Payments industry professionals naturally have a hard focus on the industry's own dynamics. So, it's not uncommon to lose sight of who the customer is and who pays the freight. In retailing, yes, the consumer pays, but payments is a direct cost to the merchant. With all of the changes underway in the U.S. payments landscape, merchants now view payments as a complex, strategic element of their business, both as a way to drive new sales as well as a cost component to be tightly managed.

To learn what's top of mind for a large scale retailer, take a listen to Dean Sheaffer, SVP of Financial Services at Boscov's Inc., the U.S.'s largest family-owned department store. In this Payments on Fire podcast, Dean addresses payments as a sales tool (Dean and his team have upped usage of the Boscov private label card to 40% of tender!), payments and data security, and the potential of Faster Money.