Point-of-sale

For years mobile wallets have been a solution in search of a problem – until now. COVID-19 has reframed the retail point-of-sale (POS) and with it, how consumers want to pay, giving wallets a new relevance for safer in-store payments.

The acquisition of Florida-based Service Finance Co. would expand the North Carolina bank’s presence in the point-of-sale lending business.

As tech giants rush into point-of-sale lending, the smaller companies that built the market are counting on acquisitions and partnerships with specialized vendors to defend their turf and pull in new borrowers.

The $29 billion purchase of the Australian installment lender would bring larger retail relationships, as well as a fast-growing product that has appeal to both consumers and merchants.

The $29 billion deal would enable Square to better compete with PayPal and Apple, and provide an opportunity to cross-sell other services to the Australian lender's global audience.

Persistent coronavirus fears have accelerated consumer interest in checkout-free retail options like Amazon Go, just as new technologies like 5G make such concepts more practical to implement.

The tech giant is entering a heavily competitive market led by large companies like PayPal and hot startups like Affirm and Afterpay.

The fintech, which arranges point-of-sale loans in partnership with merchants, was fined $2.5 million by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and ordered to refund up to $9 million to consumers who received loans they never applied for.

Shoppers surveyed in the U.S., U.K. and Australia cited concerns about debt and fees, along with a general lack of knowledge about how installment loans work, as reasons for their skepticism.

Building on renewed consumer interest in digital payments, companies such as linked2pay and Pax are making it easier for retailers to add options like ACH and to import shopper data into back-office systems.