Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, March 21, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — FreedomPay, the world's leading commerce platform, announces partnership with Sephora USA, Inc. the leading prestige beauty omni–retailer, to integrate FreedomPay's data–driven commerce technology platform in Sephora's 500 plus stores across the Americas.

"FreedomPay is proud to announce the agreement with Sephora, to provide a world class experience to its millions of customers across the Americas," said Chris Kronenthal, President at FreedomPay. "Our suite of touchless commerce and data solutions will enable Sephora to provide customers a fast, frictionless, and innovative consumer experience."

The partnership allows for a safe and secure next–level Mobile POS consumer experience for shoppers with FreedomPay. The new touchless capable payment system enables Sephora clients to have complete control over their checkout experience, giving consumers the option to pay via contactless payment methods and digital wallets all on their own device, including Apple Pay, Google Pay and Samsung Pay.

"Now more than ever, it is critical for us at Sephora to be able to adapt to the quickly changing retail environment and that's especially important at the point of sale," said Sree Sreedhararaj, Senior Vice President and Chief Technology Officer at Sephora. "Our clients desire a seamless experience in every step of the shopping journey, and our partnership with FreedomPay allows us to maximize efficiencies and capabilities at checkout."

About FreedomPay

FreedomPay's Next Level Commerce platform transforms existing payment systems and processes from legacy to leading edge. As the premier choice for many of the largest companies across the globe in retail, hospitality, lodging, gaming, sports and entertainment, foodservice, education, healthcare and financial services, FreedomPay's technology has been purposely built to deliver rock solid performance in the highly complex environment of global commerce. The company maintains a world–class security environment and was first to earn the coveted validation by the PCI Security Standards Council against Point–to–Point Encryption (P2PE/EMV) standard in North America. FreedomPay's robust solutions across payments, security, identity, and data analytics are available in–store, online and on–mobile and are supported by rapid API adoption. The award winning FreedomPay Commerce Platform operates on a single, unified technology stack across multiple continents allowing enterprises to deliver an innovative Next Level experience on a global scale. www.freedompay.com

About Sephora Americas

Since its debut in North America more than 20 years ago, Sephora has been a leader in prestige omni–retail with the mission of creating an inviting beauty shopping experience and inspiring fearlessness in our community. With the goal of delivering unbiased shopping support and a personalized experience, Sephora invites clients to discover thousands of products from more than 340 carefully curated brands, explore online and through our mobile app, enjoy services at the Beauty Studio and engage with expertly trained Beauty Advisors in more than 500 stores across the Americas. And with its new long–term retail strategic partnership, clients can now shop Sephora at Kohl's, a fully immersive, premium beauty destination, with 200 locations in 2021, and at least 850 locations by 2023. Clients can access the free–to–join Beauty Insider program and digital community, which together enhance the experience of Sephora's passionate clients.

Sephora has been an industry–leading champion of diversity, inclusivity, and empowerment, guided by our longstanding company values. In 2019, Sephora announced a new tagline and manifesto, "We Belong to Something Beautiful," to reinforce its dedication to fostering belonging amongst all clients and employees and to publicly strive for a more inclusive vision for retail in the Americas. Sephora continues to give back to our communities and advance inclusion in our industry through its social impact and equity programming, called the Sephora D&I Heart Journey.

For more information, visit: https://www.sephora.com/about–us and @Sephora on social media. For media inquiries, please visit our Sephora newsroom or email ExternalComms@sephora.com

GLOBENEWSWIRE (Distribution ID 8506148)

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Nov. 11, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) —

New data released today by Cornell University's Center for Hospitality Research and FreedomPay, a global leader in data–driven commerce, reveals that while nearly all (96%) surveyed retail, restaurant and hospitality stakeholders are confident in their companies' internal risk assessment processes, their satisfaction (95%) in the security of their systems is misaligned with reality, as one–third of companies (31%) have experienced a data breach in their company's history. Of companies that have been breached, 89% have been hit more than once in a year, and 69% of retail businesses have been breached upwards of three times in a year.

