Retailers

There is lots of talk about mobile payments and where banks play, but the real opportunity has less to do with payments and more to do with “mobile commerce services," or all of those things banks (and merchants) can do via mobile to attract, engage, motivate and reinforce customer relationships to protect existing revenue streams and create new ones.

Mobile point of sale technology is gaining traction, though providers say the middle market requires a stronger sell.

Heartland Payment Systems has acquired Xpient Solutions to strengthen its processing capabilities in the quick-service and fast-casual food industry.

NCR's updating its NCR Silver point of sale system to support Bitcoin transactions as retailer acceptance of virtual currency starts to accelerate.

Acquirers are encouraging vending-machine operators to add card and mobile electronic-payment acceptance, which could represent a whole new category of transactions.

Payveris has hired financial services technology veteran Jeff Weikert as president, as the technology company adds new services designed to make smaller financial institutions more competitive with alternative startups.

Brick-and-mortar retailers are chasing a missing link for sales and marketing—the deep customer data that e-commerce merchants easily obtain through online orders and shipping information.

Merchants are enticed by the lure of the huge e-commerce market in China, enough to give a number of early client wins to Alipay's U.S. merchant acquisition effort.

The much-anticipated launch of Apple's mobile wallet was followed by a series of minor disasters for the fledgling payment system. Apple must overcome all of these obstacles if Apple Pay is to succeed.

The card networks are under pressure in a number of countries, providing ammunition for retailers wanting similar cost adjustments in the U.S.

MasterCard has agreed to buy the merchant payments unit of Transaction Network Services in Reston, Va.,a deal that would expand the e-commerce services offered by DataCash, MasterCard's payment processing subsidiary.

Costco, which is replacing American Express in Canada, is also seeking bids for both an issuer and a payments network for its U.S. cards, a move that may result in a replacement for American Express in the States, according to two people familiar with the matter.

Best Buy Co., the world’s largest electronics retailer, is switching its credit-card processing partner to Visa Inc. from MasterCard Inc., according to two people briefed on the matter.

Apple Pay's NFC-based mobile pay system doesn't automatically equate to a marriage between the retailers' point of sale and the contactless communication technology.

The device, known as Clover Mobile, allows merchants to perform a variety of business functions, including scanning inventory and taking payments, using a mobile tablet. Earlier versions of Clover, called Clover Station, were designed to be affixed to a countertop.

The recent announcement from Apple, that it is now diving head long into mobile commerce, was universally embraced by many of us in the industry.

Verifone is changing its logo and marketing to signal the many pivots it is making to provide a broader range of services to merchants that must embrace mobile and digital technology to stay relevant.

Apple Pay is still new to the scene, but it's already forced a number of other online and mobile wallets to change course. Some are rethinking their technology, while others are trying to find the best way to build on the buzz Apple created.

The Peterbrooke Chocolatier has a new recipe for mobile payments: it's blending Apple Pay with NCR's order-ahead and mobile point of sale technology to engage its customers in a new way.

About 60% of the first cards loaded onto Apple Pay are Visa cards, and the card network plans to build on this beginning in an aggressive mobile commerce strategy, according to CEO Charles Scharf.