Clarks gets ready for chip-and-PIN

Shoe retailer Clarks is spending £1m to install point of sale software across its 650 stores to process chip and PIN card transactions.

The company, which sells 20 million pairs of shoes every year, expects the new system to go live in July. Retailers will need to support chip and PIN cards by the beginning of next year or they will be liable for any fraud costs.

But retail services manager Alistair Smith says Clarks has been unable to properly pilot the software prior to installation because of changes to accreditation rules dictated by banks.

'The banks have continually changed the goal posts and are still doing so. It's an arduous process,' he said.

'There have been four changes in the accreditation process so far, and there are more in the pipeline. It's an absolute headache. The software has to be accredited and there are many different sorts of accreditation from Mastercard, Visa and so on. It makes it nigh on impossible to get software to comply,' he said.

Clarks has selected point of sale software from BT Expedite, formally NSB, which is being installed and managed by PinkRoccade, under the terms of a new seven-figure, five-year outsourcing deal Clarks has recently signed with the supplier.

The company has been testing the software under controlled conditions, but as yet, has been unable to conduct live pilots.

'The biggest concern is the software itself because we've been unable to pilot it. The banks won't let us pilot the software until it's right, and we can't tell if it's right until it is in the shops. We have to make sure that our lab systems work really well,' Smith said.

'This is a big risk but one we are ready to take on. Our biggest headache is data integrity. If you had a software issue that compromised that, you would have to stop everything and fix it, although it's more likely we'll have a small problem that is just inconvenient.'