Digital Transactions Authoritative, insightful and timely information for payments professionals
U.S. consumers shopping online in the first quarter of 2015 used smart phones to place 18% of all online orders. That’s according to the Demandware Shopping Index. Demandware Inc. is a Burlington, Mass.-based e-commerce platform. The index found that smart phones, too, accounted for 38% of the overall Web traffic …
June, 2015
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10 June
Bitcoin Users Match Stereotype, But Are Wealthier, Adopt Later, Than Thought
By John Stewart The digital currency Bitcoin has attracted plenty of headlines, and has even gained enough of a foothold economically to prompt regulation, with the state of New York introducing the first BitLicense last week. But while the Bitcoin concept may be spreading its wings, the Bitcoin user base …
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10 June
Merchant Attrition Dipped in 2014 But Larger ISOs And Acquirers Saw Less Benefit
Merchant attrition fell to 21% in 2014, down from 22% in 2013, reflecting continuing merchant use of specialty point-of-sale software that helps them run their businesses in addition to enabling payment acceptance, finds a report from Adil Consulting. The report, “Merchant Attrition: Strategies, Tactics, Best Practices & Industry Benchmarking,” examines …
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9 June
How Targeting Criminals’ Sky-High ROI Can Help Thwart Online Fraud
Criminals targeting payment card data have a very hefty incentive, suggests the Trustwave 2015 Global Security Report. How much of an incentive? The return on investment in one example is 1,425%. Released Tuesday, the report quantifies the return on investment for a common type of online fraud, suggesting strategies to …
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8 June
Apple Pay: New Square Readers; Retailer Loyalty Programs Support; U.K. Expansion
Merchant processor Square Inc. is about to introduce a card reader that supports Apple Inc.’s Apple Pay mobile-payment service, Apple announced Monday. Apple Pay also will support retailers’ loyalty programs, according to Jennifer Bailey, Apple Inc.’s vice president of Internet services. The announcements came at the start of Apple’s Worldwide …
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8 June
ACH Network Volume Climbs 5 percent in First Quarter As ‘Native Electronic’ Items Sizzle
By John Stewart As participants in the 40-year-old automated clearing house network get ready to implement same-day clearing capability, network growth continues to percolate, according to the latest numbers from NACHA, the Herndon, Va.-based rules-setting organization for the ACH. Transactions totaled 4.72 billion in the first quarter, an increase of …
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8 June
As Debit Issuing Lags, Don’t Expect Debit and Credit EMV Parity Any Time Soon
Consumers this fall will begin to dip a lot of EMV credit cards into EMV-compatible point-of-sale terminals, but not so many EMV debit cards. That’s the assessment from Mercator Advisory Group Inc. in its “Prediction for the U.S. Migration to EMV Debit Cards” report released last week. By Oct. 1, …
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8 June
Revolving Credit Took a Big Jump in April, New Federal Reserve Data Show
Judging from new Federal Reserve data, April was a month of joy for merchants and credit card issuers as consumers spent more on their credit cards, but for consumer advocates and financial advisors it may have been a month of angst as they saw foolish consumers take on too much …
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4 June
Declaring ‘No More Transaction Fees,’ Long-Time Fee Critic Dwolla Erases 25-Cent Levy
By John Stewart Dwolla Inc. announced Thursday morning it is eliminating its 25-cent transaction fee, effective immediately, on all transactions types. The fee, which has applied to transaction values exceeding $10, is typically paid by the receiver of the money. Des Moines, Iowa-based Dwolla processes person-to-person payments as well as …
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4 June
Eye on Tablets: Revel Systems Makes Connection, and Vend Receives Apple OK
Two iPad-based point-of-sale system providers have made announcements that, in one instance, provide another connectivity option, and in the other, puts the spotlight on the company. Revel Systems has released a wired Internet option for its iPad-based point-of-sale product, enabling the WiFi-only device to have another connectivity option. The Revel …