Criminals were able to infiltrate another point-of-sale system, this one used by Cheddar’s Scratch Kitchen, a unit of Darden Restaurants. Announced Wednesday, the breach involved Cheddar’s locations in 23 states. Payment card information, including card numbers, from consumers who used them at Cheddar’s restaurants between Nov. 3, 2017, and Jan. …

It has never been easy following the payments business. We know. We’ve been doing it for a living, in one publishing incarnation or another, for the better part of three decades, including 15 years with this magazine. The reason is not hard to figure out. The business is complicated to …

Amazon.com Inc. may not have a lock on the concept of a checkout-free store. A San Francisco-based startup company called Zippin said on Monday it has opened a store that lets consumers walk in, pick up the items they want to buy, and simply walk out. Zippin’s technology tracks what …

Malicious attacks on payments systems come in a bewildering array of shapes and sizes, making it a nettlesome problem figuring out which types of attack require the most defensive resources. Yet, the stakes could be highest in the United States, where the average cost per breach, at $225, is one …

Will Square Inc. apply for a national banking charter, now that the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency has opened the door to financial-technology firms? As of late Wednesday, the answer remains unclear. “We’re really well-positioned to broaden access to the financial system, which is our core purpose,” said …

Restaurant-services specialist LevelUp is being sold to Grubhub Inc. for $390 million. Announced Wednesday, the deal weds Boston-based LevelUp, with its expertise in digital ordering, payment, and loyalty, with Grubhub’s online and mobile food-ordering services. Chicago-based Grubhub also owns the Seamless, Eat24, AllMenus, and MenuPages brands. The deal is an …

With hopes of providing merchants with a lower-cost network to make and accept electronic payments, startup MakeCents announced Friday a test of its blockchain-based platform. New York City-based MakeCents says its decentralized platform is designed to “disrupt the $420 trillion global payments infrastructure by leveraging its blockchain technology to connect …

What do diners want most when they go out to eat? Apparently, easy ordering and payment. That’s the big takeaway in the “Restaurant Digital Crossroads: The Race to Meet Guest Expectations” report released Thursday. Hassle-free ordering and payment are especially important to younger consumers, defined as those between 18 and 37 …

Macy’s Inc. disclosed that criminals were able to breach sensitive data on Macys.com, the Detroit Free Press reported. Citing a letter sent to customers, the newspaper said Macy’s detected suspicious activity on June 11. The retailer then blocked customer profiles that appeared to be breached. Hackers were able to get …

Backed by cloud-based networks, tablet POS systems scramble to find the preferred configuration for merchants. Eight years on, the notion of tablets as the future of point-of-sale systems can be dispelled. Specifically, the form factor is not the critical element in the ascendancy of POS systems and how they connect …