Bookstore Manager plans to ship new EMV (Europay, MasterCard and Visa) readers to Christian retailers as soon as the product gets certified, according to the company's vice president of operations and customer relations, Brent Casey.

The readers are designed to comply with new credit card regulations, outlined in greater detail here. Bookstore Manager has been working on the new devices for over a year and told Christian Retailing the company is nearly ready to release them to Christian retailers. The delay in release is attributed to waiting on certification.

The certification process is a key part of the new EMV readers. Each device has to be certified for the software as well as for each of the four major credit card brands (Visa, MasterCard, American Express and Discover). Additionally, the front-end processor for each of the four brands also needs to certify the product. Casey says that Bookstore Manager’s EMV readers have cleared seven of the eight certifications, but the company cannot ship the products until the last certification arrives. Unfortunately, the timetable for certification is nebulous at best due to an industry-wide backlog.

“In the past, you would order a reader like that, and they would ship it the same day,” Casey said. “Now it’s a week to two weeks before anything ships because of the backlog of orders and the back order for the distributors. Everything in the industry is moving much slower because of the demand right now for the devices, and in the case of the card brands, the certification that they’re giving.”

Casey says they have been consistently told that the certification will be complete “any time,” though he says they have heard that for the past month. He shares retailers’ frustration with the slow process.

“It’s been a frustration for us, given all the steps and expenses we’ve had to get through,” Casey said. “This has absolutely been a frustrating process. We’re sure retailers would like to get it done and finished, and I can assure them that the end is coming and it won’t be far away. We know we’ll get there eventually, but unfortunately, we just have to wait on outside entities.”

The EMV readers are a new 10 pad, customer-facing device, which will be connected to a computer at the point of sale. The new readers ensure customer safety by guaranteeing that the credit card never has to leave the consumer’s hand, essentially eliminating the risk of skimming or theft.

Casey promises that though the wait has been long, implementation and training will be fast and straightforward.

“It’s going to be an intuitive software system,” he said. “The machine will prompt the customer and the salesperson through the entire sale process. Training will be available in the form of written materials, and Bookstore Manager will have technicians on call to handle any further questions that may arise.”

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