Competitive Strategies

Visa Inc. on Friday reported that it had signed a definitive agreement to buy privately-held TrialPay Inc., provider of an offers platform that connects merchants with consumers through targeted promotions. Visa will integrate TrialPay into its portfolio of services for merchants beyond pure payment processing. Financial terms of the pending …

For years, merchants like Amazon.com Inc. and Apple Inc. have streamlined online payments by letting consumers charge stored credit cards with a single click, using a technique called card on file. Now, a similar concept is coming to carrier billing, the payment method used by merchants to charge online purchases …

Funding for small businesses has been an increasingly important source of revenue for independent sales organizations and other merchant acquirers, but they’re not the only parties that have noticed the market’s lucrative potential. Now, banking-technology vendors and even large merchants are getting into the game. Jack Henry & Associates Inc., …

Many merchant-services executives have complained for years about so-called margin compression, a relentless loss of profitability driven by competition on price per transaction. But now two researchers argue acquirer profitability, far from collapsing, is actually much better than widely thought. “There has been a lot of talk about margin compression, …

When Google Inc. launched its Google Wallet mobile-payments service nearly four years ago, it quickly ran into a formidable obstacle: three major mobile carriers, including two of the nation’s largest, wouldn’t let Google Wallet work on their phones. Now Google has finally found a solution, and it’s one that could …

There’s a simple reason why Samsung Electronics America Inc. bought LoopPay Inc.: It wants a “truly digital wallet.” That’s the reason given by David Eun, Samsung executive vice president and head of the mega-corporation’s investment unit, Samsung Global Innovation Center. “We have a shared vision to inspire users to transition …

Heartland Payment Systems Inc. is building a point-of-sale system reseller network in hopes it will increase the number of multiple products sold to a single merchant. Announced Friday, the program is part of Heartland Commerce, and signals a shift in Heartland’s selling strategy. The company will no longer use a …

Visa Inc. on Thursday said it is expanding the availability of its Visa Checkout online and mobile wallet to 13 more nations beyond the three original ones. Starting today, consumers in Argentina, Chile, Peru, Mexico, New Zealand, South Africa, and China can use Visa Checkout to pay for purchases on …

Merchants using Leaf, a tablet-based point-of-sale system that its owner Heartland Payment Systems Inc. is winding down, will continue to be supported, but there will be no further sales of the system, Leaf president Sarah McCrary tells Digital Transactions News. The expense and complication of supporting hardware to accept chip …

LoopPay Inc., the mobile payments company that relies on magnetic fields to connect devices to point-of-sale terminals, has a new owner: Samsung Electronics America Inc. The deal, announced in an email to LoopPay users, all but confirms that smart-phone maker Samsung has plans to launch what has been a much-rumored …