The Virtual Next Blog

Who Owns Your Customers’ Data?

By Bijan Shahrokhi in Security

When going mobile, merchants should be cautious about how customer data ownership is handled by the service provider. Imagine how devastating it would be if your service provider decided to sell your customers’ data to your competitors! Tech companies have a long history of attempting to sell customer data to third party companies. Take, for…

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Mobile Payment: An Opportunity for Fraud Prevention

By Bijan Shahrokhi in Mobile Payment

Merchants are losing approximately $20 billion a year due to credit card fraud. Financial institutions have spent billions of dollars to prevent fraud and lower the number of fraudulent activities. The challenge, however, has been the lack of a communication channel, which allows credit card verification in more accurate ways at the store level. In…

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iPhone PassBook vs. Google Wallet

By Bijan Shahrokhi in Mobile Payment

  With the launch of iOS6, retailers and restaurants are wondering how PassBook is different from Google Wallet. In a nutshell, Google Wallet allows you to store your credit / debit card on your Google Wallet and pay with your Google Wallet. Google Wallet is NFC based and as a result, it only works if the…

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Use mobile store cards, help the environment!

By Brian Ji in Mobile Loyalty, Mobile Payment

We all have them, those colourful, shiny plastic gift cards. Have you ever wondered what it takes to make a gift card? I did, so I Googled it. Turns out, 5.07 grams of Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC – fancy name for plastic) is needed to make a plastic card. So I wondered, how much plastic is…

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Brace yourselves, iPhone Passbook is coming to you

By Brian Ji in Mobile Loyalty, Mobile Payment

      After Apple dominated our front pockets (or wherever you put your iPhone/iPod), it looks like the company could dominate our back pocket soon. That’s because with the upcoming release of iOS6, Apple has subtly threw its hat into the crowding arena of mobile payment. The initial release of Passbook will allow passes,…

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Social Gifting – A New Buzzword

By Bijan Shahrokhi in Social Gifting

      Social Gifting seems to be the next big thing. With Facebook’s purchase of Karma,  Social Gifting is going to become the focus of many social networking companies. There are a couple of interesting companies in the social gifting space that I particularly like. Wrapp is my favourite so far.   Wrapp is…

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How to Maximize Egift Card Sales and their Impact on Overall Sales

By Bijan Shahrokhi in eGift Cards and Marketing

      We all know that egift cards can serve as an effective sales and marketing tool. You can maximize the value of egift cards by having the right marketing plan to promote your egift cards. Below, we at Virtual Next have formulized the steps you need to take in order to boost your…

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