The Covid-19 virus is taking a fearful toll not only on lives but also on U.S. commerce, and now even everyday staples are feeling the pinch. Grocery stores saw a sharp spike in card-based purchase volume in March as consumers scrambled to lay in supplies against the rapid spread of …
Read More »Eye on Merchants: CardFlight Says Small Business Sales Down; E-Commerce Sales Growth Continues
A decline in transactions at small and mid-size businesses accelerated through March as consumers react to shelter-at-home and social-distancing precautions, according to data from point-of-sale technology provider CardFlight Inc. But their spending shifted to e-commerce in many merchant categories, finds data from Signifyd, a vendor of e-commerce fraud solutions. Sales …
Read More »Shopify Purges Thousands of Merchants for Price Gouging and Making False Covid-19 Claims
Scammers come out of the woodwork with every calamity, and it’s no different with the Covid-19 pandemic currently sweeping the world. Now e-commerce services and payments provider Shopify Inc. reports it has purged numerous merchants engaged in questionable practices related to the new coronavirus, or Covid-19. “In March, we terminated …
Read More »Consumers Warm to Digital Payments and other Digital Transactions News briefs from 4/2/20
Seventy-three percent of U.S. adults say they would be more or much more likely to use digital payments or digital banking services during a time of social distancing, according to a survey of 1,043 persons aged 18 and up by The Harris Poll on behalf of William Mills Agency. The canvass took …
Read More »Another Marriott Data Breach and other Digital Transactions News briefs from 4/1/20
In its second major data breach in two years, hotel giant Marriott International Inc. disclosed a “property system incident” affecting personal information on 5.2 million guests. Fraudsters apparently gained access to Marriott’s systems in mid-January using the login credentials of two employees at a franchised property. Marriott, which said it discovered the …
Read More »Covid-19 Cuts Priority Technologies’ Volumes, but Processor Anticipates Future Growth
Priority Technologies Holdings Inc. says that just like other merchant acquirers its payment volumes are taking a hit as consumers and businesses hunker down in reaction to the corona virus. But its chief executive insists Priority’s diversified business model provides insulation from the pandemic’s worst effects. Overall processing volumes for …
Read More »U.S. E-Commerce Growth Surges for Many Merchants Amid the Covid-19 Pandemic
Newly analyzed data from Emarsys, a digital-marketing platform, shows that U.S. e-commerce spending continues to surge in the face of the Covid-19 pandemic, with at least a 57% growth in revenue and a 45% growth in orders in the past seven days. The U.S. Northeast region shows a 57% growth …
Read More »Visa Volume Down 7% and other Digital Transactions News briefs from 3/31/20
With the coronavirus pandemic freezing economic activity in the U.S. and many other countries, Visa Inc. reported in a regulatory filing that U.S. credit card payment volume was down 7% year-over-year for the March 1-28 period while debit payments were down 1%. Cross-border volume on a constant-dollar basis was off 19%. …
Read More »EVO Payments Gets Liquidity Injection To Help It Cope with Covid-19’s Effects
Merchant acquirer EVO Payments Inc. disclosed Sunday that it had received a $150 million investment from a private-equity firm to help carry it through the Covid-19, or coronavirus, pandemic, which has decimated consumer spending. The investment came from funds affiliated with Chicago-based Madison Dearborn Partners LLC, which has been a …
Read More »Pandemic Scammers Emerge and other Digital Transactions News briefs from 3/20/20
TriNet Group Inc., a human-resources software provider, said a wave of scammers are exploiting the Covid-19 pandemic to gull people into buying so-called cures for the disease (no cure yet exists), as well as fake testing kits and vaccines.The Western Union Co. reported its digital money-transfer business “has continued to experience …
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