E-Commerce

In its latest move toward becoming a force in electronic payments, social network Twitter Inc. reported Monday that it is starting a test allowing members to make purchases via tweets from 28 partners that include merchants, rock bands and non-profits. “For a small percentage of U.S. users (that will grow …

Bitcoin Shop Inc. runs an e-commerce marketplace offering about 140,000 products, which on the face of it isn’t all that remarkable. What sets the 1-year-old site apart, though, is that it accepts only digital currency. No cards or bank-account transfers, please, just Bitcoin, Dogecoin, and Litecoin. But Arlington, Va.-based Bitcoin …

Visa Inc. on Wednesday said eight merchant acquirers and e-commerce platform providers will be rolling out the 1-month-old Visa Checkout online and mobile payment service. With three platform providers already offering the service, up to 4 million U.S. online merchants will be able use Visa Checkout, Visa claims. The acquirers …

Citigroup Inc. claims to have become the first global bank to introduce its own branded wallet in the U.S. The question now is how much Citi’s millions of payment card holders will care as digital-wallet services proliferate. The new Citi Wallet announced Monday is based on MasterCard Inc.’s MasterPass platform, …

Zooz Mobile Ltd. is preparing to launch in September a transaction-routing engine that will let so-called omnichannel merchants run payments for e-commerce, mobile commerce, and in-store commerce through a single pipe. The engine, tentatively called the Omnichannel Generator, will seek out the optimal path for each transaction, allowing merchants to …

Visa Inc. moved on Thursday to commercialize mobile payments using cloud-based near-field communication technology with its release of Visa Cloud Payment Solutions. A related development, the announcement of the upcoming debut of a tokenization service, is aimed at locking down cloud-based NFC and other digital payments. The new services include …

Without fanfare, Amazon.com Inc. last week introduced a trial version of its first digital wallet. The free Android app, known as Amazon Wallet, has been available since July 17 on Amazon’s own App Store and on Google Play. It is also available pre-installed on Amazon’s recently unveiled smart phone, the …

After beefing up its bill-payment services through two acquisitions in 2013, ACI Worldwide Inc. is now turning its attention to fraud prevention. The Naples, Fla.-based payments-software firm on Monday announced that it plans to buy prominent e-commerce fraud-detection and prevention services provider Retail Decisions Plc (ReD) for $205 million in …

Twitter Inc. and Facebook Inc. both made moves in the electronic-payments space this week, but analysts question whether the giant social networks are preparing frontal assaults on the payments industry. Menlo Park, Calif.-based Facebook on Thursday revealed that it is testing a “Buy” button that will let members buy products directly …

Visa Inc. says its new online payment service, Visa Checkout, should help improve conversion rates for e-commerce retailers by making it easier for consumers to pay. The service, available in the United States, Canada and Australia, enables consumers to pay online on any device, Visa says. Visa Checkout replaces the …