Digital Transactions Authoritative, insightful and timely information for payments professionals
Payment processor First Data Corp. has acquired Spree Commerce, a provider of open-source software for 45,000 e-commerce storefronts. The addition of Bethesda, Md.-based Spree could bolster First Data as it competes with processors and tech providers for more business in the fast-growing world of online retailing. “Spree is at the …
Read More »As Criminals Redouble Their Efforts, Merchants Sustain an Eye-Popping Jump in Fraud
Merchants contend with fraud all the time, but the 2015 edition of the LexisNexis True Cost of Fraud study has found that their fraud costs are tallying 1.32% of revenue in 2015, a whopping 94% increase from the 0.68% rate in 2014. All categories of merchants in the LexisNexis Risk …
Read More »Only 27% of Merchants Are EMV Ready, but a Surge May Be Coming
Expectations of easily getting merchants ready to accept EMV credit and debit cards appear to be misaligned with the reality of the terminalization program. That’s one finding from a survey released Thursday by The Strawhecker Group, an Omaha, Neb.-based payments consultancy. To accept EMV chip cards, merchants must have compatible …
Read More »In Its Early Going, Apple’s Watch Appears To Be Giving a Modest Lift to Apple Pay
By Jim Daly Ask owners of Apple Inc.’s new Apple Watch what they like about their high-tech wearable, and they put notifications and Apple’s health-and-fitness monitoring app at the top of the list. Coming in at No. 7 of their likes is the Apple Pay mobile-payments service, according to new …
Read More »Consumers Know EMV Is Coming, They’re Just Not Sure What It’s All About
By Kevin Woodward Consumers know their credit and debit cards are changing, they’re just not sure exactly what is happening. That’s one of the findings from a survey released by payments provider Harbortouch. In the survey of 18,000 U.S. consumers, 89.4% said they were aware of the transition from magnetic …
Read More »America: Visa’s Unlikely EMV Leader
Americans like to say their country is No. 1. Now, according to Visa Inc., America is No. 1 in a most unlikely category: EMV chip cards. According to figures Visa released Tuesday, some 141.9 million EMV credit and debit Visa cards were in issue in the U.S. as of August, …
Read More »With Its Relay API, Stripe Enlists in Effort to Drive up Conversion Rates in M-Commerce
By John Stewart With conversion rates dismally low in mobile commerce, technology players have been working to streamline transactions with tools that let shoppers buy with as few clicks as possible and while staying within an app. Late Monday, online processor Stripe Inc. joined that effort with Relay, an application …
Read More »As the Liability Shift Rapidly Approaches, Free Can Be a Smart EMV Terminal Motivator
With fewer than 300,000 merchant locations ready for EMV chip card transactions—according to Visa Inc.—efforts to get merchants to upgrade to the more fraud-resistant point-of-sale terminals take on greater importance. For example, iPad-based POS system maker ShopKeep.com Inc. last week began offering merchants a free contactless reader that also accepts …
Read More »Marketing Strategies Can Help Lower Merchant-Acquisition Costs for ISOs
How much does it cost to acquire a merchant? On average, $693. That’s the word from Adil Consulting, an Omaha, Neb.-based firm specializing in merchant acquiring. That figure, as an average, is highly influenced by a number of variables, Adil Moussa, principal, tells Digital Transactions News. Banks, for example, have …
Read More »Under Payments Vet Averett, AcceptEmail Brings Email-Based Bill Pay to the U.S.
AcceptEmail Inc., an Amsterdam-based bill-payment company, is bringing its service to the United States, and has hired a former bill-payment executive to head its North American efforts. Demand for faster payments and the ability to make mobile bill payments aids AcceptEmail’s North American push, says Peter Kwakernaak, chief executive of …
Read More »