Why You Need To Talk To SMB Merchants About EMV — Today

By Bernadette Wilson

With just four months left until the October 1 liability shift, it’s imperative to help your clients make informed decisions about EMV technology now.

To give VARs some perspective on SMBs’ progress in the transition to EMV-enabled payment technology before the Oct. 1, 2015, liability shift date, BSMinfo.com reported the results of the survey, SMB Preparedness for the Transition to Chip-Based Credit Cards, by Software Advice, a research and reviews website for IT security software. The survey revealed that as of late last year, only 11 percent of SMB merchants had terminals capable of accepting EMV payments made with integrated circuit or “chip” cards to authenticate transactions. The report also included the reasons SMBs hadn’t yet installed EMV terminals: 30 percent said they are unnecessary, 17 percent said they are too expensive, 16 percent said they had no time to research or implement them — and 26 percent said they didn’t know what they are.