The information you need to start your day, from PaymentsSource and around the web:
Mobile Friday
More people shopped from smartphones on Black Friday, according to data from Adobe.
This year, 39% of online Black Friday purchases were made from smartphones, a sharp increase from the 33% reported last year, according to
Adobe didn't say why people are spending more on mobile, but Engadget suggests it may be due to the ease of new checkout systems enabled by Apple Pay and Google Pay.
Instant expansion
PayPal is collaborating with Mastercard to extend PayPal’s Instant Transfer solution beyond the U.S. to Singapore and other points in Europe. Powered by debit push payment service Mastercard Send, the new integration enables PayPal customers to send funds from their PayPal wallets to Mastercard accounts in real time, according to a press release.
The move comes about two years after PayPal initiated Instant Transfer for U.S. customers sending funds to Mastercard accounts. The expansion is already live in Singapore with a number of other European cities soon to be added.
Smooth ride
Transit riders in several Italian cities will soon have more options for contactless payments due to a new agreement between Italian payments provider SIA and Unicocampania, a consortium managing fares across 17 public transit agencies.
The pact will enable local citizens and tourists in Naples, Salerno and Avellino to pay subway, rail, cable car and bus fares with contactless payment cards, smartphones and wearable devices, according to a press release.
SIA’s platform will connect all the terminals where NFC payments are enabled, including calculating tariffs on fares for travelers in the Campania region, which will be the first part of Italy to adopt an integrated digital fare-payment system across multiple agencies.
Rapid regift
Returnly, which specializes in streamlined e-commerce returns, now enables instant returns and exchanges for gifts sent online. With Returnly’s Instant Gift Exchange, recipients of gifts purchased online can immediately browse a site and pick a different item, even before returning the original gift, said Returnly in a press release.
The instant exchange of e-commerce gifts via Returnly is available for Shopify Plus merchants, the company said.
SwatchPay
Swiss watch brand Swatch has extended its payments technology, introducing six new watches with its SwatchPay mobile payment app.
Financial technology company Wirecard is supporting the service, which allows consumers to use the boon app on their smartphones to receive a virtual Mastercard containing Swatch's transaction app. Payments can be executed by holding the watch up to a compatible terminal, with a signal tone confirming the transaction.
Boon uses a prepaid Wirecard-issued Mastercard, and has been in development for about four years.
From the web
THE BUSINESS TIMES | Fri November 29, 2019
Singaporeans can now use their Nets ATM cards to make payments in Malaysia at more than 7,400 points across tourist and retail hot spots in Johor Baru, Melaka, Kuala Lumpur and Penang. Likewise, Malaysia's PayNet MyDebit ATM cards can be used at about 500 spots in Singapore.
TECHCRUNCH | Sat November 30, 2019
A data breach at Mixcloud, a U.K.-based audio streaming platform, has left more than 20 million user accounts exposed after the data was put on sale on the dark web. The data breach happened earlier in November, according to a dark web seller who supplied a portion of the data.
CNBC | Fri November 29, 2019
Banks are battling to get consumers using their credit cards for holiday shopping. But faster mobile payment options are making that more difficult. As consumers shop on their phones, analysts say they may end up using whichever card is automatically stored instead of considering rewards.
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