Online payments

Target Corp. agreed to purchase grocery-delivery startup Shipt Inc. for $550 million, stepping up efforts to challenge Amazon.com Inc. in e-commerce orders.

Payment Rails is putting a tight focus on the emerging area of “influencer marketing,” where global brands are spreading money among individuals who use social media to promote products.

Establishing trust, especially when it comes to online payments, is critical. People need to feel secure and confident that their personal boundaries won’t be crossed or their information misused, writes Rik van't Hof, director of product management front-end for Ingenico e-commerce.

Apple Pay Cash is chasing peer transfer share in a maturing market, going up against long-established services like Venmo, Square Cash and the bank-powered Zelle.

In a world where consumers are tuning out TV ads easier than ever before with streaming services like Netflix, the e-commerce giant is giving advertisers a new platform to be in front of millions of people who like to shop, writes Tom Caporaso, CEO of Clarus Commerce.

The deal will help First Data compete in the fast-growing "integrated payments" space as payment processors race to diversify products, markets and technology.

Installment payments for e-commerce purchases are starting to take hold in North America as an alternative to standard credit cards, and PayBright is seeking a niche in Canada.

Digital payment brands like Venmo are achieving scale quickly by recognizing that no one wakes up thinking they need to make a transaction. They really focus more on what they have to pay for, according to CO-OP Financial Services' Shazia Manus.

Venmo achieved its status by designing its interface like that of a social network. PayPal's version of that comes from Facebook.

Neither the acquirer processing the payment, nor relevant regulatory bodies ever know that these payments are actually for illicit goods, making transaction laundering particularly dangerous and far-reaching, writes Ron Teicher, CEO of EverCompliant.