Online payments

Hoping to convince e-commerce merchants to let Facebook target offers to customers, the social media giant is placing a strong emphasis on “dynamic ads” that include payment buttons.

Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. shares rose the most in almost two-and-a-half years after forecasting sales growth that topped every analyst’s estimate, defying expectations that growth must slow by dint of a decelerating economy and its own sheer scale.

As payments get more complex, money laundering and other risks increase. Audits and advanced regulatory technology can help companies keep up, writes Performline CEO Alex Baydin.

Walmart is piloting a delivery program that leverages its store staff as delivery drivers in a decidedly manual response to the digital threat of Amazon.com. And it just might work.

Business are still reluctant to automate payments and billing, though that can hurt companies financially, writes Daniel Andrew, a vice president at Corecentric.

Visa plans to support 3-D Secure 2.0 in an upcoming enhancement to its Verified by Visa service, giving merchants and issuers real time accurate customer authentication of cardholders and a superior end user checkout experience.

In this market, Amazon no longer has the advantages it once held over physical booksellers. As grocery stores prove increasingly innovative and tech-savvy, can Amazon viably compete in their domain, where digital expertise may not be enough?

PayPal has worked to build support from retailers and consumers, positioning it well in the competitive e-commerce game, writes Lauren Freedman, senior vice president of digital strategy at Astound Commerce.

Pizza Hut has played a large role in building China's middle class. It's also a major cog in Ant's investment in Yum China.

SkyShopper enables Emirates NBD’s credit and debit card customers to make purchases from retailers through a single portal.

The consortium joins a growing list of cross-industry groups exploring uses for distributed ledger technology.

The integration is designed to improve user experience for international transactions.

Since e-commerce retailers often don't have the same personal relationships as traditional retail, it can be harder to dispute chargebacks.

CityBase would like to eliminate the significant difficulties consumers face when paying bills to government entities — and in doing so, lay the foundation of a more digital form of conducting business.

Klarna, the Sweden-based online lending provider, is changing its name to Klarna Bank, part of a series of recent moves in its market underscoring the rising popularity of instant or installment financing.

PayPal's strategic partnership with Google has advanced to online shopping, as Android Pay users will soon have PayPal as a funding option for e-commerce.

One-time passcodes or more complex passwords are not enough, and add friction and potential frustration for the user. The solution is mobile identity authentication, writes Randy Vanderhoof, executive director of the Secure Technology Alliance.

China’s internet titans are set to supply ample evidence that online spending continues to defy a slowdown in the world’s second largest economy.

Product searches can be confusing, which can increase card abandonment and cut into sales. Virtual assistants and other customer service improvements can solve the problem, writes Arjun Mendhi, a director at Infinite Analytics.

The risky side of bots played a role in last year's IRS hack. But non-data driven security can fight back, argues Robert Capps, a vice president at NuData.