PYMNTS

DECEMBER 13, 2017

Online retailer eBay , following in the footsteps of Overstock.com, is contemplating allowing bitcoin as a payment method. In an interview with Yahoo Finance , Scott Cutler, SVP of eBay Americas, said the eCommerce retailer is “seriously considering” accepting bitcoin payments but noted the company is “not quite there yet.” He noted that eBay is currently focused on the holiday shopping season, which is turning out to be a strong one for online retailers. .

Retail 88

Retail eCommerce Finance Investments 88

PYMNTS

DECEMBER 15, 2017

A lot can happen in a year. What makes one stand out from another? How shall 2017 go down in the history books? Search Google for “2017: the year of…” and it becomes clear that many have seen this as a year of “death” and “disaster.” Others were not so quick to characterize it negatively, trawling the search engine instead for “the year of change.” Still others decided not to get philosophical about it at all, searching merely for “2017: the year of the rooster” or “the year of our Lord.”.

Budgeting 81

Budgeting Securities Investments Banking 81

PYMNTS

DECEMBER 13, 2017

The emergence of APIs is doing more than just changing the way banks and FinTechs operate. It’s forcing them to create new marketplaces and ecosystems where innovations are traded and, in the process, upending the traditional rules of the financial services market. With the market rapidly evolving, is it time for traditional financial institutions (FIs) to learn the rules of the new API economy?

B2B 77

B2B Accounts Payable Invoicing Banking 77

PYMNTS

DECEMBER 14, 2017

Banks and FinTechs may have had frosty relations in the past , but new open API ecosystems are now enabling former competitors to collaborate and grow their respective businesses. While collaboration is often seen as the more appealing approach, an open banking ecosystem invites its own challenges for traditional banks. Specifically, these financial institutions (FIs) must learn how to collaborate and innovate at a considerably faster pace.

B2B 69

B2B Banking Prioritization Economics 69

Speaker: Michael Veatch, Senior Director, Implementations & Ella Aguirre, Director of Solution Consulting

Embedding payments can be a transformative step for software companies looking to enhance their platform capabilities, boost customer satisfaction, and drive long-term growth. However, the success of payments hinges on a single thing: implementation. Drawing on real-world insights and experiences, payments implementation experts Michael Veatch and Ella Aguirre will explore actionable strategies that can lead to a transparent, friction-free launch and mitigate potential challenges like technical

Investments

PYMNTS

DECEMBER 14, 2017

Three computer hackers behind the Mirai botnet, which kicked websites offline last year in cyberattacks, have pleaded guilty to cybercrime. Citing court documents, Reuters stated on Wednesday (Dec. 13) that former Rutgers University student Paras Jha pleaded guilty in federal court in New Jersey to charges, including writing code that enabled him to infect and control devices.

Securities 68

Securities 68

PYMNTS

DECEMBER 13, 2017

Augmented and virtual worlds have long been touted as the future for all kinds of things — gaming, healthcare, travel, tele-learning. They’re experiences where being there counts in a lot of important ways, but virtualizing the experience and making it consumable digitally catches most of that in-person benefit, without the hassle of in-person travel.

Retail 63

Retail Healthcare Technology Leverage 63

PYMNTS

DECEMBER 13, 2017

“Who are you?”. It’s a philosophical question with a million different answers depending on who’s asking. In payments, it is a practical question with just as many answers depending on the use case. Identity verification and user authentication are hot spaces right now, and only getting hotter as merchants, financial institutions (FIs) and consumers demand more foolproof protection against fraudsters.

Securities 62

Securities Accounting Leverage Numbers 62

PYMNTS

DECEMBER 14, 2017

The age-old question is: How do you create a standard that works for every digital payments innovator – and the consumers and businesses they serve – when the starting points for those innovations reflect their very different origins and digital strengths? It’s a question that’s very top of mind across the payments and commerce ecosystem, and particularly relevant in mobile and desktop commerce.

eCommerce 59

eCommerce Currencies Numbers Technology 59

PYMNTS

DECEMBER 14, 2017

Arguably, the internet’s premier destination for auctions is eBay, which is not an unfair statement, given the sheer volume of said auctions going on via its website at any given moment. But as massive and instantly associable as auctions are, eBay has spent the last several years growing up, and growing past its old model. In fact, eBay is one of the web’s largest online marketplaces — with an estimated 168 million buyers in total — Customers eBay has spent much of 2017 trying to convince not t

Startups 58

Startups Investments Retail Securities 58

Speaker: Amanda Adams, Fractional CFO, CPA

Are you ready to elevate your accounting processes for 2025? 🚀 Join us for an exclusive webinar led by Amanda Adams, a seasoned fractional CFO and CPA passionate about transforming back-office operations for finance teams. This session will cover critical best practices and process improvements tailored specifically for accounting professionals.

