Marketing

The word “block” may have a number of meanings, but for Square Inc. it could mean a stronger emphasis on blockchain. That’s how some observers interpret the company’s announcement Wednesday afternoon that it is changing its name effective Dec. 10 to Block Inc., a dozen years after its founding as …

Online checkouts remain a challenge for many merchants as 40% report cart abandonment as more than a minor issue and 41% say fraudulent transactions have risen since the pandemic set in, according to Paysafe Ltd.’s “Lost in Transaction” report.PayPal Holdings Inc. said merchants on the Wix.com Ltd. e-commerce platform can offer …

Merchant services company Stax has acquired CardX LLC, a Chicago-based surcharging provider, in an effort to better meet demand for surcharging, especially among enterprise clients. Terms were not disclosed. The deal is the third of 2021 for Orlando, Fla.-based Stax, whose parent company is Fattmerchant . Founded in 2013, CardX has …

Buy now, pay later spending in the United States through provider Afterpay Ltd. has risen 230% in the past 12 months, with a 34% increase year-over-year during the Black Friday through Cyber Monday period, the company said. Square Inc.’s acquisition of Afterpay, announced in August, is expected to close in the first quarter next …

Waitr Holdings Inc., an ordering and delivery platform for restaurants, has agreed to offer the Harbortouch point-of-sale system from payments provider Shift4 Payments Inc. to Waitr’s 26,000 clients.Payments provider Nuvei Corp. said a subsidiary has won approval to provide payment processing to support daily fantasy sports and sports-wagering operators in Louisiana. The …

Strong early holiday spending slightly curtailed consumer spending over the Thanksgiving weekend, according to reports from Adobe Inc. Consumers spent $4.5 billion online on Saturday, down 4.3% from a year ago, and $4.7 billion online the following day, down 0.5% from the same period a year ago. But Adobe is predicting consumers will …

Jack Dorsey, chief executive of both Square Inc. and Twitter Inc., is stepping down effective immediately as chief executive of social-media platform Twitter, Dorsey posted on Twitter. He will be succeeded by Twitter chief technology officer Parag Agrawal.E-commerce holiday shopping on the Monday following Thanksgiving—known as Cyber Monday—will increase 21% over the same day …

Paycast Inc., a payments provider for online merchants, e-commerce platforms, and marketplaces, is partnering with Marqeta Inc. and Mastercard Inc. to launch a digital card product for marketplace sellers. The card will enable marketplace sellers to have immediate access to funds from the proceeds of a sale once the transaction …

As real-time payments cements itself as a payments fixture, bank processors are enthusiastically signing new clients to provide the speedy payment service. Financial-institution processor Jack Henry & Associates Inc., in particular, has been enrolling merchants at a rapid pace in The Clearing House Payment Co. LLC’s Real Time Payments network. …

Consumer concerns about slow deliveries and worldwide inventory issues means some 45% of holiday-season spending this year will go to gift cards, according to survey results from consumers in 10 countries gathered by Blackhawk Network Holdings Inc. That represents a 27% increase in gift card spending from last year’s holidays, Blackhawk says. …