Competitive Strategies

Soon, there might be just two states that prohibit credit card surcharging with the passage Tuesday of a bill in Colorado that would permit the pricing strategy. The bill, SB21-091, passed both the Colorado House and Senate and now moves to Governor Jared Polis’s desk. He has 30 days to …

Consumer spending has now been recovering for a full year from the impact of Covid-19, according to a report released on Wednesday by Visa Inc. The card network’s U.S. Spending Momentum Index, which it began releasing publicly last month, registered a reading of 123.3 for May. That number indicates 59% …

A survey from Fast, an online checkout provider, found that 86% of U.S. shoppers have abandoned an online shopping cart. Of the 1,004 consumers surveyed earlier this month, 55% said they would be more likely to make an online purchase if there was a quicker, easier way to buy directly from …

The trend toward providing merchants technology that unites their digital and physical payments acceptance and allows them to manage their operations from a single platform got another boost Tuesday with Israel-based Wix.com Inc.’s introduction of Wix POS. The solution allows merchants to accept in-store and online payments, including contactless and chip …

One way to boost mobile-wallet usage for functions like payments is to more tightly integrate the apps into users’ daily lives. Apple Inc. followed that script with its preview on Monday of an update for watchOS8, the brains behind its Apple Watch.  This fall, the refresh will allow users to …

PayNearMe, which enables cash payments as well as card, ACH, Apple Pay, and Google Pay payments, said its customers will be able to complete bill payment transactions at participating Walmart Inc. locations beginning in August. The deal is through a partnership with Green Dot Corp.Member Driven Technologies, a credit union …

As part of its strategy to create an all-encompassing platform for merchants and their suppliers, Lightspeed POS Inc. on Monday announced the acquisition of two companies: Ecwid Inc., a consumer e-commerce platform, and NuOrder Inc., an e-commerce platform for suppliers, for a combined $925 million in cash and equity in …

Pundits have predicted for months that cash acceptance will decline markedly as consumers rush into electronic payments. But sellers view cash as a less-expensive option for them, and some payments providers are looking to cater to that view. On Monday, VizyPay LLC said it is opening its cash-discount app to …

Point-of-sale developer SpotOn introduced SpotOn Sidekick, a handheld POS-acceptance device designed specifically for food trucks, pop-up dining, cafes, and other mobile food kitchens. Pricing was not disclosed.Visa Inc. said banking giant Goldman Sachs will deploy Visa’s B2B Connect and Visa Direct Payouts platforms to speed cross-border business-to-consumer and business-to-business payments for Goldman client …

From a merchant perspective, one of the most harmful features of today’s card networks is default pricing. One merchant advocate succinctly described the anti-competitive impact of default pricing, stating, “with default pricing, banks have no incentive to compete for merchants’ business.”  Today, individual merchants are forced to face off against …