PYMNTS

FEBRUARY 23, 2018

There are few verticals where business is a guaranteed — basically just food, healthcare, and funerary services. And even those spaces are changing. Then there’s gifting. People have always given gifts and probably always will. But they don’t always give the same gifts in the same way. As Jifiti Co-Founder Yaacov Martin sees it, every gift involves three parties: the initiator, the recipient, and the vendor in the middle who’s fulfilling the gift.

Healthcare 75

Healthcare Currencies Communication Retail 75

PYMNTS

FEBRUARY 21, 2018

The banking world is racing to get smarter via artificial intelligence (AI), but how can intelligence that’s artificial stack up to human expertise and the demands of human consumers? . To tackle this issue, companies are looking to infuse AI with a bit of humanity, help consumers better connect with computer-operated services and offer improved insights.

Banking 65

Banking Communication Technology Finance 65

PYMNTS

FEBRUARY 19, 2018

What happens to a company when demand is so high that it can’t scale fast enough? What happens when bad guys make off with the cryptocurrencies its supposed to be trading, unauthorized charges gather steam or glitches snowball? If you’re cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase, with a $1.5 billion valuation and financial backing from names like the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) and Spark Capital, the complaints start to pile up.

Valuation 63

Valuation Accounting Numbers Banking 63

PYMNTS

FEBRUARY 21, 2018

This is not a test. Beware the credit card test. There may be no escaping credit card fraud, as it comes in one form or another. Overall, one subset of card fraud is on the rise: Last year, Radial’s eCommerce Fraud Technology Lab said credit card testing was up triple-digit percentage points on an annualized basis. Credit card testing is a way the bad guys use stolen card data to make sure an account is valid.

Healthcare 62

Healthcare eCommerce Economics Accounting 62

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

FEBRUARY 19, 2018

India expense management company Happay secured more funding after its Series B round, according to an unnamed source cited by VCCircle on Friday (Feb. 16). The publication said Happay raised about $250,000 from Cupola Venture Opportunities, which placed the funding last December. The investment follows a Series B funding round that raised $10 million, also announced last December; that investment was led by Sequoia Capital, while Singapore’s Axiom Capital, a private equity fund, and AME Cloud V

Investments 57

Investments Securities Marketing B2B 57

PYMNTS

FEBRUARY 22, 2018

Who says you can’t teach an old criminal new tricks? Hackers who used to amuse themselves stealing credit cards have raised the level of their identity theft game such that 2017 was a record year — 16.7 million Americans were victimized last year, a jump of eight percent from 2016. That fraud run saw $16.8 billion successfully lifted in 2017, the highest amount in four years.

Numbers 56

Numbers Securities Accounting Sales 56

PYMNTS

FEBRUARY 23, 2018

Creating possible competition for ridesharing companies such as Uber , Nissan and DeNA are planning a test run of a self-driving taxi service — dubbed Easy Ride — in Japan, CNBC reported. Nissan said on Friday (Feb. 23) it will conduct the test on a 4.5 kilometer road in the Minatomirai district of Yokohama in March. To set a destination during the test run, test passengers can request recommended destinations by voice or text through a tablet.

Technology 56

Technology Planning Marketing 56

PYMNTS

FEBRUARY 21, 2018

Public transit app Moovit announced Wednesday (Feb. 21) that it had closed a Series D round of funding, raising $50 million. In a statement on the company’s blog, Moovit said the Series D round of funding was led by Intel Capital. It also featured participation from all of Moovit’s earlier investors, including Sequoia Capital, BMW iVentures, NGP, Ashton Kutcher’s Sound Ventures, BRM, Gemini, Vaizra, Vintage and newcomer Hanaco.

Startups 55

Startups Investments Sales Technology 55

PYMNTS

FEBRUARY 23, 2018

Every workday, some 135 million Americans get behind the wheel for 15 to 30 minutes of commuting each way. In doing so, they reportedly drive $212 billion in annual commerce. Nearly 54 percent of commuters place an order to pick up food along the way, 40 percent get their fix of morning joe and 39 percent find and pay for gas using their phones, according to The Digital Drive Report.

Leverage 55

Leverage Technology Numbers Accounting 55

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

FEBRUARY 19, 2018

At one point, restaurants were not considered desirable tenants in shopping centers. Times have changed, however, as landlords seek to replace anchor stores in U.S. malls that are closing — particularly as shopping increasingly moves online, CNBC reported. “I remember trying to find leases and people were like, ‘No. We don’t want a restaurant in our building.

Retail 54

Retail eCommerce Sales 54

PYMNTS

FEBRUARY 22, 2018

After a weak holiday sales season, Toys R Us is planning to shutter about more 200 stores. The company also plans to lay off many of its corporate staff, the Wall Street Journal reported based on information from people familiar with the situation. The news comes as the retailer’s sales have declined 15 percent from the 2017 holiday shopping season compared to 2016, and as the retailer previously announced it may close 100 stores.

Manufacturing 54

Manufacturing Retail Sales eCommerce 54

PYMNTS

FEBRUARY 22, 2018

Without a doubt, small businesses (SMBs) have more choice than ever before when adopting new technologies, and many of those new tools, from accounting to customer relationship management (CRM), are streaming in as Software-as-a-Service (SaaS). While small firms may be notorious for their inability to invest in newer technologies, software doesn’t seem to be one of them, especially in the U.S.

B2B 54

B2B Valuation Leverage Securities 54

PYMNTS

FEBRUARY 22, 2018

Restaurants may want to reach more delivery customers by expanding into new markets, especially as the market for food delivery could grow to $17 billion by 2020. Yet it doesn’t always make sense for restaurants to open new brick-and-mortar locations. Instead, restaurants are deciding to share kitchen space with other concepts — and accepting deliveries from those locations.