Check Please! How Restaurant, Retail and Hospitality Businesses are Managing Cybersecurity Risks "" a joint study between Cornell and FreedomPay "" is based on a new survey of small, medium, and large–size enterprises across the hospitality, retail, and food and beverage sectors.

"Especially over the past two years, cybersecurity has been top of mind for businesses as we navigate a highly complex eCommerce network," said Chris Kronenthal, President of FreedomPay. "Retailers and hospitality businesses increasingly view their payments systems as more than transaction processing "" they are important sources of data and customer insights. Merchants and consumers alike need the assurance that this data is being protected and managed properly."

“These findings provide a baseline understanding of how key decision–makers are handling cybersecurity issues and offer key insights for optimizing and fortifying systems as we continue down this path of accelerated digital transformation,” said Professor Linda Canina, the Dr. Michael Dang Director of the Center for Hospitality Research at the Cornell Peter and Stephanie Nolan School of Hotel Administration.

Threats Are Rising, Complexity Abounds

With new cyber threats emerging daily both internally and externally, business leaders are juggling a full slate of concerns and challenges. Threats such as payment integrity (59%) and malware (58%) are the most cited concerns, with risk management (57%) cited as the biggest challenge leaders say their systems face. Companies also fear internal threats, with hospitality companies most frequently citing human error (86%) and lack of employee education (81%) as negatively impacting cybersecurity systems.

Businesses' best efforts to protect themselves and customers are spurring growing complexity and system proliferation. The findings revealed three–quarters (74%) of companies use more than one cybersecurity system. Medium merchants (80%) are significantly more likely than small merchants (67%) to use more than one system. More than half of companies (56%) have many cybersecurity systems in many locations. Overall, companies are split on whether systems are governed by a single department (51%) or multiple (49%). Small merchants (57%) are significantly more likely to keep governance to one department, while large merchants (63%) are significantly more likely to have multiple departments involved.

Roadblocks Remain

Businesses are challenged to balance security with customer preferences, with many implementing heightened cybersecurity measures to make their customers feel more secured and reassured when making a purchase. The study found that 91% of companies believe their customers deeply care about cybersecurity while 86% believe it increases customer loyalty. Yet, companies acknowledge the inherent tradeoffs "" namely, two–thirds (65%) of leaders believe that customers are annoyed by extra security measures, and they want systems to be easy to use (67%).

Budgetary concerns may also play a factor in determining any potential system enhancements "" among the few (15%) that currently do not have plans to enhance their system, they are most likely to cite preventative costs (61%) and an unwillingness to have a disruption in service (52%).

Despite these roadblocks, companies have said they are increasing or have increased their IT budgets, calling out the COVID–19 pandemic and technology as driving forces. Other notable findings include:

• In The Dark: More than one–third (35%) of surveyed leaders do not know how much of their company's budget is spent on cybersecurity.
• Bicameral Opinion: While 91% of respondents agree that their customers do care about cybersecurity, 48% also believe their customers do not care about cybersecurity.
• Inaction: Nearly all (96%) companies say they value the importance of security systems to protect their data, and 85% agree that their customers would be more satisfied if they had extra security measures in place. Yet, half (50%) have either not increased their IT security budget or decreased their budget since 2019.
• Show Me The Money: Still, companies are divided on what precautions and guidance are worth the cost. Four–fifths (83%) of companies who do use a third–party to manage and secure information say this option is "more cost–effective" for their business, while half (51%) of companies who do not use a third–party supplier cite it as being "more costly" than their current process.
• Checking The Box? Almost all merchants (91%) are very or extremely confident that their company adequately trains end–users, relying on conferences and seminars (71%) to keep them trained and engaged. Notably, small (92%) and medium (95%) merchants are significantly more confident than their large (79%) counterparts, where the most common form of end–user engagement comes from training videos (82%).
• Looking for a Leader: A majority of companies (87%) say they would welcome involvement from the U.S. government to fight cybersecurity threats as well as enhance policy (84%). Large merchants (threats–76%, policy–74%) and retail companies (threats–81%, policy–75%) are significantly less likely to want the U.S. government involved.

Click here to download the report.

