Square learns that customer service in the payments space is a tough job
Technology has disrupted a seemingly countless number of industries over the past decade, from advertising to real estate. When looking at the industries grappling with technology-driven change, however, arguably few have been more affected than the multi-trillion dollar payments space.
The advent of mobile phone, and the smartphone in particular, has created significant opportunities, many of which upstarts like Square are trying to exploit.
LivingSocial launches its own Visa reward credit card
While daily deals giant Groupon deals continues to struggle with being a publicly-traded company, its biggest competitor, Amazon-backed LivingSocial, continues to try to prove that the daily deal model is viable when done right.
One of the biggest challenges in doing that is getting daily deal customers to return to the merchants that lured them in with a bargain.
Indeed, much of the criticism that has emerged around the daily deal model is that many if not most daily deal customers hop from business to business in search of the best deal. In the worst cases, this leaves some merchants with losses they can ill-afford.
Walmart.com targets cash-only shoppers
When you go shopping online, most retailers are ready to welcome your business provided that you have one thing: a credit card.
Thanks to the wide availability of credit cards in the Western world, online retail has become a multi-billion dollar business. But how much business are online retailers missing out on from would-be customers who don't have credit cards?
Square targets POS systems with new iPad app
If payment upstart Square has its way, payment-taking iPads will be in far more than just taxis.
In its quest to become a payments powerhouse, the company has a much larger target: those ubiquitous POS systems used by millions and millions of businesses large and small in the United States.
Square wants to outfit taxis with tablets
The battle between traditional payment processors and financial institutions and upstarts looking to dethrone them is on.
The upstarts, obviously, have their work cut out for them. Entrenched players like Verifone have significant marketshare, and are increasingly employing interesting strategies in an attempt to ensure they always have a seat at the dinner table.
That means one thing: the upstarts have to get clever and creative. And that's just what they're doing.
The Blippy breach: implications for commerce
Last week, Blippy, a Twitter for purchases, created quite a stir when
it was revealed that the company had exposed the credit card numbers of
several users.
The company's co-founder, Philip Kaplan, sought to downplay the
severity of the mistake but as more and more individuals cozy up to the
growing number of services that encourage 'oversharing' of
financial-related information online, a number of parties involved with
commerce will be affected.
Blippy tries to turn shopping into status updates
When Twitter launched, it asked users a simple question: what are you doing? Blippy, a new startup co-founded by Philip Kaplan of F*cked Company fame, asks an equally simple question: what are you buying?
A bevy of high-profile investors, including Twitter co-founders and CEO Ev Williams, are betting that internet users won't be able to resist answering Blippy's question. They've funded the company to the tune of $1.6m.
How do you handle payment card declines?
A potentially valuable customer visits your site, chooses their products, proceeds through the checkout, and submits their payment details. The worst happens, their card is declined. What can we, as etailers, do to provide these customers with the best experience, and not lose a sale?
Would you trust a Pirate Bay co-founder with your credit card number?
Peter Sunde is best known as one of the founders of The Pirate Bay (TPB), the now-deceased BitTorrent index. In April of this year, Sunde and his fellow TBP operators were found guilty of copyright infringement and were each ordered to pay close to €2.75m in damages.
Having apparently decided that piracy doesn't pay, Sunde now has a new business venture: he wants your credit card number. His new company, Kvittar, plans to "automatically collect your receipts and store them digitally for easy search and access."
Visa teams with Flickr for global community
It's shaping up to be a big week for social media. Now Visa is making some social media news, this time on a more conventional platform than other recent entries, like Skittles. The credit card is launching its first global advertising campaign, complete with a microsite, rich media banner ads with live video feeds from international locations, and a multicultural twist on Flickr.
The "More People Go With Visa" campaign's microsite will feature a
"Gosaic," which is Visa-speak for a collection of images submitted by
people through Flickr along with recommendations from them about
experiences that can be enabled through a Visa card. The "Gosaic" will
feature more than 200 merchant offers delivered to users depending on
their interests, location, and time of day. The whole thing launches
with ads on Fox's "American Idol" tomorrow night, March 4.
