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 …
Read More »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 …
Read More »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 …
Read More »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 …
Read More »With New York’s BitLicense Final, Finance Boss Wants Payments Out of the ‘Disco Era’
New York State’s controversial BitLicense—the nation’s first regulations for virtual currency—are now final, and they’ve got some people on the cutting edge of payments worried about government interference. But Benjamin Lawsky, the official who oversaw the BitLicense’s development, said Wednesday that he hopes intelligent regulation can help modernize what he …
Read More »MasterPass and Visa Checkout Announcements Highlight Digital Progress for Visa, MasterCard
By John Stewart Wednesday’s announcement by MasterCard Inc. that its MasterPass digital-payments service has signed up home-furnishings and décor e-retailer Wayfair, along with several Wayfair properties and mobile apps, threw into relief the progress the two giant general-purpose card networks are making in e-commerce and in-app payments. Once the province …
Read More »VeriFone’s North American Revenues Jump 54%, but Top Brass Insists It’s Not All EMV
Sales in VeriFone Systems Inc.’s North America region jumped 54% in the quarter ended April 30 to $193 million from $125.3 million a year earlier, the payment-processing equipment maker reported Thursday. The big driver was the conversion of U.S. merchants’ point-of-sale terminals ahead of an October deadline for the devices …
Read More »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 …
Read More »Seeking to Deliver a Cross-Channel View, VeriFone Cuts CyberSource Deal With Visa
Two dominant payments companies—Visa Inc. and VeriFone Systems Inc.—are teaming up to better secure the varying ways consumers shop across digital and face-to-face channels. Announced Wednesday, the deal lets San Jose, Calif.-based VeriFone, which makes point-of-sale hardware and security products, gain access to Visa’s CyberSource platform that global merchants use …
Read More »JetPay And Rezzcard Team up to Tap Affordable-Housing Rent With a Prepaid Card
Rezzcard, a provider of payments services for tenants in affordable housing, has teamed with processor JetPay Corp. to offer a Visa-branded prepaid card, called the MAC card, as well as a mobile app, to tenants living in public, Section 8, tax-credit-subsidized, and workforce-housing developments. The Rezzcard app enables users to …
Read More »