Online payments

No matter how good a company's e-commerce strategy is, the customer experience can still fall apart on the checkout page — especially when introducing new features.

The company, founded by musician Jack Conte about five years ago, allows fans to give creators a steady paycheck to create new content, and it's a clear hit among certain communities. But by severing the clear link between product and payment, it has also created some unprecedented issues.

Klarna’s instant online financing for purchases is gaining a foothold in the U.S., where the Swedish company is testing a subscription-based financing approach starting with golf clubs from TaylorMade Golf.

Numerous data sources provide insight on the growth of this new paradigm in payments and some indication of how consumers can be motivated to prefer a specific payment instrument over others.

Apple's Face ID is turning heads, but it is far from the first use of facial biometrics in payments. Here are several implementations that predate it.

PayPal is among the top non-bank financial brands, though that may soon change as other challengers gain ground, writes Hannu Verkasalo, founder and CEO of Verto Analytics.

Millennial purchases are fueled by convenience, efficiency and value, and with the recent announcement of Instant Pick Up, Amazon has taken another step in the right direction, writes Gil Don, CEO of Splitit.

Passwords are widely distrusted for verifying identity and have been blamed for more than 80% of data breaches, but with biometrics and other approaches not yet ready for broad adoption, many innovators are rushing in to fill the gap.

E-commerce cross-border payments provider dLocal has updated its platform in India, enabling global e-merchants to accept and remit payments through all local methods and target the mobile consumer in the country.

Payments are getting more complex as business gets more global, adding channels and expanding ways to sell. Part of the strategy at the matchmaker crowdSPRING is to find a match of its own: AliExpress, Alibaba's online marketplace. It’s also considering a foray into virtual currency.

For years, it looked to some like Ma’s Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. was simply following in the footsteps of Bezos’ Amazon.com Inc., the world’s largest e-commerce company. But when Amazon’s $13.7 billion bid for Whole Foods Market Inc. sent shock waves across the retail industry, Ma looked prescient.

First Data Corp. and JotForm are working together on an integration enabling brick-and-mortar merchants to collect payments online more easily, along with detailed information on forms such as electronic signatures.

After rising 73 percent in 2017, Alibaba shares trade at a multiple of 64 times earnings. Tencent is trading at 56 times profit after a 71 percent rise in its stock.

Alipay and WeChat Pay have become important drivers in the Chinese economy, putting the central bank in a position to force all third-party payment firms to connect to the new clearinghouse.

Both merchants and consumers still see the act of making a payment as a barrier and again look to technology to enhance the experience, writes Chris Koide, senior advisor and vice president of financial services for Bambora North America.

Security companies are using technology to stop more complex fraud based on a smaller amount of data, and investors are taking notice.

Usernames, passwords, device authentication and even biometrics have vulnerabilities. Behavioral identity is much harder for crooks to crack, writes Robert Capps, a vice president at NuData Security.

One of the biggest hurdles that all cryptocurrencies first face is merchant acceptance. Without it, consumer adoption is constrained.

Asia’s much-vaunted tech stocks could be getting ahead of themselves.

Even the most honest customers can look risky if they frequently travel. Their movements can throw off traditional vetting techniques that authenticate transactions by looking at location as a risk factor.