Competitive Strategies

Some 19% of consumers participating in a recent survey said they have made a product purchase through Amazon.com Inc.’s Echo or a similar voice-controlled device within the past year. The finding is noted in the Future of Retail 2017 report from Chicago-based Walker Sands Communications, a digital marketing services and …

Mastercard Inc. acquired Brighterion Inc., a software company specializing in artificial intelligence that Mastercard expects will enhance its customer-experience and fraud-prevention services for customers. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. PayPal Holdings Inc. and Visa Inc. extended to Europe a collaboration deal first announced last summer. Under the agreement, PayPal’s European operation will promote …

Just over 6 billion payment cards now bear the UnionPay logo, and in 2016 the Chinese network accounted for 43% of all general-purpose credit and debit cards in the world, up from 41% in 2015, according to new findings from London-based Retail Banking Research. RBR estimates the worldwide payment card …

Visa Inc.’s “Cashless Challenge” campaign to promote electronic payments is not finding much support from the ATM industry, to put it mildly. Last week, Visa announced the campaign, which will award up to $500,000 to 50 eligible U.S. food-service owners who convert their point-of-sale systems to electronic payments only. Visa …

Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. said users of its Samsung Pay mobile wallet will be able to add PayPal as a payment method, and PayPal Holdings Inc.’s Braintree unit will make Samsung Pay available to merchants via its Braintree Direct service. PayPal will be available within Samsung Pay for in-app, online, and in-store transactions. The …

Merchant processor Vantiv Inc. said it is developing e-commerce payments and security extensions for the Magento 1 and Magento 2 platforms operated by Magento Commerce. Vantiv last week agreed to acquire U.K.-based processor Worldpay Group plc for $9.9 billion, in part to beef up its e-commerce business. Florida-based merchant-service provider Fattmerchant said its flat-rate pricing model …

As the nation’s automated clearing house network gears up to introduce same-day debits in September, observers are warning that faster processing is likely to open the door to more fraud unless businesses and financial institutions adopt new policies. Some caution the ACH network’s experience so far with same-day credits, which …

Gulf Pay, the mobile payment app from Gulf Oil L.P., is offering consumers who link their Discover cards to the app a 15-cents per gallon discount through Oct. 15. The promotion, announced Thursday, is valid at participating stations in New England and New York. Gulf Oil announced Gulf Pay in …

With the growth of payment-facilitator programs and integrated payments, merchant-service companies are expanding services to take advantage of the trends. The latest is Payroc LLC, which on Wednesday announced it has enhanced both its payments gateway and payment-facilitator program. Payfac programs, as they’re called, allow a merchant-service provider to aggregate …

Flywire Corp., a processor specializing in education payments and other cross-border transactions, said it notched “record results” over the past year in payments processed and students and institutions served. Among other results, the company said it added 300 schools, bringing its total to more than 1,300. REcoin, an emerging cryptocurrency intended …