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2015, an increase of 37 percent from the previous month, suggest- ing that consumers are indeed using those cards often. Visa says that overall, its research shows that seven of 10 U.S. consumers have EMV chip cards.
The penetration can vary greatly by geography, George Peabody,
a payments consultant with Glenbrook Partners, wrote in a December blog. “Talk to a group of well-heeled Silicon Valley techies and almost 100 percent
of them will have chip-based credit cards. A third might have EMV debit cards. Talk to a sim- ilarly professional group in the Midwest and fewer than half of the hands will go up. Ask about EMV debit cards and just a smattering will respond positively.”
Visa says that some 690,000 merchant locations in the U.S. had the terminals and software needed
Force oF Habit
to accept EMV transactions as of Nov. 30, an increase of 17 percent compared with October. That growth likely trailed o during the 2015 holiday shopping season, experts say, as merchants focused on sales and immediate customer service instead of new terminals and software.
Retailer Di erences
For many larger retailers, the pivot toward EMV started well before the liability shift. Walmart, for instance, began installing EMV-capable terminals in its stores about nine years ago, says spokesman Randy Harper. “We saw what happened in the global market and knew where this was going to end up,” he says. The chain even issued its own MasterCard-branded EMV chip card in conjunction with the liability shift and trained its associates on how to accept chip cards. Like most retailers, Walmart won’t release speci c gures regarding how
many consumers are using EMV cards, or how much they’re spend- ing compared with mag-stripe transactions, but Harper says EMV transactions typically take only a second longer to process than mag-stripe purchases. “It’s virtually the same,” he says.
Retailers also say their EMV upgrades—that is, the installation of new terminals or software to handle the payments, and getting associates and consumers into the habit of e ciently using chip cards—are part of larger e orts to modernize payments. That’s the case with Walgreens, notes James Graham, the retail chain’s senior manager of media relations.
“Aside from EMV chip cards, there have been other improvements in payment technologies, such as Apple Pay,” he says. As of late 2015, the chain enabled its cus- tomers to link their Walgreens Balance Rewards loyalty program accounts with Apple Pay. “New point-of-sale technologies at Walgreens have given customers more payment options and made the checkout experience easier and more secure.” And, he adds that customer surveys haven’t shown a negative impact from the introduc- tion of new payment options.
Though the majority of major re- tailers have met EMV deadlines and installed or updated the technology needed to process chip-card transactions, not all merchants are there, says J. Craig Shearman, vice president, government a airs and
volume 9 • spring 2016
Only 14% of consumers reported removing their chip cards too quickly from terminals in October 2015, down from 38% in March 2014. Among the reasons for those quick withdrawals:
“i am used to swiping my card and putting it away.” “swiping and going would be easier.”
“oops. i Forgot i Had to leave it in.”
“i don’t like leaving my card in tHe macHine.”
source: MasterCard
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