While e-commerce sales overall have ballooned for many merchants since the March 11 declaration of the Covid-19 pandemic, health-and-beauty and business supplies generally did not. Until last week. Online business supplies sales were up 21% and health-and-beauty sales were up 20% for the week of June 16-22, reports the Signifyd …

7-Eleven Inc. is testing a fuel loyalty program that also provides a contactless payment option with Siri functionality for iPhone users. The convenience-store chain also is expanding its mobile checkout capability through its app to Utah locations. Irving, Texas-based 7-Eleven is testing the fuel loyalty service in Orlando, Fla., northern …

More older consumers—those 45 years old or more—are likely to pick up online shopping as a routine shopping channel, predicts eMarketer Inc. The New York City-based research firm forecasts a 5.8% increase in the number of online shoppers in that demographic. That is up from the earlier forecast of 3.2%. …

Maverick Payments launched its payment gateway, which supports 3-D Secure, account updaters, and interchange optimization.Digital-payments technology provider Checkout.com announced a $150 million Series B funding round, valuing the company at $5.5 billion. The round, led by technology fund Coatue, tripled the company’s value.ATM and point-of-sale hardware and software provider Diebold Nixdorf Inc. said it generated …

ZipLine, the provider of private-label debit payment services for convenience stores like Cumberland Farms, has been acquired by Professional Datasolutions Inc., a c-store software developer and services company. Announced Thursday, the deal will enable Alpharetta, Ga.-based PDI to bundle ZipLine’s private-label debit and mobile-payment app with its Marketing Cloud Platform. …

In the wake of Covid-19, merchants continue to see more features added to cloud-based point-of-sale systems. In the latest updates, Lightspeed POS Inc. introduced on Tuesday new e-commerce services, including shipping, curbside pick-up, and appointment setting. And Revel Systems Inc. has refined its online ordering and order-pickup management. First up, …

American Express Co. has become the first foreign payments company to be approved to clear domestic transactions in mainland China. The move comes with approval of a network clearing license over the weekend from the People’s Bank of China for Express Technology Services Co. Ltd., an AmEx joint venture with …

Restaurants using Panasonic Corp. of North America’s kiosk systems will have a new option for their consumers to order and pay, while limiting their contact, with the integration of facial recognition and payment technology from PopID Inc. Announced Thursday, the integration with the Panasonic ClearConnect Kiosk app means Panasonic and …

Paysafe Group has big ambitions for its Skrill financial products in the United States. Monday’s U.S. launch of the Skrill Money Transfer service is but the first step of a broader U.S. expansion for Skrill, says Lorenzo Pellegrino, a Paysafe executive. The free money-transfer service followed January’s debut of the …

Total U.S. retail sales, including auto and fuel, will drop 10.5%, to $4.894 trillion in 2020, a total not seen since 2016, forecasts eMarketer Inc. That’s sharper than the 8.2% slump in 2009, in the midst of that recession more than 10 years ago. E-commerce, however, is the bright spot. …