Retailers

Consumers and merchants in a digital ecosystem are changing the way people interact with each other and machines, changing payments and requiring an updated approach to security, according to Mastercard.

Menusifu receives a $3 million round to boost a system that integrates with Alipay and WeChat Pay, enabling Chinese travelers to make direct payments with renminbi from Chinese bank accounts and digital wallets.

With the integration to Payveris’ platform complete, FedComp will turn to enhanced digital payments for its credit union clients.

Software PIN pads can be compromised by crooks who intercept the PIN after it's typed. MagicCube attempts to position itself "in the middle" to block these hacking attempts.

The company has used word of mouth for its marketing, but will use the new funds to reach different channels.

Alipay has worked with First Data, Verifone, Ingenico and others to connect with merchants in North America, but more as a service for Chinese travelers than a direct competitor to existing payment providers.

Seeing the successful “private label” debit programs at Target and Cumberland Farms has inspired more merchants to launch their own initiatives, writes Adam Frisch, CEO of Buy It Mobility Networks.

TSYS has expanded its relationships with ISOs or entered into joint ventures with companies such as super ISO Central Payment. TSYS has been gradually increasing its stakeholder share in Central Payment as part of the collaboration.

Providers leave out a majority of lower-volume companies that would happily accept an electronic payment or card, writes Sue Ellen Hodnot, vice president of sales for the west region at Nvoicepay.

The renaming is designed to evoke a provider of end-to-end technology, beyond payments systems.

With more vendors issuing EMV cards, cybercriminals are turning to cart-not-present fraud as a way to defraud consumers. A mix of weapons is necessary to counter it, writes Robert Capps, authentication strategist and vice president at NuData Security.

Alipay and WeChat Pay will force traditional payment networks to up their game, particularly in in-play emerging markets. Whether they can become relevant at scale for consumers outside China remains to be seen, writes Eric Grover, a principal at Intrepid Ventures.

After five years of steady growth, U.S. consumers are pulling back on buying all types of prepaid cards — including retail gift cards — due to a combination of economic and consumer shifts.

The increased availability of the technology serves to further encourage consumer adoption rates, writes John Mitchell, CEO of Episode Six.

Despite lowering barriers and eliminating borders for commerce, the internet still makes it clunky comparison-shop for products across multiple sites. E-commerce startup Shoppable aims to solve this by creating a universal shopping cart.

In late August, Whole Foods started selling Echos as soon as it completed its sale to the e-commerce giant. It may seem like an odd item to stock at a grocery store, but there's a solid strategy behind it.

The breach may result in a huge new dump of names, addresses, Social Security numbers and other personal information that fraudsters can leverage to gain access to a legitimate user’s account, writes Jason Tan, CEO of Sift Science.

It's only the early days after the Equifax breach, but breadth of the data has the potential to reverberate for some time, requiring a mix of detection, prevention and response, according to John Gunn, chief marketing officer at VASCO Data Security; Atiq Raza, CEO of Versec; and Tim Erlin, vice president of product management and strategy at Tripwire.

While many fintech companies and payment startups have good ideas, they don't yet understand the complexity of integrating into a community bank’s core banking system. That's where partnerships can help, writes Steven J. Ramirez, CEO of Beyond the Arc.

For retailers, WeChat’s hyperactive and massive user base is a goldmine, but mini-apps don't solve the most prominent demand of retailers: to acquire and retain new traffic, writes Franklin Chu, managing director of Azoya International.