E-Commerce

Days after the end of the 2025 holiday shopping season, Fiserv Inc. notes modest gains in its monthly Small Business Index, with a one-point increase to 144 in December from November. Fiserv notes consumers shopping at small businesses tended to focus on the essentials and selective discretionary spending. That slight …

The U.S.-based payments-technology company Flutterwave Inc. announced it has acquired open-banking tech specialist Mono Technologies Nigeria Ltd. in an effort to support alternative payments across the African continent. Terms were not announced. SoundHound AI Inc., a specialist in conversational AI technology, said its Amelia 7 agentic AI technology will allow users inside …

[Aug. 14] As artificial intelligence use builds in the commercial world, its manifestations in consumer-facing payments applications continue to emerge. The latest developments include processor Worldpay using Trulioo’s identity technology for AI-enabled measures in agentic commerce and Pushpay’s introduction of AI tools for ministry leaders. Worldpay, which is expected to be …

[Aug. 14] Credit card usage and cardholder satisfaction decline when merchants levy a surcharge to offset their card-acceptance costs, J.D. Power’s 2025 U.S. Credit Card Satisfaction study finds. When consumers are levied a surcharge, satisfaction scores drop 39 points to 602 on a 1,000-point scale, compared to consumers that have not …

Venzee Technologies Inc. announced it closed on its $2.1 million ($2.875 million Canadian) acquisition of the Jasper software as a service product information management solution business from Canada-based Digital Commerce Payments Inc. The software serves e-commerce merchants and platforms. The closing follows the announcement of the deal Oct. 31. BitMart, a …

[Aug. 15] The percentage of consumers purchasing gift cards has gone up and is expected to increase yet more this year, finds a new report Bank of America Corp. commissioned from TSG, a payments advisory firm. The report found that 38% of respondents purchased a digital gift card in 2024, up …

[Aug. 15] Routable, a San Francisco-based accounts-payable platform provider, has expanded its support for real-time payments through connectivity to FedNow, the Federal Reserve’s 2-year-old real-time payments platform.  With the addition of FedNow, Routable says its customers have the ability to send instant payments to as many as 85% of bank …

[Aug. 12] Stablecoin giant Circle Internet Group Inc. early Tuesday unveiled Arc, a new payments platform aimed at major money flows, including foreign exchange. The new service, part of the existing Circle Payments Network, will speed up foreign exchange while offering what the company calls “sub-second instant finality” in settlement, the …

[Aug. 13] Buy now, pay later platform Affirm Holdings Inc. has expanded its partnership with Stripe Inc. to make its BNPL services available to in-store shoppers through the Stripe terminal. Stripe, which has deployed more than a million terminals, is making Affirm available as a payment method to physical merchants in …

Currys, a United Kingdom-based technology retailer, formed a new partnership with Stripe Inc. that will see Stripe point-of-sale terminals installed in the merchant’s nearly 300 stores. The global credit card market is forecasted to grow in transaction value from $14.83 trillion in 2025 to $17.73 trillion in 2030, according to a report from Mordor …