POS and Retail

The industry’s technology priorities and budgets are headed for a distinct shift in 2019. What’s in: new initiatives in digital banking and analytics. What’s not: new initiatives built on blockchain technology.

Although Black Friday used to be America’s biggest single shopping day, the final Saturday before Christmas took the title four or five years ago as more retailers began their Black Friday sales on Thanksgiving Day — or weeks before.

The online lender will roll out the business early next year with a focus on loans of less than $100,000.

Fortunately, banks and financial institutions can take action to protect their apps in untrusted, potentially hostile environments, writes Samuel Bakken, senior product marketing manager for OneSpan.

Alipay is upgrading its facial recognition technology to make it more accessible to users and to make it harder for crooks to game the system

The high-tech and visual user experience is getting set to take hold, giving merchants something to think about, according to Radu Spineanu, co-founder and CEO of Two Tap.

Neither Amazon nor Starbucks could be described as a traditional retailer. But they both use their shared headquarters city as a playground for developing digital and in-store innovations that all merchants and payment companies will have to respond to the years ahead.

The video game industry serves a decidedly digital, tech-savvy audience with a propensity toward digital payments, but has been plagued by inconsistencies in payments to developers and a lack of a consistent rewards program for loyal players.

Working with technology developer Next Retail Concepts, Mastercard has connected to a virtual version of Los Angeles boutique retailer Fred Segal, where users may virtually pick merchandise on the shelves of the iconic store in West Hollywood, explore it from various angles, and make purchases with a discount for using Mastercard.

Instacart will begin separating itself from Whole Foods and eventually no longer let its customers order from the Amazon-owned grocer through its app or website,