Acquiring

As 2017 heads toward a close, merger-and-acquisition activity in the merchant-acquiring space is on track to equal or exceed 2016’s number of deals, and buyers are paying more as the pool of quality acquisition targets shrinks. Annapolis, Md.-based First Annapolis Consulting Inc. tells Digital Transactions magazine for its upcoming December issue …

Research firm comScore Inc. said Thanksgiving e-commerce spending on desktop devices totaled $1.57 billion, a 22% increase from last year. Black Friday spending was $2.36 billion, a 20% increase from 2016. ComScore said 115 million consumers visited online retail sites on Thanksgiving, with 61% of them only visiting using a …

Early reports about consumer spending over the long Thanksgiving weekend indicate that merchant processors serving both brick-and-mortar and online merchants can expect more payment volume this year than last. With CyberMonday, the Monday after Thanksgiving, now in full swing, the outlook for online sales is strong if a report from …

On average, U.S. consumers will spend $500 on holiday purchases this season, found the TD Bank Merry Money Holiday Spending Survey. Most consumers could overspend. In the past, 76% of respondents said they overspent their past holiday budgets by an average of $263. Rakuten Marketing said its sales in the …

Merchant processor iPayment Inc. has agreed to acquire Leaders Merchant Services, an independent sales organization that has worked with iPayment since 2004. Terms were not disclosed. Electronics maker SparkFun Electronics developed an app for Android devices that can detect the likely presence of a credit card skimmer commonly found on …

Just days before the holiday shopping season begins in earnest, yet another indicator emerges that merchants, especially those selling electronics, should be ready for the onslaught of both legitimate transactions and those perpetrated by criminals. That’s because the recently released Forter/MRC Fraud Attack Index found that attacks against electronics retailers …

Less than a month after winning the contract to bring contactless fare payments to New York City’s vast subway and bus system, Cubic Transportation Systems won a $575 million contract from the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority to replace the CharlieCard, a fixture in Boston, with a modernized fare system centered …

Bluewater Grill Restaurants, with seven locations in Southern California and Phoenix, has deployed the Rail pay-at-table platform from TableSafe Inc. Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, will continue to attract consumers to stores. A study from Deloitte found that 70% of U.S. consumers plan to shop in a store that …

Micro-investing site Acorns has integrated its service with PayPal Holdings Inc., allowing select PayPal account holders to access their Acorn accounts through PayPal. The service will be expanded to all U.S. PayPal account holders starting early in 2018. Voice-marketing firm Invoca released a report called “The Rise of Voice” that …

Consumer electronics maker Garmin International Inc. said Garmin Pay, based on Fit Pay Inc. technology, is now available to users of Garmin’s vivoactive 3 smart watch. Garmin Pay was announced in August. Fit Pay is a subsidiary of NXT-ID Inc. Automated clearing house network governing body NACHA reported that same-day …