Methodology

The survey was conducted by Hanover Research and included 300 respondents for small, medium, and large–size enterprises across hospitality, retail, and food & beverage spaces.

About FreedomPay

FreedomPay's Next Level Commerce platform transforms existing payment systems and processes from legacy to leading edge. As the premier choice for many of the largest companies across the globe in retail, hospitality, lodging, gaming, sports and entertainment, foodservice, education, healthcare and financial services, FreedomPay's technology has been purposely built to deliver rock solid performance in the highly complex environment of global commerce. The company maintains a world–class security environment and was first to earn the coveted validation by the PCI Security Standards Council against Point–to–Point Encryption (P2PE/EMV) standard in North America. FreedomPay's robust solutions across payments, security, identity, and data analytics are available in–store, online and on–mobile and are supported by rapid API adoption. The award winning FreedomPay Commerce Platform operates on a single, unified technology stack across multiple continents allowing enterprises to deliver an innovative Next Level experience on a global scale. www.freedompay.com

About Cornell Center of Hospitality Research

Cornell's Center for Hospitality Research (CHR) was created in 1992 for the purpose of expanding both the quality and volume of research supporting the hospitality industry and its related service industries. The CHR's mission is to advance hospitality thought leadership by publishing and disseminating impactful and actionable research that industry leaders can put into practice today; facilitating the exchange of new ideas by bringing students, faculty, and industry professionals together at roundtables, panels, conferences, and other engaging events; and partnering with the other Centers and Institutes in the Cornell Nolan School of Hotel Administration to maximize research, event, and networking collaborations.

Attachment

• New research published by FreedomPay and Cornell University's Center for Hospitality Research

GLOBENEWSWIRE (Distribution ID 8391381)

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Oct. 12, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — FreedomPay, a global leader in Next Level Commerce has selected Hill+Knowlton Strategies (H+K) as its communications partner, following a competitive agency review. H+K will work with FreedomPay's in–house marketing team to execute the global fintech leader's national communications strategy as it continues its global expansion across 130+ countries, more than one hundred currencies and thousands of commerce partners.

FreedomPay is the only, fully independent, "open' and agnostic Commerce Platform supporting the most innovative partners across banking, acquiring, processing and software vendors around the world. A pioneer in Commerce Technologies, FreedomPay's cutting edge technology is unrivaled in speed, security, and capacity. With its award–winning, world–class Platform now serving 3 Billion+ transactions across the globe and accelerating into advanced cloud infrastructure, the company is growing rapidly to meet the needs of merchants with over 600+ integrations and the "new norm' consumer demanding more experiences across in–store, online and on mobile commerce.

"FreedomPay's singular focus on the evolving needs of both merchants and consumers distinguishes our solution set and is driving exponential growth," said Chris Kronenthal, President & CTO at FreedomPay. "As technology continues to unite markets across all continents, our international partners are turning to our globally available and scalable Platform to support increasingly complex requirements to satisfy merchant and consumer requirements. With a focus on continued innovation for the fintech industry, as well as an extensive US and global presence that delivers an understanding of the markets and stakeholders that we are expanding to reach "" we look forward to collaborating with Hill+Knowlton as our communications partner and sharing our entrepreneurial drive and culture of innovation."

FreedomPay's global footprint delivers full Omni–channel capabilities to merchants in 130+ countries and territories. FreedomPay's Next Level Commerce platform is now fully compliant with PSD2 strong customer authentication, on–line PIN and foreign language support now meeting the needs of hundreds of thousands of merchants around the world.

—END—

About FreedomPay

FreedomPay's Next Level Commerce platform transforms existing payment systems and processes from legacy to leading edge. As the premier choice for many of the largest companies across the globe in retail, hospitality, lodging, gaming, sports and entertainment, food service, education, healthcare and financial services, FreedomPay's technology has been purposely built to deliver rock solid performance in the highly complex environment of global commerce. The company maintains a world–class security environment and was first to earn the coveted validation by the PCI Security Standards Council against the Point–to–Point Encryption (P2PE/EMV) standard in North America. FreedomPay's robust solutions across payments, security, identity, and data analytics are available in–store, online and on–mobile and are supported by rapid API adoption. The award winning FreedomPay Commerce Platform operates on a single, unified technology stack across multiple continents allowing enterprises to deliver an innovative Next Level experience on a global scale. www.freedompay.com