Accounting

PYMNTS

DECEMBER 14, 2017

Amazon Prime may have had the best Prime Day ever this past summer, but Morgan Stanley warned there are signs that its Prime growth is starting to slow. According to news from CNBC , Morgan Stanley said in a research report this week that based on a survey of 1,000 adults in the U.S. during the third quarter, 40 percent of consumers in America already have Prime memberships, which matches the same level that was seen in the fourth quarter of last year.

eCommerce 54

eCommerce Sales Retail Marketing 54

PYMNTS

DECEMBER 15, 2017

“Avengers, assemble!” is a rally cry that would perk the ears of many millennials, but how about “ Mastercard , assemble?”. The card network is hoping that’s the case, as it rolls out the first use case stemming from its recently launched global prepaid money management platform. Assemble for millennials is a toolkit that issuers, corporations and IBCUs can use to enable digital financial solutions, in this case targeting millennials, using a single-access digital prepaid product.

Planning 53

Planning Budgeting Entertainment Securities 53

PYMNTS

DECEMBER 14, 2017

Forget presents under the tree. DoorDash is bringing Americans what they really want this holiday season: hot, fresh Wendy’s takeout delivered directly to their doors (or cold, fresh Frosties, if they so desire — DoorDash’s thermal bags can keep deliveries either hot or cold as needed). Wendy’s and DoorDash announced earlier this month that they were expanding their partnership following a successful pilot program at 135 restaurants across Columbus, Ohio, and Dallas, Texas.

Marketing 53

Marketing Sales Numbers Technology 53

PYMNTS

DECEMBER 14, 2017

On Thursday (Dec. 14), Overstock.com CEO Patrick Byrne revealed that within the next three months the company should have a deal to sell or reorganize its retail business to focus on blockchain. In the interview with CNBC , Byrne said, “my goal is [within] 60 to 90 days we walk away from this,” noting he has an “ethical obligation” to focus on his new De Soto joint venture for the next five years.

eCommerce 51

eCommerce Investments Retail Securities 51

Speaker: Abdi Ali, Sr. Lease Accounting Consultant

Join this insightful webinar with industry expert Abdi Ali, who will discuss the challenges that can arise from managing lease accounting with spreadsheets! He will share real-world examples of errors, compliance issues, and risks that may be present within your spreadsheets. Learn how these tools, while useful, can sometimes lead to inefficiencies that affect your time, resources, and peace of mind.

Accounting

PYMNTS

DECEMBER 15, 2017

Retail isn’t all about taking people’s money. Today, it’s also about telling a story and building an experience that makes customers want to shop with the brand again. So, one might think it would be a no-brainer for luxury brands, which have such a legacy presence in the market, to be all over the latest storytelling modes, with exciting new ways to draw consumers into their rich and storied history.

Startups 51

Startups Retail Leverage Technology 51

PYMNTS

DECEMBER 11, 2017

There seems to be no such thing as a Christmas vacation when one’s main profession is defrauding consumers and businesses. It appears the ever-inventive thieves of the world have found a new way to make gift card fraud work for them this holiday season, according to the Better Business Bureau (BBB). This year the scam relies on thieves grabbing cards off the rack, scratching the film that covers the card PIN underneath and copying the relevant numbers.

Retail 51

Retail Numbers Securities Marketing 51

PYMNTS

DECEMBER 14, 2017

When a company is as massive as any one of the Frightful Five, the bad news is it’s inevitable that some things will slip under the radar. Apple and Amazon learned that the hard way this week as partners called them out on fake apps and hubcaps for sale on their platforms. The good news, though, is that it’s never all bad news when you’re as big as the Frightful Five.

Valuation 51

Valuation Currencies Leverage Numbers 51

PYMNTS

DECEMBER 15, 2017

It looked great in the store, but it didn’t look so great when it got home. It’s a problem all consumers face, and it isn’t that big of a deal for most objects. Thinking better of a buy is an easily solved problem generally handled by finding a receipt and returning to the store to trade in a wrong purchase. But, as easy as that is when the item in question is, say, a t-shirt, the mechanics of buyer’s remorse become a good deal more complex when the thing that didn’

Entertainment 51

Entertainment Retail Startups Marketing 51

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Join us in this webinar, where we share best practices on how to think about the reconciliation work each month, when best to do reconciliations, how they should be prepared, and some common pitfalls to avoid. Learning Objectives: This course objective is to understand how to properly prepare and review balance sheet reconciliations and its impact on the financial statements.

