Mobile Commerce

Chatbot developer Kasisto Inc. has agreed to provide a so-called smartbot for Varo Money Inc., a San Francisco-based provider of a mobile-only banking app. Both the app and the bot are in beta testing and expected to launch early next year. The new bot, called Val, is based on conversational …

Consumers are making their shopping, and payments, preferences known this holiday season. They are spending 12% more on e-commerce purchases so far this shopping season than they did in 2015, reports comScore Inc. Consumers have made $49.3 billion in e-commerce purchases from Nov. 1 to Dec. 12 using a desktop computer at home …

Online commerce gets a lot of attention these days, but just how much of the retail economy in North America does it account for? The answer is 7%, according to a report released Tuesday by Boston-based researcher Aite Group. That’s accounting for all e-commerce sales as well as browser-based and …

JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s Chase Pay mobile-payments service has added an order-ahead feature that relies on functionality developed by LevelUp, a Boston-based mobile-payments and mobile-loyalty company. The new feature is available today for Chase Pay users at quick-service restaurants in Boston and will be usable at QSRs nationwide in “coming …

Few consumers like waiting in lines to pay, especially at grocery stores. One California grocery chain is taking steps to make it easier for shoppers pay for their purchases with the launch of a self-checkout app. The California Fresh Market location in San Luis Opisbo, Calif., is using Future Proof …

By John Stewart @DTPaymentNews Stripe Inc.’s latest funding round, in which the privately held San Francisco-based company nearly doubled its valuation to $9.2 billion, shows what startups can do if they’re innovating in the right sector of payments, experts say. Just six years old, Stripe provides tools for payments online …

By John Stewart @DTPaymentNews JPMorgan Chase & Co. on Monday officially launched its Chase Pay mobile app, announcing users can now download the wallet and use it to pay at more than 7,500 Starbucks Corp. outlets and at almost 1,400 Best Buy Co. Inc. stores to start with. The app, …

By Danny Shader In October 2016, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. released its 2015 National Survey of Unbanked and Underbanked Households, providing valuable insight into the demographics and banking history of the unbanked and underbanked (often collectively referred to as the “financially underserved”). Many are surprised to learn that a …

By Peter Lucas @DTPaymentNews By the numbers, at least, merchants appear to be paving the way for mobile and contactless payments to become mainstream in the United States. The installed base of terminals ready for near-field communication in the U.S. and Canada is projected to reach 9.2 million by year’s …

• Payment security technology provider MagTek Inc. and Payment Alliance International (PAI), an ATM independent sales organization and processor, said PAI now supports MagTek’s QwickCodes system for cardless transactions and will deploy it across its nationwide network of more than 74,000 ATMs. • Entertainment operator Live Nation Entertainment Inc. said mobile-ticket …