Fifty-nine percent of all respondents to a survey by CouponFollow LLC, a provider of discount codes for online shoppers, are doing more online shopping as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, and that jumps to 65% when looking just at the Gen-Z generation.A technology startup called BellyMelly launched a food-ordering app that lets …
Read More »Store Failures Will Spike as Merchants Wrestle With Covid-19’s Wreckage, a Researcher Predicts
Despite tentative signs of an economic recovery from the coronavirus-induced depression, some experts are forecasting a gloomy outlook for store closures as the year plays out and merchants struggle with debt loads and a consumer shift to e-commerce. At least 20,000, and as many as 25,000, stores will likely shut …
Read More »Overall Retail Sales Are in a Slump, But E-Commerce Is a Big Bright Spot
Total U.S. retail sales, including auto and fuel, will drop 10.5%, to $4.894 trillion in 2020, a total not seen since 2016, forecasts eMarketer Inc. That’s sharper than the 8.2% slump in 2009, in the midst of that recession more than 10 years ago. E-commerce, however, is the bright spot. …
Read More »Merchants Bracing for Higher Reserve Requirements From Acquirers
The economy is slowly thawing from its Covid-19 freeze-up, but many card-accepting merchants are struggling with more chargebacks stemming from canceled trips, non-delivery of goods, or other reasons. And some of them also are dealing with demands from their merchant acquirers for more cash to fund reserve accounts. Payments and …
Read More »Covid-19’s Payment Choice Impact and other Digital Transactions News briefs from 6/8/20
Fearing Covid-19, consumers are less likely to use any method to make a payment in a store these days, but 20% say they have used a smart phone or smart watch do so in the past week, no change from a year ago, even though fewer say they have used a debit …
Read More »Visa Reports Improving Volume Trends in May
U.S. payment volume growth was still in negative territory in May thanks to the Covid-19 pandemic, but the picture was brighter than it was in April, Visa Inc. reported late Monday. “In May, total U.S. payments volume declined 5% year-over-year, a 13 percentage point (ppt) improvement over April,” Visa said …
Read More »Konnect’s M-Payments Restaurant Service Debuts and other Digital Transactions News briefs from 6/2/20
Konnect Solutions Inc. introduced a mobile-payments service for restaurants that allows customers to pay inside or in drive-throughs by choosing the restaurant’s local WiFi wireless access point to view a menu, place an order, and access the restaurant’s point-of-sale system. They can pay on their phone or use options offered by …
Read More »A Majority of Online Transactions Are Now Made With Mobile Devices, comScore Finds
Mobile devices have captured more than 50% of online purchase transactions in many large countries, according to new research findings from comScore Inc. Mobile wallets, however, still account for only a minority of total mobile purchases. Reston, Va.-based comScore, which researches Internet usage, says mobile’s share of online transactions rose …
Read More »Vesta Notes $125 Million Investment and other Digital Transactions News briefs from 5/29/20
Vesta, a vendor of fraud-fighting technology, said it has received a $125 million growth-capital investment from Goldfinch Partners.Fiserv Inc. said True Sky Credit Union will move to its platform for core account processing, including access to the Zelle peer-to-peer payments network.Mastercard Inc. launched Recovery Insights, a set of data and tools aimed at …
Read More »A New Study Shows How Acquirers Can Help Merchants Recover From Covid-19’s Heavy Toll
Fully 25% of U.S. merchants that accept payment cards experienced a drop of 56% or more in card volume in April compared with February, finds a new study from The Strawhecker Group. After analyzing billions of transactions from more than 1 million card-accepting merchants across the United States, the Omaha, …
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