POS and Retail

Alternative payment systems like Visa Checkout promise to reduce cart abandonment compared to the more drawn-out process of typing in credit card and shipping information. According to recent figures from Visa Inc., Visa Checkout is delivering on that promise.

If Verifone wants to benefit from the major card brands' efforts to operate in China, it must confront a virtual army of independent sales organizations already selling low-cost payment terminals.

Payments startup iZettle AB, a Swedish rival to Jack Dorsey's Square Inc., will start selling a credit-card reader that lets shoppers pay by tapping the device with a smartphone or bank card.

E-commerce is just a sliver of the Polish payments market, but that's likely to change quickly, and Raiffeisen Polbank is partnering with EVO Payments International to form a new company to compete for merchant clients as development cycles shorten.

In the payments industry, the common practice is to equate mobile merchants with micro merchants, and to put them on a back burner for things like EMV upgrades.

Google's reported efforts to launch a buy button within mobile search results—and only mobile search results—is the latest sign that traditional e-commerce processes may not survive the transition to mobile devices.

While U.S. banks and clearing houses contemplate how to convert the country's payments system into near real-time, Taulia has made strides by offering a dynamic discounting option to encourage clients to use its technology for B2B payments.

Apple Watch is and will continue to be a big hit for their loyal consumers, both in terms of sales and acclaim. But for payments, it's not what consumers are looking for now.

Southern Refreshments is updating its fleet of Georgia vending machines to include cashless options and mobile Near Field Communication (NFC) readers, a move that it hopes can boost spending.

The Payment Card Industry security standards council's PCI 3.0 revision, revealed in January, adds requirements that take effect at the end of June, putting unprepared merchants at risk of fines if they suffer a breach.

While unused credit largely hasn't been addressed in the U.S., in six countries—Brazil, Turkey, Argentina, Greece, Mexico and Israel—optimizing unused credit is enabling interest-free credit-card based installment plans.

Walgreens' vision for creating a patient-centered pharmacy combines mobile health care, digital health technologies and its Balance Rewards prepaid and loyalty system.

While Apple's taking an early incremental approach to Las Vegas, terminal manufacturer Ingenico is very bullish on the technology picking up steam with the gaming industry and its patrons.

"Big data" has been all the rage in the payments industry in recent years. While the hype seems to have subsided a bit, that might be because the most dedicated data-using merchants have put their heads down to focus on sifting through the data to investigate fraud.

With more patients paying part or all of their health care expenses directly, health care providers find themselves thrust into the world of consumer payments and collections, where providers face different costs, risks and expectations than they did working primarily with insurance companies.

Beacons—those little Bluetooth mechanisms stores use to beam ads to shoppers' phones—may someday play a critical role in payments. But the technology is still years away from being a practical alternative to cards and NFC-based mobile wallets.

Square Inc. says it has received more funding for its Square Capital program, which grants loans to Square merchants based on their transaction history.

For many industries, the introduction of open standards has been a key driver for innovation. The rapid evolution of the internet and online services offer a vivid example of the degree to which open standards can enable immense innovation and growth.

Global Payments will launch the OptBlue program in Canada in early summer, the first acquirer/processor to use the American Express program to adjust Amex card pricing for Canadian merchants.

As more U.S. banks issue EMV-chip credit and debit cards, consumer education remains a challenge, particularly if consumers overlook the paper inserts that come with their new cards.