Technology

Merchant Warehouse has seen a lot of momentum these past three months as small and medium-sized merchants adopt its Genius payment acceptance and customer engagement platform, which launched to the general public in January.

Square, Google, PayPal and many other mobile payment providers overhauled their technology in 2013. Here's a look at how things changed, on the surface and underneath.

For banks, the most obvious reaction to the recent compromise of 40 million cards at Target stores would be to re-issue credit and debit cards to all customers who shopped at the retailer. But this approach doesn't seem to be universal.

Target Corp. was sued by a Christmas shopper claiming she may have been exposed to identity theft from a data breach affecting 40 million debit and credit cards.

Mozido LLC, a white-label mobile technology provider, is piloting a person-to-person payment method using Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) technology, allowing users within proximity of each other to transfer funds with their mobile devices.

Flipkart Payment Gateway Services has launched a consumer-facing version of PayZippy, allowing shoppers in India to make secure online transactions with numerous merchants.

Card payments account for more than two-thirds of all noncash payments in the U.S., and the number of checks written for payment is less than half of what is was a decade ago, according to the Federal Reserve Bank Services' 2013 payments study.

Loop Commerce is attempting to stake its position in e-commerce by offering payments technology that provides a gift's recipient some control over what is being purchased.

The credit-card issuer has agreed to loosen its restrictions on fees charged by retailers to consumers, following a similar move by Visa and MasterCard.

If Target can't protect itself from a data breach, how can any retailer hope to do so?