Shopify Inc. said it is expanding a service that will let Instagram users buy products from select merchants without leaving the Instagram app. The service, which Shopify has been testing since early this year, lets merchants tag their posts to connect users to their catalogs. The photo-sharing service Instagram, owned by …
Read More »After Three Quarters, Payments Stocks Continue to Reward Investors in 2017
Shares of payments companies outperformed the general stock-market indexes in September, and beat most of them in the third quarter and the year so far, investment firm Barrington Research reported Monday. A group of 29 payments stocks posted a mean return of 2.74% in September, its ninth straight month of …
Read More »EMV at Two: Consumers Still Think Purchases Are Too Slow; Many Merchants Indifferent
EMV chip card payments at the U.S. point of sale have been around, officially at least, for two years now, but consumers still perceive them as slow, and many merchants still don’t accept chip cards, according to a poll of consumers and retailers by merchant processor Cayan. The time to …
Read More »Domino’s Alexa Ordering Appeal and other Digital Transactions News briefs from 10/2/17
While denying any wrongdoing in the matter, card manufacturer CPI Card Group Inc. settled two patent lawsuits with Gemalto S.A. Under the terms of the settlement, CPI Card Group agreed to make a one-time $750,000 payment in the fourth quarter. Both lawsuits will be dismissed and both parties agreed not …
Read More »Processing Execs Push ISOs to Adopt New Thinking on Topics From Pricing to Technology
A panel of processing executives on Thursday sought to shake an audience of merchant-sales representatives out of traditional ways of thinking about critical matters ranging from pricing to new technology. In some cases, years-old tactics came under attack. “How many of you are giving a free terminal away and competing …
Read More »ISVs Aren’t Likely to Elbow ISOs Aside Any Time Soon, a Panel of Acquirers Argues
With the rise of the independent software vendor, do traditional independent sales organizations still have a role to play—and if they do, what is it? That question may have been unthinkable a few years ago, but now some observers see ISVs shoving ISOs aside as they code new applications for …
Read More »Whole Foods Reports Taproom Breach and other Digital Transactions News briefs from 9/29/17
Grocer Whole Foods Market, now a unit of Amazon.com Inc., said it is investigating a breach of the point-of-sale software used in its taprooms and full-service restaurants in some of its stores. Whole Foods did not say how many locations or how many cards are affected. It said the payment system for the …
Read More »First Data Debuts Disbursement Service and other Digital Transactions News briefs
Canadian pension-fund manager Caisse de depot et placement du Quebec and private-equity firm Novacap said they would invest in Quebec-based Pivotal Payments, valuing the merchant processor at about C$525 million ($424 million), Pivotal Payments announced. Processor First Data Corp. introduced its “Disburse-to-Debit” service that pushes funds across debit networks so that businesses can …
Read More »Square Invests $25 Million in Eventbrite; Adds Apple Pay E-Commerce Integration
Merchant processor Square Inc. will provide payment services to Eventbrite Inc., which provides a platform for ticket sales, and will invest $25 million in the company, Square announced Thursday. Earlier, Square said it will make Apple Inc.’s Apple Pay service available to merchants using its Square Checkout online service. Square said …
Read More »ATMIA Releases Operation Choke Point Resource and other Digital Transactions News briefs
Consumer-goods manufacturer Shinola has signed up to use the point-of-sale financing service from Affirm Inc. The ATM Industry Association released an Operation Choke Point resource kit for ATM operators. The association said ATM operators continue to receive account-closure notices despite the Department of Justice’s public statement to end the enforcement program. Merchant services provider SignaPay Ltd. released the PayLo …
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