Competitive Strategies

It’s been said for years, but 2017 finally could be the year for mobile payments, according to Chetan Sharma, a prominent consultant in the mobile-technology space. “Fueled by demonetization in India and the rise of viable mobile-payment solutions worldwide, we expect mobile payments to enter the consumer consciousness in a …

• Microsoft Corp. has made further details available about Web Payments, a feature it announced last month it is introducing for both Windows 10 PCs and Windows 10 Mobile. The feature will work with the Microsoft Edge and Google Chrome browsers and will allow Microsoft Wallet users to more easily make purchases on …

• Automaker Volkswagen AG has acquired PayByPhone Technologies Inc., according to press reports. A unit of U.K.-based payments processor PayPoint plc, Vancouver-based PayByPhone offers a platform for mobile payments for parking and claims 12.5 million users in North America, Europe, and Australia. The company handles more than $300 million in parking payments annually, according …

With online sales soaring, physical retailers are faced with the challenge of how to recreate the convenience of e-commerce in a traditional store. On Tuesday, a 4-year-old startup called Five Elements Robotics unveiled a device that promises to help with that challenge by putting robots at the service of consumers. Once in …

• A 4-year-old startup called Five Elements Robotics has introduced a robotic shopping cart called Dash that allows customers to download a shopping list and then guides them through the store to find the items. The cart is also equipped with a scanner to let customers scan and pay for the items at …

Visa Inc. says its U.S. EMV credit and debit card volume surpassed 800 million transactions in November, more than quadruple the chip volume from a year earlier. November’s transactions on EMV chip cards hit 805.9 million versus 175.6 million in November 2015, a month after the general-purpose card networks’ EMV point-of-sale liability …

Alphabet Inc.’s Google unit will launch two new smart watches in the first quarter of 2017 that will run on the new Android Wear 2.0 platform and will support Android Pay, Google’s mobile-payments service. Jeff Chang, product manager for Android Wear, announced the news in an interview with The Verge, a tech Web …

• The law firm Pomerantz LLP, which specializes in securities class actions, said it is “investigating claims on behalf of investors of PayPal Holdings Inc.” The firm says it is looking into whether PayPal executives or directors violated the Securities Exchange Act with respect to the timing of a disclosure of …

It’s still far from a mainstream currency, but Bitcoin is closing out a tumultuous year with a raging run-up in value. The digital currency breached the $800 level on Tuesday, and as of Wednesday afternoon was trading just shy of $822. These are heights Bitcoin hasn’t seen in nearly three …

• Risk-management and compliance-service provider Coalfire has acquired Veris Group, a specialist in testing and engineering services for cybersecurity. Terms of the deal were not announced. • POS Portal, a point-of-sale equipment distributor, said it now is certified by the PCI Security Standards Council as a point-to-point encryption version 2 key injection facility. Risk-management …