The Retail Management
Advisors
|
|
Consultants to retail apparel and gift stores, specializing in inventory control, Open-to-Buy, retail system selection, employee incentives, budgeting and cash flow projections, policy and procedure manuals, retail seminars, shrinkage analysis and control.
NEW SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT SWAP (PEER) GROUPS Did you ever wish you had someone to talk to Now
you can For more information, click here.
New on The-Retail-Advisor.com!
TRMA Services for Retailers Open-to-Buy Management New! OTB Services TRMA has announced the addition of an Open-to-Buy (OTB) service. The service includes development of a Gross Margin Plan, assistance in developing sales, markdown and stock turn rates plans, and monthly monitoring and analysis reports with suggested actions. This OTB service is very affordable in comparison with other services in this industry. For more
information on the Open to Buy Services, click
here For a listing of services provided by TRMA, click the following link: New and recent articles on The-Retail-Advisor.com (click on the title to proceed to the article)
The Retail
Management Advisors Contact
us at:
The Retail Management Advisors TRMA provides consulting services to retail management. Our retail consulting includes open-to-buy, all aspects of inventory management, budgeting and the development of business plans. We also work with providers of systems and services so that their products include the best in inventory management and open-to-buy. We help many providers to retail better understand the needs of these business owners.
A SALES PROMOTION IDEA FROM DAN KENNEDY“If
you want to directly stimulate referrals from your customers or clients, you
might want to consider the second party gift certificate idea. Here's how this
works: Note: this comes from an e-newsletter I get from Dan Kennedy. If you want to sign up for it so you get it directly in your mailbox you can go to http://www.dankennedy.com to sign up for the free newsletter. Note: Another idea for a reward is to have a drawing at the end of each month for the clients who had cards returned. The prize can be something from your inventory or a gift certificate to a nice local restaurant, etc. This way, the more cards returned, the better their chance at winning a prize.
AN INTRODUCTION TO FACTA
|
 | FACTA
was signed by President Bush on December 4, 2003. |
| The
provisions of the law have been phased in over the past few years, and all
are now in effect. |
| Every
consumer can get one free copy of their credit report each year at
www.annualcreditreport.com or by calling 877-322-8228.
There are three major credit reporting companies in the |
| Businesses
must leave off all but the final five digits of a credit card number on
electrically printed store receipts as of December 1, 2006.
If your credit card equipment is not yet doing this, it is time to
get it changed NOW. This may
mean upgrading your company’s software. |
| Employers
must destroy all information obtained from a consumer credit report before
discarding it. |
The law requires
the “shredding or burning” of all paper and the “smashing and wiping” of
all computer discs containing personal information “derived from a consumer
report” before they are thrown away.
WHO DOES FACTA
AFFECT?
This law applies
to any business, regardless of size, that collects personal information or
consumer reports about customers or employees to make decisions within their
business (including names, credit card numbers, birth dates, home addresses and
more). Retailers are covered as:
|
Employers |
|
Lenders
(for a retailer, this would be those who have in-house charge accounts) |
REASONABLE
MEASURES OF DESTRUCTION
According to the
Federal Trade Commission, reasonable measures include:
|
Burning,
shredding, or pulverizing documents so they become impossible to put back
together or read. Strip
shredders are not good enough; it needs to be a cross-cut shredder. |
|
Erasing
media files or electronic files that contain any consumer reports so that
they cannot be reconstructed or recovered. |
PENALTIES
If personal
information isn’t destroyed and it gets out, FACTA provides penalties
including:
|
Civil
liability. An employee could be
entitled to recover actual damages sustained if their identity is stolen
from an employer. Or, an
employer could be liable for statutory damages for up to $1,000 per
employee. |
|
Class
action lawsuits. If large numbers of employees are impacted, they any be
able to bring class action suits and obtain punitive damages from employees. |
|
Federal
fines. The federal government could fine a covered business up to $2,500 for
each violation. |
NOW WHAT? IT’S
TIME TO DEVELOP A PLAN!
In order to comply
with FACTA, Betsy Broder, the Assistant Director of that FTC division, was
quoted in the March 2006 American Bar Association Journal saying that means
businesses need to have a written plan describing how customer data will be
safeguarded and a staff member or company officer designated to be responsible
for implementing that plan.
Many large
companies will entrust such planning and execution to a chief technical officer
or a chief privacy officer. However,
Broder says she understands that small businesses cannot be expected to hire a
full-time privacy specialist, but added that all businesses must be able to show
that they have a security plan in place. In other words, effort counts.’’
According to the
FTC, a “reasonable” plan to safeguard personal information includes:
|
Designating
an employee (or employees) to coordinate and be responsible for the security
program. |
|
Identifying
“material internal and external” risks to the security of these personal
data (with such a risk assessment including employee training on the
detection, prevention, and response to attacks or other system failures). |
|
Designing
and implementing reasonable safeguards to control the risks identified in
the risk assessment. |
|
Continually
evaluating and adjusting the security plan in light of the results of
ongoing monitoring and testing of the program, material changes to business
arrangement, or to the company’s operations, or “any other”
circumstances that could have a material impact on the effectiveness of the
security plan. |
|
Creating
a mitigation plan. Even with the FTC’s focus on “reasonable” security
measures and “appropriate” risk levels, there is still the real
possibility that security breaches may occur,
regardless of what precautions are taken. This mitigation plan should
kick in when there is a privacy or security breach and there is a need to
“repair it” immediately in the eyes of customers, government regulators,
and management. |
SOME STEPS TO TAKE
RIGHT NOW
Even if you are a
very small employer, there are some proactive measures you can take immediately,
in both our personal and business lives.
|
Burn
or shred, with a confetti or cross-cut shredder; any financial papers, mail,
or credit reports that contain personal information.
NEVER RECYCLE SUCH DOCUMENTS! |
|
Call
1-888-5OPTOUT and request credit card companies to stop sending pre-approved
credit card applications to your home or business. These are ticking
identity theft time bombs. |
|
Also
ask your credit card company to stop delivering so-called “convenience
checks” to your home and business. These, too, are time bombs. |
|
Invest
in a durable cross-or confetti-cut shredder.
Simple strip-cut shredders are no longer sufficient. Look for
strength--can the shredder cut through credit cards, data CDs, diskettes,
and staples? |
|
Limit
the number of credit cards you hold, both business and personal. Religiously
review your financial statements monthly and instruct your employees to do
the same. The sooner you discover an incident of identity theft, the better. |
Do you have a friend who could benefit from the information on this page? If so, click the link below to send this page to that person.
