Challenges Ahead The urban and ethnic marketing strategy requires an understanding of in-culture nuances and lifestyle of the marketing segment that a business is trying to reach. While urban market- ing is employed to reach Hispanic, Latino, Asian American, and African American markets because of demographic clustering of these subcultures in metropolitan areas, it is also used to reach certain niche markets best found in urban environments. Urban and ethnic marketing strategies integrate consumer marketing solutions including inter- net and technology aspects within the cultural environment of host country. An international marketer should evaluate the psychographic and demographic profiles that indicate the target market of urban and ethnic groups. The firm may choose to provide the marketing communication to the target segments close to their lifestyle. The General Motors (GM) Company has made significant contributions to the cultural event on cards payment technology has driven new revolu- tion in retailing as this technology has not only helped in increase the quick buying decisions of consumers but also attracted large mass of poten- tial customers into retail gamut. Smart cards have offered a wide variety of applications that could revolutionize payment transactions, reduce costs, and spur online purchasing. Despite the benefits these electronic purses offer, a number of issues inhibit their widespread use, especially in open systems. A tested technology, smart cards can store various types of encrypted information as well as cash balances and digital signatures. A secret key can be used to secure e-commerce transac- tions as well as protect the card contents. These keys are vulnerable to attack, however, and the stored-value feature is attractive to international money launderers. Despite some risk factors the smart cards are globally accepted by the retailers (Kearns and Loy, 2003).