Mobile Commerce

The arms race in the tablet-based point-of-sale market heated up on Friday with Zing’s launch of its Register application. Built for Apple Inc.’s iPad, the software-as-a-service product includes integrations with e-commerce platform Bigcommerce and email-marketing provider MailChimp on top of the expected payment-processing services. Further integrations with Intuit Inc.’s QuickBooks …

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 …

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 …

PayPal Inc. enjoyed a solid quarter of growth despite what eBay Inc. chief executive John Donahoe characterized Wednesday as a “challenging” first half. One of the biggest of these challenges, according to Donahoe, was a data breach that occurred in late February or early March and that led PayPal parent …

  Bluetooth low energy beacons will play a key role in a mobile payment and loyalty service being developed by SK Planet Inc. and DoubleBeam Inc. that promises easier mobile payments and offer redemption. The beacons connect Bluetooth low energy-compatible smart phones with DoubleBeam’s GoPago tablet-based point-of-sale system. Now in …

Virtually non-existent seven years ago, the smart phone is steadily establishing its place as perhaps the most rapidly adopted consumer electronic device in U.S. history. Some 70% of U.S. mobile subscribers—or 169 million people—owned one by the end of May, up from 66% just since February, according to the latest …

  Rumors from the past few years that Amazon.com Inc. was building a smart phone bore fruit Wednesday when the online retailer revealed the Amazon Fire, a mobile device built to ease the mobile commerce experience on its Web site. It may herald another way to shop Amazon, but it …

With its abrupt move over the weekend to discontinue mobile remote capture of checks, PayPal Inc. has puzzled payments experts and vexed at least some users. Some PayPal devotees took to Twitter on Sunday to post their reactions, which were generally negative. “I was told today you all won't be …

Best known for providing wireless card payments for vending machines and unattended locations such as coin laundries, USA Technologies Inc. (USAT) is challenging Square Inc. and other mobile-payments providers in a move to get more mileage out of its specialty processing system. After introducing its mobile services last year, the …