Loyalty and rewards

Prime customers, who pay an annual fee for benefits such as free two-day shipping and access to Amazon’s video and music library, will now also get discounts at the upscale, organic supermarket that Amazon bought last year.

In the battle that’s raged over the last two years to win top-of-wallet status among luxury card users, the only clear winners may be savvy consumers who’ve learned how to game the system.

Mobile has been a boon for Cardlytics, which says more than half of the deals consumers choose now come from the mobile channel.

Samsung Pay has worked to differentiate itself from other mobile wallets with Samsung Rewards, and now it’s enriching that program with a cash-back option and the ability to purchase rewards points like airline mileage programs.

Barclays is one of the top five cobranded card issuers in the U.S., but because the bank has no branch network it must use unconventional marketing approaches — and unique technological innovations — to win customers.

Younger consumers are more willing to shop around compared to previous generations, and the on-demand economy means there is an expectation of instant gratification, writes Julian Wallis, retail director at Rambus.

Lacy Morris would seem to be in a tough spot as the main techie for a smaller coffee chain that's deploying mobile technology years after Starbucks dominated the market. But Starbucks has made missteps, he contends, leaving room for rivals to learn from those mistakes.

PayPal and Barclays have formed a strategic partnership enabling Barclays customers in the U.K. and U.S. to manage their Barclays and PayPal accounts within each app.

Amazon's increasingly weird ideas for getting products to Prime customers — grocery delivery, in-home delivery and now in-car delivery — point to an unsettling conclusion: Amazon, for all its market dominance, is pushing the limits of who it can reach with traditional package delivery.

Amazon.com Inc. has partnered with General Motors Co. and Volvo Cars to deliver packages to car trunks in 37 U.S. cities, as the e-commerce giant seeks new delivery methods for customers who may be wary of leaving packages outside or allowing couriers into their homes.

Major card brands have been competing to surpass each other with rewards and premium card offerings for decades, but American Express still views the premium card world as one it dominates.

LevelUp had a lot of failed experiments along the way, but it still won over major partners and is seeing new results in the restaurant industry.

Two years ago, Marriott split its customers between two card issuers following its acquisition of Starwood Hotels. Rather than choose one over the other, the chain has challenged Amex to draw a clear line between its cobrand card and that issued by Chase.

Following a series of high-profile merchant defections, the Plenti multi-merchant rewards program will end on July 10. The program's treatment of merchant exclusivity may have proven too limiting.

Driving an Uber car isn't like many other jobs, and drivers' payments and expenses are also very different. Much of those differences are built on Green Dot technology, and the bank is ready to see if its platform can work for more than just Uber.

This year could be a pivot point for blockchain to move past proofs of concept to adoption, propelled by strong investor interest. But many still see the tech as being three to four years away from going mainstream.

A new cobranded Uber debit card from Green Dot’s GoBank unit gives drivers 3% cash back if they choose PIN entry when filling their tanks at ExxonMobil stations, affirming the persistence of PINs in an increasingly digital payments environment.

The threat that mobile would displace plastic never came to be. But the new technology — often developed by retailers and other nonbanks — nevertheless forced issuers to take stock of their own offerings.

French supermarket chain Carrefour has launched its own mobile wallet, making Carrefour Pay available to customers as part of its plan for a complete omnichannel experience.

Bank of America is giving its small-business credit card customers some of the key features of the credit card rewards it offers consumers.