About Hill+Knowlton Strategies

Hill+Knowlton Strategies, Inc. is an international communications consultancy, providing services to local, multinational, and global clients. H+K operates 77 offices in 43 countries worldwide, as well as an extensive associate network, delivering award–winning campaigns to clients across all sectors and disciplines and with a focus on continued innovation for the industry. Headquartered in New York, the firm is part of WPP, one of the world's largest communications services groups.

Media Contact

Amy Dalkoff

Hill+Knowlton for FreedomPay

Amy.dalkoff@hkstrategies.com

312–255–3078

GLOBENEWSWIRE (Distribution ID 8371330)

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Oct. 12, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — FreedomPay, a global leader in Next Level Commerce has selected Hill+Knowlton Strategies (H+K) as its communications partner, following a competitive agency review. H+K will work with FreedomPay's in–house marketing team to execute the global fintech leader's national communications strategy as it continues its global expansion across 130+ countries, more than one hundred currencies and thousands of commerce partners.

FreedomPay is the only, fully independent, "open' and agnostic Commerce Platform supporting the most innovative partners across banking, acquiring, processing and software vendors around the world. A pioneer in Commerce Technologies, FreedomPay's cutting edge technology is unrivaled in speed, security, and capacity. With its award–winning, world–class Platform now serving 3 Billion+ transactions across the globe and accelerating into advanced cloud infrastructure, the company is growing rapidly to meet the needs of merchants with over 600+ integrations and the "new norm' consumer demanding more experiences across in–store, online and on mobile commerce.

"FreedomPay's singular focus on the evolving needs of both merchants and consumers distinguishes our solution set and is driving exponential growth," said Chris Kronenthal, President & CTO at FreedomPay. "As technology continues to unite markets across all continents, our international partners are turning to our globally available and scalable Platform to support increasingly complex requirements to satisfy merchant and consumer requirements. With a focus on continued innovation for the fintech industry, as well as an extensive US and global presence that delivers an understanding of the markets and stakeholders that we are expanding to reach "" we look forward to collaborating with Hill+Knowlton as our communications partner and sharing our entrepreneurial drive and culture of innovation."

FreedomPay's global footprint delivers full Omni–channel capabilities to merchants in 130+ countries and territories. FreedomPay's Next Level Commerce platform is now fully compliant with PSD2 strong customer authentication, on–line PIN and foreign language support now meeting the needs of hundreds of thousands of merchants around the world.

—END—

About FreedomPay

FreedomPay's Next Level Commerce platform transforms existing payment systems and processes from legacy to leading edge. As the premier choice for many of the largest companies across the globe in retail, hospitality, lodging, gaming, sports and entertainment, food service, education, healthcare and financial services, FreedomPay's technology has been purposely built to deliver rock solid performance in the highly complex environment of global commerce. The company maintains a world–class security environment and was first to earn the coveted validation by the PCI Security Standards Council against the Point–to–Point Encryption (P2PE/EMV) standard in North America. FreedomPay's robust solutions across payments, security, identity, and data analytics are available in–store, online and on–mobile and are supported by rapid API adoption. The award winning FreedomPay Commerce Platform operates on a single, unified technology stack across multiple continents allowing enterprises to deliver an innovative Next Level experience on a global scale. www.freedompay.com

About Hill+Knowlton Strategies

Hill+Knowlton Strategies, Inc. is an international communications consultancy, providing services to local, multinational, and global clients. H+K operates 77 offices in 43 countries worldwide, as well as an extensive associate network, delivering award–winning campaigns to clients across all sectors and disciplines and with a focus on continued innovation for the industry. Headquartered in New York, the firm is part of WPP, one of the world's largest communications services groups.

Media Contact

Amy Dalkoff

Hill+Knowlton for FreedomPay

Amy.dalkoff@hkstrategies.com

312–255–3078

GLOBENEWSWIRE (Distribution ID 8371330)