Digital Transactions Authoritative, insightful and timely information for payments professionals
From continued interchange challenges to pokey transactions to uppity merchants, the payments business has a full agenda of pesky problems. Here’s our look at the latest crop, ranked in order of gnarliness. By John Stewart and Jim Daly If it is true that what doesn’t kill us makes us stronger, …
Read More »Search Results for: restaurants
Isis Launches with Nearly 1,000 Merchant Locations, Nine Smart Phones
The carrier-backed Isis mobile-payment service debuted in a low-key launch Monday in Austin, Texas, and Salt Lake City with almost 1,000 merchant locations participating and its near-field communication (NFC) system workable on nine smart-phone models. Digital Transactions News counted 493 merchant locations in the Salt Lake area and 470 in Austin, for …
Read More »Groupon Supplements Its New Payment Service With the iPad-based Breadcrumb System
n Online daily-deal leader Groupon Inc. followed up on its big payments announcement of last month with Wednesday’s national rollout of its Breadcrumb service, a point-of-sale system for restaurants, cafes, and bars centered on Apple Inc.’s iPad tablet computer. n Breadcrumb itself is not a payments service, but is …
Read More »M-Commerce: Stop Pushing Payments. Start Building Commerce
Why aren’t consumers all that excited about mobile payments? Maybe it’s because providers are focusing on payments when what consumers want is a lot broader than that. Call it an Integrated App. By René M. Pelegero Remember the days when we had to look at newspapers to find out which …
Read More »Wal-Mart Just One of Many Merchants Behind MCX, Best Buy Exec Says
Merchant Customer Exchange, the planned mobile-payments network by and for retailers, is more than an interchange play controlled by Wal-Mart Stores Inc., according to an executive whose company is represented on the nascent network’s board of directors. Stephanie Swain, senior director of financial services at electronics retailer Best Buy Co. …
Read More »On One-Year Anniversary, Heartland Says ‘Durbin Dollars’ Helping Merchants, Consumers
Almost universally derided by banks and payment card networks, the Durbin Amendment debit card interchange price controls that took effect a year ago Monday have received mixed reviews from merchant acquirers. But one big acquirer that made Durbin a key part of its sales and retention efforts early on, Heartland …
Read More »Trends & Tactics: Open-Loop Prepaid Gains Ground
Open-loop prepaid cards are slowly but steadily gaining market share and now account for nearly 40% of the market, but closed-loop prepaid cards, especially gift cards, remain highly popular with consumers. The 9th annual study of the prepaid card market by Mercator Advisory Group Inc., released in August, shows volumes …
Read More »Components: Pen vs. PIN
Jane Adler Visa and some card issuers are pushing signature authentication for EMV chip cards, but merchants prefer PINs. So who will win? As financial institutions slowly roll out smart cards in the United States while processors struggle to meet looming deadlines for acceptance, a heated industry debate over authentication …
Read More »How E-gifts Can Be a Catalyst for Mobile Payments
David Douglas Stone Looking for an early sign of success for mobile commerce? Check out the linkage of digital gift cards and mobile devices. To say that “mobile payments” is the pervasive buzz phrase du jour would be an understatement. The mobile-payments ecosystem is getting more complex, not less, and …
Read More »Daily-Deal Leader Groupon Makes Its Play for Mobile Payments
The crowded mobile-payments space for small merchants just got more cramped as daily-deal leader Groupon Inc. announced its new Groupon Payments service for merchants using Apple Inc.’s iPhone and iPod touch devices to accept credit and debit cards. Groupon is coming in with low card-acceptance prices and aiming to leverage …
Read More »