Retailers

Theresa Dold joins LevelUp in the new role of vice president of agency strategy to head the company’s focus on restaurant engagement. Dold previously was director of product at sweetgreen, a fast-casual salad chain that last fall stopped accepting cash payments at some of its stores.

Total System Services has extended a multi-year agreement to support Tesco Bank's credit card business in the U.K.

Most small U.S. companies don't have the brand awareness in China to stand out among the millions of goods on Alibaba's websites. Alibaba is the virtual mall that houses the brands, but sellers are in charge of production and distribution with little clarity on the demand for their wares.

Getting a new payment terminal with advanced capabilities is not unlike getting a new phone or computer with its bells and whistles — there's so many new features that some will no doubt go ignored.

Passengers are warming to non-travel mobile payments, and the technology is advancing to enable mobile payments in flight, writes Kristian Gjerding, CEO of CellPoint Mobile.

The $13.7 billion acquisition could have significant implications for swipe-fee revenue and other grocers' in-store branches. It also raises the question of whether the Seattle e-commerce goliath will soon set its sights on the financial services industry.

Until now, Amazon's moves seemed like cautious pokes at the deeply ingrained habit of going to a store and paying with a plastic card. Furthermore, any competitors may have seen Amazon's lacking retail store presence as a buffer that kept them at least temporarily safe from the same fate that befell the bookselling world. How naive they were.

Amazon has been making some aggressive moves in the grocery industry in recent months, but perhaps none so aggressive as its just-announced deal to buy Whole Foods for $13.7 billion.

Younger consumers spend much of their time on messaging platforms, creating a risk for retailers that are not active in the channel.

A deeper dive into the workings of the Amazon Prime Reload program should give the card payments industry serious cause for concern.

Consumers don't want to feel disconnected from retailers in e-commerce, and don't want a complicated checkout experience, writes Jason Fordham, vice president of product at SmarterHQ.

The task at hand for retail app developers is increasingly clear: Make it as easy as possible for consumers to pay through a mobile device.

In a move that will certainly cause friction across the card payments industry, Amazon announced a new service called Amazon Prime Reload, which incentivizes newcomers to the program to load funds using a debit card or bank account with a 2% cash back on purchases.

Federal law established oversight of banks’ security measures, but the lack of similar requirements for retailers creates a blind spot in defending against hacks.

Fintech is full of payments technology ideas in search of a mission, and Wholesome Wave, whose mission is to improve low-income consumers’ nutrition, has searched for years to find a better way to reimburse its constituents for buying healthy food.

Hoping to convince e-commerce merchants to let Facebook target offers to customers, the social media giant is placing a strong emphasis on “dynamic ads” that include payment buttons.

ExxonMobil's contactless and mobile payment system, Speedpass, is well known as a way to help drivers accelerate the payment process after they fill up on gas. The system's latest updates focus less on the payment process and more on flexibility and rewards.

Given the breach epidemic, it's time for retailers to consider the security of the vendors that sell point of sale systems, according to RiskVision CEO Joe Fantuzzi.

The agency recently sent a letter to nine banks urging them to stop offering deferred interest cards, arguing that consumers are often unaware of the risks involved.

Amazon.com Inc.’s lending business is accelerating, highlighting one more way the online retailer is making money from e-commerce beyond simply selling products in its web store.