Merchant

The Prime Day event is also a chance for Amazon to showcase a new range of devices and payment options — but in 2019, Amazon is making some key changes to how it asks its audience to shop.

Prepaid card and payments technology company InComm has acquired Meridian Loyalty, a full-service incentives business that caters to corporations.

Merchant acquirer Credorax has engaged money transfer company Small World Financial and other partners to cover a broader mix of banking and payment acceptance available to the companies' European clients.

Amazon is moving into new markets armed with local storage lockers and partnerships, while many traditional retailers still lack the proper online capabilities, claims Arik Shtilman, CEO and co-founder of Rapyd.

Sensing a profitable opportunity in an underserved market, a variety of companies — ranging from traditional banks to fintech startups and even Amazon — are rushing into selling secured credit cards and other products designed for consumers with poor or thin credit.

U.K.-based small business lender Capital on Tap has partnered with small business software provider Receipt Bank to launch a new credit card with access to credit lines.

Installment payments are catching on quickly with merchants and their customers, creating a fierce competition among rivals who are building competing technology and business models to approach the new market.

These programs are allowed in a majority of states, but only a small portion of credit unions offer them. That may change as the need for deposits grows and consumer expectations shift.

The incident underscored the vulnerability of digital payment platforms to technical troubles. Visa and Mastercard have each experienced serious outages within the last couple of years.

Swish is expanding to physical stores to extend usage among the millions of Swedes who use the app for account-to-account transfers.