Crowdfunding organizations that work with payment service provider WePay Inc., and have integrated WePay’s application programming interface into their Web sites, are creating $1.5 million in daily payments for the Palo Alto, Calif.-based company. That is three times more than two years ago, WePay says. n WePay, founded in 2008, …
Read More »Retailer Beyond the Rack Signs Up for the MasterPass Online Wallet
Online retailer Beyond the Rack is among the latest retailers to accept MasterCard Inc.’s MasterPass digital wallet service on its e-commerce site, the card brand recently announced. Beyond the Rack is a members-only online retailer that sells apparel and accessories. MasterPass is a wallet platform enables mobile payments by …
Read More »A More Inclusive American Express Paints Its Serve Prepaid Card Program Blue
Taking a cue from its Bluebird prepaid card for customers of Wal-Mart Stores Inc., American Express Co. today relaunched its Serve prepaid card with new features, more reload locations, and new retailer partners along with no reload fees at 14,000 7-Eleven and CVS/pharmacy locations, and a $1 monthly fee that …
Read More »Phishing Attacks Drop, But Brand Targets Soar As Phishers Cast More Lines
Phishers are casting their lines at more brands in hopes of luring Internet users into divulging data that they can use fraudulently, according to a new study from the Anti-Phishing Working Group (APWG). According to the study, which covers the first half of 2013, criminals targeted 720 brands, up almost …
Read More »Chirpify’s New Service Extends Hashtags Beyond Social Media for Payments
Social-media payments specialist Chirpify on Thursday introduced a service that lets marketers promote hashtags on a wide variety of media to solicit purchases. The so-called action tags can appear on TV or radio commercials, in print advertising, or on billboards and then be used on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram, the …
Read More »As Biometrics Picks up Steam, Jumio Adds Facial Recognition to ID Verification
With static passwords losing more and more effectiveness as an authentication method, biometric identification is regaining momentum after years on the sidelines. A recent major example of this resurgence is Apple Inc.’s introduction this month of its new iPhone 5S, which features a fingerprint sensor to unlock the device. The …
Read More »Surging M-Commerce Could Eclipse $25 Billion in Sales in 2013, comScore Forecasts
In a sign of the increasing significance of mobile commerce in the U.S. economy, comScore Inc. reported on Tuesday that remote m-commerce sales totaled $10.6 billion in the first half of the year, or about 10% of total online volume, including desktop e-commerce. ComScore forecasts that online spending on mobile …
Read More »Amazon Payments ‘Lite’ Debuts To Appeal to Online Sellers Looking for Easier Integration
Looking to attract more small businesses that just want to process online payments, e-commerce kingpin Amazon.com Inc. is rolling out a new, streamlined version of its 6-year-old Amazon Payments service. The new platform, which includes a simplified application programming interface, front-end widgets, and a testing “sandbox,” minimizes integration time by …
Read More »Shopify Launches Payments Service To Ease Online Sales for Small Sellers
Shopify Inc. hopes to lure small online sellers by the thousands to its e-commerce platform by making the typically vexatious business of taking payments as easy as possible. On Monday, the Ottawa-based company announced Shopify Payments, a service that lets Web merchants sign up to accept a broad range of …
Read More »As It Gains Greater Utility, Virtual Currency No Longer Just Plays Games
By Jim Daly The U.S. virtual-currency market grew 52% in 2012 and this year it could more than double to $10.9 billion in purchases, according to a new report from Javelin Strategy & Research. What’s more, virtual currency is moving beyond its online-game moorings and into more real-world settings, though …
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