Mobile point-of-sale

As payments steadily migrate to cloud-based, digital channels with the rise of mobile e-commerce, Intuit’s QuickBooks unit is augmenting its online payment acceptance options with a mobile payment device that links to its accounting software.

The payment company is blending technology from its Swedish subsidiary with other features, such as invoicing, to provide a more robust offering to U.S. merchants.

In a bid to expand contactless card acceptance, Mastercard is testing its Cloud Tap on Phone tech with Napa, Calif.-based IT services provider Computer Engineering Group (CEG).

Fundraising platform TapSimple has raised nearly £1 million (U.S. $1.3 million) in an investment round that will help it to continue to develop fundraising activity in what it describes as an increasingly cashless world.

Less than two months after launching a software-based model to replace traditional point of sale terminals, MagicCube has received a security compliance allowance from Visa for the mobile-driven system.

In the push to get millions of cash-based micro- and small-business merchants to go digital, the two largest card networks are getting a boost from contactless payments' global surge.

EMVCo, the major card brand-supported venture to establish EMV guidelines and specifications, has begun testing a program to determine if consumer mobile devices can securely accept contactless payments — a move that not only hastens the adoption of contactless payments, but renews criticism over which networks control technology and routing decisions.

Several large mobile point of sale projects are hitting the market at once to reach financially troubled retailers, with JPMorgan Chase making use of a three-year-old acquisition to push back against the technology firms that have been gobbling up small-business clients.

As merchants and consumers increasingly favor contactless payments over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, Visa is removing obstacles to contactless acceptance.

MagicCube’s i-Accept is a hardware-free option for accepting card and electronic payments that could appeal to cost-conscious small businesses and open up a new market for banks that provide them payments services.