Competitive Strategies

As the holiday season continues and the cost-of-living rises, shoppers are searching for meaningful yet budget-friendly gifts for loved ones. Consumers need financial flexibility to make large purchases without using their entire paycheck to do so. Buy now, pay later solutions continue to rise in popularity as consumers search for …

Prepaid card platform Blackhawk Network Holdings Inc. launched its One4All gift card, a single gift card accepted at more than 100 merchants and restaurants. The card is issued by Pathward N.A., a unit of Pathward Financial. Matera, a Brazil-based instant payments and QR code payments company, opened an office in San Francisco …

Not all countries, companies, and persons will suffer equally from inflation in 2023, as Europe will see a decline in economic activity while the U.S. market will experience limited economic growth, forecasts the Mastercard Economics Institute. Food-service provider Sodexo North America’s InReach unit has contracted with payments provider Cantaloupe to upgrade 18,800 vending machiens and …

Airwallex, an Australia-based fintech, has partnered with Plaid Inc. to enable merchants in the United States to streamline transactions initiated through the automated clearing house. Airwallex merchants can leverage Plaid’s open-banking technology to authorize adding funds to their Airwallex wallet from an external bank account or to accept payments from …

A new report from J.D. Power finds that small-business owners, struggling to offset inflation’s impact and supply-chain issues, continue to rely on their credit cards. American Express Co. cards for small businesses scored highest in the 2022 U.S. Small Business Credit Card Satisfaction Study from J.D. Power. This is the …

The messaging app Clickatell added updates to its Chat Commerce Platform, including a new integration of Chat 2 Pay, which allows travel brands to accept payments as part of business messages. The card-issuing platform Marqeta Inc. announced it has integrated Mastercard Track Instant Pay, which enables immediate payment of supplier invoices. The virtual-card platform Extend announced …

The big Internet services provider GoDaddy Inc. said on Tuesday it is using its Manage WooCommerce Stores technology to help sellers open and manage a store on the WordPress online platform. The move, which could bring more small sellers into the e-commerce fold, is aimed at untangling the complexity GoDaddy …

Payment platform provider NMI has acquired Agreement Express Inc.’s merchant onboarding, underwriting, and monitoring technologies. The acquisition, which is for the payments portion of Agreement Express’s total business, is aimed at allowing NMI to provide integrated software vendors, independent sales organizations, and fintechs with tools that can speed up merchant …

Curve OS Ltd. said it secured a deal with Credit Suisse to fund its first $1 billion in installment loans, via its Curve Flex product, in the United Kingdom, Europe, and the United States. London-based Curve announced Curve Flex in 2021. A survey from Bango PLC of 2,500 U.S. subscription users found that 65% said …

Vending and unattended payments specialist Cantaloupe Inc. has closed on its $41 million acquisition of Three Square Market, known as 32M, and intends to use it as a springboard for expansion and improved profit margins. Three Square Market, with headquarters in River Falls, Wis., will generate an estimated $19 million …