Online payments

The digital revolution has not been kind to independent sales organizations and others in the merchant acquiring market, which has seen its long-standing business model upended by the mobile point of sale and other new technologies.

Many of the major mergers and acquisitions in the payments industry the past few years have had an underlying goal -- improve chances to make a splash in retail omnichannel payments.

Caffe Ladro's had an online store for years, but it's never been as important as it is today, as the Seattle chain faces competitors — including the notoriously tech-savvy Starbucks — that have stretched the limits of how to sell coffee online and through mobile devices.

Dickson Chu transitioned to the board after two years as the company's chief product officer, it said in a June 14 news release. In his new role he will continue serving as an advisor to the company's leadership regularly and formally.

Apple Inc.'s mobile-payment service will finally be available this fall on websites, though only through its Safari browser, shutting out users of Google's Chrome and possibly limiting Apple Pay's adoption by online retailers.

Wells Fargo has accepted two Singapore-based payments companies for its spring 2016 startup accelerator class.

Kyle Largent offered himself up as "Exhibit A" for U.S. online merchants' greatest fear: that EMV chip card adoption at the point of sale would cause fraud to spike online.

The pressure to provide a secure digital commerce experience that's cross-border and cross-channel puts an onus on traditionally tech-averse merchant providers — and creates a market opportunity ACI has been preparing to crack for several years.

Western Union has opened U.S.-to-Cuba digital money transfer through its mobile app and website.

The same multichannel shopping and payment experiences that are designed to reduce cart abandonment may also pose hard-to-spot vulnerabilities that can threaten information security.