Reconciliations

PYMNTS

DECEMBER 13, 2017

Whether customers shop at a mall once a week or once a year, it’s safe to say that most would probably find a visit to the Mall of America a bit overwhelming, especially if they’ve brought the whole family along, and especially if it’s Christmas time. The mall is so big that the first challenge will be deciding where to park so that no one is walking across the entire property to reach the store they want to visit.

eCommerce 51

eCommerce Planning Retail Technology 51

PYMNTS

DECEMBER 14, 2017

Thanks to early boosts from Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales, the holiday season is poised to be a merrier one for retailers, as Americans are upping their online and in-store spending, according to news from The Wall Street Journal on Thursday (Dec. 14). In fact, in-store, online and restaurant spend increased 0.8 percent in October, per reports from the Department of Commerce, beating economist estimates of 0.3 percent.

Retail 50

Retail eCommerce Sales Economics 50

PYMNTS

DECEMBER 14, 2017

The eyes of the financial services world are on the EU’s upcoming PSD2 regulations, with many jurisdictions watching how the European market evolves and responds to regulations that support data sharing and open banking, while maintaining data security. But there’s another, less talked-about regulation coming in on the heels of PSD2, and it’s one that Jeff Nicholson, vice president of CRM product marketing at software company Pegasystems, says is a “sleeping giant.”

Compliance 49

Compliance Education Securities Marketing 49

PYMNTS

DECEMBER 12, 2017

Ambitious retailers don’t want to stay locked in one lane, but rather to spread to new audiences, new product types and more — and payments-powering companies are stepping up to give them the lift they need to reach these expansion dreams. The December edition of the PYMNTS Payments Powering Platforms Tracker , a WePay collaboration, features the latest insight from the CEO of AmeriCommerce, a major player in the eCommerce platform space, and the latest headlines from the space.

eCommerce 49

eCommerce Retail Marketing 49

Speaker: David Warren and Kevin O’Neill Stoll

Transitioning to a usage-based business model offers powerful growth opportunities but comes with unique challenges. How do you validate strategies, reduce risks, and ensure alignment with customer value? Join us for a deep dive into designing effective pilots that test the waters and drive success in usage-based revenue. Discover how to develop a pilot that captures real customer feedback, aligns internal teams with usage metrics, and rethinks sales incentives to prioritize lasting customer eng

Sales

PYMNTS

DECEMBER 13, 2017

Today in PYMNTS’ data, venture capital (VC) funding is backing digital currency operations, bitcoin is edging up on record highs, identity (ID) verification solutions providers are helping merchants verify customers’ ideas, small- and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) are reporting they trust their payment providers and banking infrastructure and small community banks are enjoying the benefits of Same Day ACH credit transactions.

Currencies 49

Currencies Banking Numbers Securities 49

PYMNTS

DECEMBER 14, 2017

Today in PYMNTS’ data, delivery firms will ship more packages than ever this holiday shopping season, bitcoin is having another whirlwind week, financial institutions (FIs) are working toward better innovations to create higher customer satisfaction, B2B digital procurement tools are not being used to their fullest potentials and the upcoming General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) might leave some businesses non-compliant.

Compliance 49

Compliance B2B Currencies Banking 49

PYMNTS

DECEMBER 12, 2017

Faster and real-time payments are generally considered a benefit for the consumer payments world. But with the U.S. finally making inroads in its faster payments initiatives, it’s now time to see whether faster payments will make their way into the B2B sphere too. Released last week, December’s PYMNTS Faster Payments Tracker , powered by NACHA , tracks progress of faster payments initiatives throughout the U.S.

B2B 48

B2B Banking Accounting Technology 48

PYMNTS

DECEMBER 15, 2017

Life is full of complexity. Life for a small- to mid-sized business (SMB) scaling operations into new countries? Complex on so many levels, especially when it comes to payments and, more specifically, invoicing, where demands for payment are tracked through paper and electronic means. On a good day, managing the ebb and flow of supply chains, accounts receivable and accounts payable can be challenging; on a bad day, juggling all those spinning plates becomes a nightmare.

Invoicing 48

Invoicing Reconciliations Currencies Education 48

Speaker: Mark Stovel

When it comes to automating, many firms focus on finding the latest tech, believing that efficiency is something achieved through new tools. Yet true efficiency is achieved by delivering real value to clients, not merely by upgraded systems. Without a clear approach, no level of automation can overcome the complexities of serving every client’s needs.

Marketing