In the contactless payment security discussion, Fu said some scientists had been hesitant to even get involved in the study because they believed that the encryption claimed by the cards would make the cards too secure to merit experimentation. Former federal prosecutor Rasch said that the testing showed that researchers didn't need to break the encryption to violate security, but they merely needed to pass it along intact to the POS (online or offline) to get purchases approved. Jupiter's Evans wondered whether this would set back online trust of all credit cards.

To listen to the full contactless security discussion, please click here.

Unhappy Online Buyers Will Also Shun The Site's Brick-and-Mortar Brother

The new Gomez report presents a challenge for retailers, panelists argued. On the one hand, their offline and online units are being treated the same, so they might as well act the part, by allowing online purchases to be returned offline and to advance purchase-online-pickup-offline programs.

On the other hand, retailers, panelists argued, it's also a good strategy to push the inherent advantages of online (vast inventory, powerful search, speed/convenience) versus offline (personal attention, the ability to try on and examine products, the experience) by making those experiences as different as possible.

Report author Bryan also detailed how consumers tend to blame retailers for online problems that they have nothing to do with, such as traffic that can slow a site down, overall Internet slowdowns, checkout and content that is likely outsourced and software conflicts on the consumer's computer.

To hear the full panel discussion about the new online buyer habits, please click here.