Loyalty and rewards

Mastercard and Lazada, an Alibaba affiliate, have joined forces to collaborate on e-commerce systems for developing markets in the Southeast Asia region.

The rewards card offered by the fintech Stash will let users accumulate stock of companies at which they frequently shop. The company said Tuesday that it has raised $65 million from investors and will offer the card in partnership with Green Dot.

Shubhi Rao is not the kind of person who looks to back down from a challenge. In deciding where she wanted to spend her career she did something no woman in her family had done before.

Barclays is partnering with digital rewards companies as part of its focus on investing in fintech and developing new business models. Its recent investment in Bink, a U.K.-based loyalty platform provider, marks the fourth company in this field that Barclays has partnered with.

Barclays plc has spent years experimenting with creative ways to promote mobile payments, and it's not showing signs of stopping.

Through its acquisition of digital payments and fundraising provider Benefit Mobile, the National Gift Card company is positioning itself to help charitable organizations grow and to strengthen the mobile offerings of retail merchants.

Consumers are willing to pay a bit more for repeat business at a merchant. By passing these fees on to shoppers, small retailers no longer have to cut vital operational costs to accommodate for lower margins from loyalty programs, says Robert Maynard, the founder of SurchX.

Thailand’s Siam Commercial Bank (SCB) is launching its first credit card through Japan’s expanding JCB card network, targeting young adults who like to travel throughout Asia.

One solution would be to move to infrastructures where card issuers can share the cost of offering rewards with the retailers — making it a win-win-win situation, according to Mehmet Sezgin, CEO and founder of myGini.

Game day is a big day not just for athletes — anyone who sells pizza, chicken wings and beer will also win big if they have the capacity to handle all of the orders that come in. Many are turning to mobile and online technology to increase sales and remove friction from the payment process.