Merchant

Most small U.S. companies don't have the brand awareness in China to stand out among the millions of goods on Alibaba's websites. Alibaba is the virtual mall that houses the brands, but sellers are in charge of production and distribution with little clarity on the demand for their wares.

Getting a new payment terminal with advanced capabilities is not unlike getting a new phone or computer with its bells and whistles — there's so many new features that some will no doubt go ignored.

Passengers are warming to non-travel mobile payments, and the technology is advancing to enable mobile payments in flight, writes Kristian Gjerding, CEO of CellPoint Mobile.

The $13.7 billion acquisition could have significant implications for swipe-fee revenue and other grocers' in-store branches. It also raises the question of whether the Seattle e-commerce goliath will soon set its sights on the financial services industry.

Until now, Amazon's moves seemed like cautious pokes at the deeply ingrained habit of going to a store and paying with a plastic card. Furthermore, any competitors may have seen Amazon's lacking retail store presence as a buffer that kept them at least temporarily safe from the same fate that befell the bookselling world. How naive they were.

Amazon is working aggressively to change the way people shop — especially in the grocery space — but not all of its activities focus on products and store design. The e-commerce giant has also influenced a lot about how people use their payment cards.

Amazon has been making some aggressive moves in the grocery industry in recent months, but perhaps none so aggressive as its just-announced deal to buy Whole Foods for $13.7 billion.

Younger consumers spend much of their time on messaging platforms, creating a risk for retailers that are not active in the channel.

Amazon’s new Prime rewards program is the latest way the tech titan is cultivating a loyal use base. To retain and engage customers, banks should follow Amazon’s lead and layer in more value-added services.

The Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication plans to add instant payments messaging for the European market by late 2018, marking another step in its ongoing faster payments projects.