Research firm eMarketer Inc. forecasted that 2019 U.S. holiday sales will surpass $1 trillion in value for the first time. Cyber Monday, the Monday following Thanksgiving, is expected to be the biggest online shopping day and could approach $10 billion in sales. With Thanksgiving falling on the last Thursday of …

Prepaid-program manager Green Dot Corp. will launch a marketing campaign with talk-show host and comedian Ellen DeGeneres. DeGeneres’s celebrity will be used to promote Green Dot Bank, Steve Streit, Green Dot founder and chief executive, said during a conference call with analysts Thursday. DeGeneres is host of the popular TV …

Consumers that want to pay cash for their Amazon.com Inc. purchases now have another option in the St. Louis area. Save A Lot launched the ability for consumers to use Amazon PayCode, the e-retailer’s cash-payment service, at several Save A Lot locations in the grocer’s hometown. It expects to expand …

Digital wallets and other forms of digitized payments may be poised to take over the most-favored position for some consumers. Sixty-six percent of consumers, if offered rewards, discounts, and cash-back incentives similar to those offered by credit cards, would switch to alternative ways to pay, finds the 2019 edition of …

Walmart Inc. and Green Dot Corp. reported Tuesday they have extended the prepaid program manager’s agreement with the giant retailer for another seven years, assuring that Green Dot will continue to serve as the issuing bank and manager for the Walmart MoneyCard program. Walmart says the new contract begins Jan. …

Amazon.com Inc.’s payments ambitions continue to manifest themselves with Monday’s announcement that Paymentus Corp. will enable bill payment and management via Amazon’s voice-controlled Alexa devices. Charlotte, N.C.-based Paymentus said billers on the Paymentus Instant Payment Network will be able to offer consumers a way to link their utility accounts to …

While fintechs and other nonbank payments providers continue to carve out more market share for themselves, banks could face losing up to $88 billion in payments revenue to them. That’s the assessment from Accenture, the consulting firm that on Wednesday released its latest report, “5 Big Bets in Retail Payments …

The number of Apple Pay users has surpassed that of the Starbucks mobile-payments service, says eMarketer Inc., marking the first time a general-purpose mobile app has become more popular than the coffee retailer’s. New York City-based eMarketer counted 30.3 million U.S. Apple Pay users, while Starbucks had 25.2 million users. …

Issuer and acquirer American Express Co. said its global third-quarter discount rate—what merchants pay to accept the brand’s credit cards—was 2.39%, a slight increase from 2.38% a year ago. The uptick comes more than a year after AmEx said it would shave its worldwide discount rate in an effort to boost …

Payments and retail-technology provider Shopify Inc. announced it has closed on its acquisition of 6 River Systems Inc., a developer of cloud-based software and mobile robots for fulfillment. Terms were not announced.Fast Park, which operates parking garages near airports, announced it will accept credit and debit cards exclusively for payment at all …