the transaction. While there is no consistent method for measuring transaction speed, news agencies report average chip speeds of anywhere from 8 seconds to 13 seconds.

The switch to chip readers was precarious, with many businesses taping over the chip card slots in the terminals until the kinks were worked out. Even after a year, some businesses still could not process chips and continued to utilize the magnetic stripe for transactions. Financial institutions thought the additional security benefits of the chips would overshadow the added wait times. Yet a survey conducted by Harbortouch, a leading point-of-sale company, in 2016 showed that nearly four times as many consumers prefer speedy transactions over the additional security.

“Consumers and business owners alike loathe waiting for chip cards to process,” said Jesse Dorogusker, Square’s Hardware Lead.

Founded in 2009 and headquartered in San Francisco, California, Square started with the simple idea that all businesses, regardless of size, should be able to accept credit cards. It offers cohesive products to run an entire business, including point-of-sale service tools for accepting credit cards, tracking inventory, real-time analytics, and invoicing. Square also offers sellers financial and marketing services. Square Cash is an additional service available for businesses and individuals to send and receive money.

In response to customer inconvenience at the slow chip readers, in September 2016, Square announced that it had reduced the speed of its chip card reader by 25 percent, from 5.7 seconds to 4.2 seconds (measured from when a card is inserted to when payment is complete). It also announced a goal of around 3 seconds for the final transaction time.

“We’re committed to saving time for our sellers and the customers they serve. Conversations with business owners should be about the delicious cheeseburger you ate or the new haircut you just stopped in for, not the amount of time it takes to pay for them,” said Dorogusker.

Square was able to tackle the problem of speed better than others because it designed both the hardware and the software used in the payment operation. Therefore, engineers had the opportunity to optimize the entire system to work better together and faster. More than 75 percent of cards processed on Square now contain a chip, up from 40 percent a year ago.

Square released a $49 contactless payment and chip reader terminal with a simple design and a compact feel. In addition to quickly accepting chip cards, it takes contactless payments like Apple Pay and Android Pay. More than half a million of the new readers have been ordered by sellers across the U.S. Square is not alone in its efforts to reduce chip card transaction times. Visa debuted Quick Chip in 2016, claiming it would make the checkout experience comparable to magnetic stripe transactions.

The release of the new $49 contactless payment and chip reader terminal creates which type of buying situation?

  a. Modified rebuy  
  b. Straight rebuy  
  c. New buy  
  d. Flexible demand buy  

 

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