Retailers

Like almost everything else related to Amazon's incursion into retail, the company's premium loyalty program has achieved a scale that appears ready to swallow the rest of the industry.

Hub brand requirements are modest compared with retail systems. They communicate reputation and trust to a relatively small set of sophisticated firms they hope to serve.

Though a 33% decline in net income was attributable to large one-time gains that the credit card issuer recorded in the second quarter of 2016, Amex faces major challenges in the pursuit of growth opportunities.

Turning a pre-existing digital payment network into an in-store line buster has been a key play for Starbucks and Square, and Amazon is weighing in with its own app that allows its huge network of users to streamline retail experiences.

As retailers scratch their heads to find ways to counter Amazon's ongoing disruption of their industry, investment is flowing to technology companies that meld shopping, payments and fulfillment.

The concept of digital payments doesn't often cross paths with the concept of robots moving autonomously through our world. But in a few cases, robots have been created to handle payments and deliver goods.

Shopify merchants selling in the U.S. will be able to list and sell products on eBay through a single dashboard via a direct integration between the two e-commerce giants that goes live this fall.

Retailers were already skeptical about letting customers pay with bitcoin before the cryptocurrency’s price underwent an astronomical rally this year. That rapid surge hasn’t made them any more accepting. In fact, it may have done the opposite.

Seasoned payments industry observers predicted it would take time for mobile wallets to catch on, but few thought adoption would reverse course so soon.

Cards, e-wallets and transfers are all necessary for merchants to attract younger consumers to recurring payments, writes Artem Tymoshenko, CEO of MaxPay.