Marketing 53

Marketing Retail Sales 53

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

FEBRUARY 21, 2018

Lending to small businesses (SMBs) among top U.K. banks failed to grow last year, according to new data from the British Business Bank, which found evidence SMBs are turning to other sources of financing. “There is evidence that small businesses are exercising more choice,” said Keith Morgan, British Business Bank chief executive, in an interview with The Financial Times.

Finance 53

Finance Banking Investments Numbers 53

PYMNTS

FEBRUARY 19, 2018

As Amazon seeks to take on Flipkart in India, the eCommerce retailer is looking to offer more private label products. The news comes as Flipkart has also sought to focus on its own house brands, Livemint reported. Amazon India Vice President Manish Tiwary said the company is hoping to launch new product categories, but he would not name specific items.

Planning 52

Planning eCommerce Retail Sales 52

PYMNTS

FEBRUARY 23, 2018

Americans like owning and driving cars – 88 percent of those who are legally able to drive are owners of cars, according to Pew, giving the U.S. the world’s second-highest automobile ownership rate (Italy leads the pack and edges us out with 89 percent ownership). But Americans do not like buying cars – or at least large sections of the car buying process.

Finance 52

Finance Sales Banking Economics 52

PYMNTS

FEBRUARY 19, 2018

Ever since the Uniform Monday Holiday Act took effect in 1968, “President’s Day” has been observed on the third Monday in February. But the holiday is officially known as Washington’s birthday , as the observance started out as a celebration of his birth, after all. George Washington wasn’t a huge fan of big celebrations, so his birthday was only marked with informal gatherings across the U.S. after he died in 1799: His birthday — February 22 — only became a federal holiday in 1879.

Retail 52

Retail Sales Advertising eCommerce 52

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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

FEBRUARY 21, 2018

Governments may not be too keen on bitcoin, but blockchain is another story. In fact, government authorities have begun to help fuel the proliferation of blockchain across the world. In this week’s Blockchain Tracker, PYMNTS runs through some of the latest moves from policymakers and the public sector as they explore blockchain’s potential.

Reconciliations 52

Reconciliations Construction Auditing Banking 52

PYMNTS

FEBRUARY 19, 2018

You could call accounts payable (AP) the last mile of payments in a way. Or perhaps AP stands for the last mile of automated processes? It’s no secret companies are scaling, broadening their reach geographically and seeking to tap new consumers. And, as those same companies bring business and currency across borders, their supply chains lengthen and transactions transverse currencies, languages and any number of regulatory hurdles.

Auditing 51

Auditing Accounts Payable Currencies Accounting 51

PYMNTS

FEBRUARY 19, 2018

The big bucks come anonymously in cryptoland. News came President’s Day that an anonymous investor ponied up nearly $400 million to snap up bitcoin, the name most synonymous with digital currencies. MarketWatch said Monday that the huge investment came from a bitcoin address, 3Cbq7aT1tY8kMxWLbitaG7yT6bPbKChq64 to be exact. The slug came over a time span stretching from Feb. 9 to Feb. 12.

Foreign Exchange 51

Foreign Exchange Currencies Investments 51

PYMNTS

FEBRUARY 23, 2018

Facing slowing growth and pressure from regulators, Airbnb is introducing new services targeted toward travelers who choose luxury accommodations and hotels. On Thursday (Feb. 22), the company introduced upmarket travel services as well as a new category of properties, according to news from Reuters. “Airbnb (is) figuring out how do we grow at the same levels that investors are expecting us to grow, given some of the regulatory headwinds,” Christopher Anderson, a Cornell University professor, t

Nonprofit 51

Nonprofit Planning Investments Numbers 51

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

FEBRUARY 19, 2018

“Elegant” as a descriptor doesn’t make many appearances in the world of financial services or payments, which tend to favor other terms. “Disruptive” is a common attribute, as is “innovative.” “Cutting-edge,” “friction-free” and “one-of-a-kind” also hold sway. That, Alacriti ’s Co-Founder and CEO, Manish Gurukula , said, is about to change. The ability to use voice to do something as simple as paying a bill is what will tip the scales.

Healthcare 50

Healthcare Securities Banking Leverage 50

PYMNTS

FEBRUARY 19, 2018

Iconic French fashion house Chanel has inked a strategic partnership deal with online designer marketplace Farfetch that will focus on deploying the latter’s operating system within the confines of Chanel’s physical boutiques, according to industry news source Business of Fashion. The deal does not allow for the online sale of Chanel’s ready-to-wear or handbags on the Farfetch platform, however, as the storied firm continues to resist making its core offerings part of its digit

eCommerce 49

eCommerce Retail Sales 49

PYMNTS

FEBRUARY 23, 2018

Getting customers through restaurants’ doors and getting restaurants through customers’ doors are two very different things. One can lead a business to succeed, even thrive, while the other can spell its gradual demise. Delivery is convenient on the consumer side; there’s no doubt about that. And aggregators like Grubhub , Seamless , DoorDash and Uber Eats make it even more so.

Concentration 48

Concentration Sales Investments Technology 48

PYMNTS

FEBRUARY 20, 2018

Marking the first time that a brand other than Snap has allowed consumers to purchase a product directly through Snapchat, Nike pre-released its Air Jordan III “Tinker” sneakers on Snapchat with same-day delivery, TechCrunch reported. The sale was only available to attendees of a Monday (Feb. 19) afterparty following the NBA All-Star game and through a collaboration between Snap, Nike’s Jordan brand, Darkstore and Shopify.

Transportation 47

Transportation Leverage Startups Retail 47

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