POS and Retail

Small business owners using Square's payments platform and business tools may soon be asking "Elle" for assistance with customers.

Caving to pressure from lawmakers who recently cracked down on stores that eschew cash, Amazon has altered its business model to accept cash at its newest Amazon Go convenience stores and bookstores.

The growing sophistication of artificial intelligence is making fraud detection faster and more accurate, which opens up new possibilities for new products and services because of consumer confidence in secure payments, writes Margaret Reid, senior vice president of North America Risk for Visa.

Apple is addressing consumer demands and pain points head-on, with the overall goal of making consumers’ lives easier, argues Jeff Bender, vice president of digital solutions for Diebold Nixdorf.

In the wake of Zelle, Venmo and Apple Cash getting more active users and potential revenue, Square is relying on its Square Cash App and Cash Card as key drivers for its own growth.

To fuel growth, Apple's mobile wallet needs to go beyond its core use cases of NFC and in-app payments. Apple Pay's latest project leans more heavily on NFC to do work typically handled by apps.

Apple Card's advantages are mostly available elsewhere, but Apple's marketing prowess will make it a formidable competitor, according to Jonathan Ebinger, a general partner at Blue Run Ventures.

China's massive card network UnionPay has signed a merchant acquiring agreement with Worldline to bring acceptance of UnionPay cards into 40,000 merchant locations across northwest Europe.

Generation Z is scarred by the financial crisis, but has an awareness of technology that gives payment and financial companies a point of entry, according to Mickey Goldwasser, vice president of marketing at Payrailz.

Mobile point-of-sale provider Lavu has acquired online and mobile ordering platform MenuDrive to aid both restaurant management and online presence — and skip the costs of incorporating third-party services.