Retailers

Merchants have been challenging surcharge bans in numerous states on free-speech grounds. They have the wind at their backs following another court victory on Wednesday.

Cybersecurity systems, as sophisticated as they are, are clearly not doing the job. And maybe they never will, given that in the end the effectiveness of those systems can be overridden by workers inside the organization, writes Tal Vegvizer, director of research and development for Bufferzone.

For payments to keep up, merchants need to focus on the shift to subscriptions and the true personalization of processing, writes Suneera Madhani, CEO and founder of Fattmerchant.

Five more retailers have dropped out of the American Express-managed Plenti retailer coalition loyalty program, putting its status in question.

The rise of e-commerce is hollowing out shopping malls and strip centers, but it is also creating new interesting opportunities for commercial real estate developers and lenders.

Compliance checks today are not continuous or automatic, even in the largest of global enterprises. Traditionally, compliance audits are performed by organizations just once a year when, in reality, they need to be continuous in order to be effective, writes Manoj Asnani, lead of product and design for Balbix.

While interest from the West has so far been tepid in the region, this is an opportune time for fintech investors to look at participation in the Southeast Asian market, writes Alexander Koles, CEO and founder of Evolve Capital Partners.

People are spending more time in messaging applications, and merchants need to be visible in that venue, writes David Nunn, head of Braintree Europe.

Many restaurateurs expect more from their merchant services than a paper bill at the end of the month listing the basic credit card transactions, writes Andrew Szala, a content specialist at Upserve.

The credit bureau enraged many with its response to a massive data breach this fall, but closing the company down would ultimately harm consumers.

Companies like Target and Barnes & Noble are already making moves to streamline payments and connections with consumers, writes Robert Glazer, founder and managing director of Acceleration Partners.

Consumers’ desire to shop online is creating huge demand for distribution centers and forcing property owners to think creatively about redeveloping vacant retail space. Meanwhile, hundreds of billions of dollars will be spent rebuilding areas hard hit by hurricanes and wildfires.

Amazon dominates during the holiday shopping season because Prime offers customers benefits every day, writes Tom Caporaso, CEO of Clarus Commerce.

With the increased demand for heightened security and the increased costs, there will also be a growth in attacks from nation-state actors, writes Antwayne Ford, president and CEO of Enlightened.

Getting the most detailed picture calls for a multilayered approach that leverages the most effective elements of in-house and outsourced solutions, writes Monica Eaton-Cardone, COO of Chargebacks911 and CIO of its parent company Global Risk Technologies.

By deploying voice biometrics, organizations including large banks, government agencies, telcos and retailers can not only make the process of authentication easier, but also can protect their customers’ identities from being compromised in the case of a hack, writes Brett Beranek, director of product strategy at Nuance.

Major retailers accept bitcoin, and BitPay reports that it will process more than $1 billion in payments this year. Even McDonald's is reportedly considering that it will accept bitcoin payments, writes consultant Collin Canright.

Analytics can customize experience for consumers and allow consumers to customize the experience for themselves, writes Matt Wilcox, senior vice president of marketing, strategy and innovation for digital banking at Fiserv.

Businesses should not only focus on securing payments that come through, but also pay attention to account creation and logins to prevent them from becoming additional vulnerable points of exploitation, writes Justin Lie, CEO of CashShield.

Bandwidth, sophisticated content and store locators can all help retailers draw and keep consumers as digital shopping and payments become mainstream, writes Herman Yau, CEO of Tend.