Competitive Strategies

You’ve heard of subscriptions for magazines and concert tickets. Now the subscription model is coming to golf clubs. TaylorMade Golf Co. on Monday said an online purchasing and financing program it started in April has generated a 30% increase in conversions and a 5% jump in average order value. The …

Consumer affinity for the cheapest gas prices birthed smart-phone app GasBuddy, and now the app has sired a way for consumers to actually make the payment at fill up. Boston-based GasBuddy recently announced its Pay with GasBuddy service, which connects a consumer’s checking account with a GasBuddy-issued card. After enrolling …

A new unit formed by the enforcement division of the Securities and Exchange Commission will have among its responsibilities “violations involving distributed-ledger technology and initial coin offerings,” according to an announcement from the SEClate Monday. What the agency calls its Cyber Unit will also focus on market manipulation via social …

First Tech Federal Credit Union has activated the Zelle person-to-person payment service in its mobile-banking app, which has 110,000 users. Puerto Rico-based payment processor Evertec Inc. said it will donate $1 million for relief efforts and that it continues to process ATM and point-of-sale transactions on the island, which was devastated by Hurricane Maria. …

The foundational technology for contactless credit cards has existed for some time, but we haven’t seen them adopted en masse yet, at least not Stateside. Much of that reluctance has to do with perceived obstacles or assumptions—perceptions that may or may not be entirely accurate. Following are objective responses to …

Independent sales organization Merchant Consulting Group Inc. said its payments services are now available in the Tracker Management Systems dispatch software designed for the towing and wrecker industry. BMO Harris introduced Small Business Mastercard, which works with the Masterpass, Apple Pay, Android Pay, and Samsung Pay digital wallets. Now that Apple Inc.’s new …

Total System Services Inc. (TSYS) announced Friday after the stock market closed that Pamela A. Joseph, the processor’s president and chief operating officer, had resigned from her positions and as a member of TSYS’s board of directors, effective Sept. 30. The resignation triggered speculation about the company’s future and apparently …

Fraud-related expenses for merchants are rising as a percentage of revenues, and merchants now spend 10 times as much preventing fraud as they lose to chargebacks, according to new findings from Javelin Strategy & Research. Pleasanton, Calif.-based Javelin says its June study of 497 e-commerce merchants found that merchants in …

For years, experts have predicted electronic payments would finally turn the check into an historical artifact. But data released last year indicate that the long-term decline in check volume has slowed, and now experts are trying to figure out why and what the ultimate check-killer will be. When the Federal …

Payments provider BluePay Processing LLC said it will offer TranCloud, an EMV-enabled payments application from Datacap Systems Inc., to merchants. ATM network operator Cardtronics plc said the Speedway convenience-store chain added ATMs at 1,500 stores in eight states to Cardtronics’ Allpoint Network, which means that all 2,550 ATMs in 20 states where Speedway operates …