Mobile Commerce

The proliferation of smart watches, voice commerce, and vehicle-based payments has got merchants abuzz about the potential for making purchases more convenient. But securing these payments is a scattershot affair, with each provider wielding its own protocols, attendees learned at the CNP Expo this week in Orlando, Fla. Payments companies …

With each week that passes, the so-called unified buy button concept introduced by the major card networks last month takes on more definition, but despite all the discussion, the idea of an online checkout shared by multiple payment networks remains too vague—and too futuristic—to suit some expert observers. “I keep …

The movie-ticketing app Atom Tickets has struck a deal with Landmark Theatres, said to be the country’s largest exhibitor of independent films, to add the company’s 53 theaters and 255 screens in 27 markets across the country. The deal will boost Atom Tickets’ coverage that includes more than 20,000 screens …

Apple Inc.’s move to create a new Apple Pay credit card with Goldman Sachs Group Inc. may or may not help boost usage of the mobile-payments service, but one thing it is likely to do is cement Apple’s ties with the thousands of banks that support the service, observers say. …

An airline trade group has teamed up with Germany’s Deutsche Bank to develop a payment system that would bypass the credit card networks, potentially saving users billions in interchange. The proposal comes from the International Air Transport Association, which says it has 280 members representing 83% of air traffic. The …

E-commerce attacks increased 93% in the first quarter of 2018 in comparison to the same quarter a year ago, finds the Q1 2018 Cybercrime Report from ThreatMetrix, a unit of LexisNexis Risk Solutions. Based on an analysis of 210 million attacks ThreatMetrix detected and stopped on behalf of its clients, …

Strong consumer spending and a benign world economy worked in Mastercard Inc.’s favor in the first quarter, lifting the network’s U.S. purchase volume by nearly 11% and profits by over 30%. The No. 2 payment card network by volume on Wednesday reported that U.S. purchase volume rose 11% to $359 …

With digital-payments providers emerging all over the world to serve local and international consumers, the search is on for synchronized, standardized networks to transfer funds cross-border. Ripple, the San Francisco-based provider of distributed-ledger payments, says it has the answer, and late last week five payments services overseas signed on to …

Since its founding nine years ago, Square Inc. has focused on simplified checkout options and software for small brick-and-mortar merchants. With its acquisition of Weebly Inc., announced late Thursday, San Francisco-based Square is not only staging a major expansion into e-commerce, it’s also laying the groundwork for a significant outreach …

Visa Inc. isn’t about to pull the plug on Visa Checkout, but judging from comments Visa’s top executives made Wednesday, the online and mobile-payment service’s long-term outlook looks quite iffy. The future of both Visa Checkout and Mastercard Inc.’s Masterpass equivalent was called into question last week when The Wall …