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We’ve known that subscription box sites were on the rise, but new data showing the particular numbers in that regard is nonetheless impressive. EMarketer reports that, according to a recent study from Hitwise, visits to subscription box sites (online subscription retail services like BarkBox , Birchbox and Dollar Shave Club , which, on a monthly basis, provide their members with goods delivered quite literally in a box) in the United States have increased by nearly 3,000 percent in the pas
Cumulus Funding, a consumer finance company specializing in providing Income Share Agreements (“ISAs”) to individuals seeking a more flexible consumer finance alternative, has announced a major funding round today (March 17). Cumulus announced it has closed a round of financing of over $30 million in capital, including $6 million in equity funding and a committed $25 million debt financing facility.
We’ve said it before and we will say it again — when it comes to mobile payments, there’s no one-size-fits-all solution, any more than there is one-size-fits-all payment method. But what is clear is that the mobile solution that will ultimately garner the critical mass needed to ignite it will solve a problem for a consumer. Paying in a store hasn’t ever really been much of a problem – until EMV, anyway — so convincing consumers that it was better for them to pull out their phone and tap at some
The blockchain has been considered a possible means to overhaul an array of aspects in B2B payments, including cross-border and smart documentation. One company wants to use the technology for supply chain management, including payments and invoicing, and, late last week, rolled out its solution to do so. Fluent said Friday (March 11) that it is debuting the Fluent Network, a blockchain-based software platform for cross-border B2B trade aimed at the businesses and financial institutions that pla
Finance teams are drowning in data—but is it actually helping them spend smarter? Without the right approach, excess spending, inefficiencies, and missed opportunities continue to drain profitability. While analytics offers powerful insights, financial intelligence requires more than just numbers—it takes the right blend of automation, strategy, and human expertise.
A loan company employee has pleaded guilty to stealing identities of several customers and fraudulently seeking $400,000 in tax returns. According to court documents , Montgomery, Alabama resident Wendy Huff, who worked at two different insurance companies between January 2013 and August 2015, stole personal information of her employers’ customers, including their names, social security numbers and dates of birth.
In the early days of the smartphone, apps came upon consumers like tiny technological miracles sent from heaven to make their lives easier. “There’s an app for that” was more than a marketing pitch. For a short time, it became something of a lifestyle movement for consumers enamored of their one-tap access to everything. The love affair, however dizzying, was relatively short-lived as consumers began to realize two things simultaneously.
It seems like every innovative, disruptive service changing the world today was immediately met with skepticism upon release. When Uber came out, taxis and regulators claimed that nobody would want to get into a random driver’s car. When Airbnb launched, hotels laughed at the premise that travelers would give up on their traditionally luxurious experiences.
It seems like every innovative, disruptive service changing the world today was immediately met with skepticism upon release. When Uber came out, taxis and regulators claimed that nobody would want to get into a random driver’s car. When Airbnb launched, hotels laughed at the premise that travelers would give up on their traditionally luxurious experiences.
By any stretch, President Barack Obama’s trip to Cuba is a historic event. After all, he is the first United States president to visit the tiny nation, so long a U.S. adversary, in roughly 90 years. Obama has reopened the U.S. embassy there and has also paved the path for commercial airline flights to begin to that nation. Mail will go back and forth between the two countries.
If Beyoncé and Jay Z ever see their musical careers go in the tank (they won’t), at least now they have their own music streaming service to fall back on for day jobs. On the other hand, Solange — Beyoncé’s sister — has to make her eCommerce venture work without the luxury of a few Billboard charting tunes. That’s the mission behind the relaunch of Solange’s online store for her Saint Heron fashion line, which aims to incorporate diversity into every design it sells.
Payment fraud evolves in ways that are truly frightening — and with haste. Fraudsters are continually scrambling to keep up with, and have one foot in front of, technology, with recent stumbling blocks in the form of EMV, in the United States, likely to give rise to greater card-not-present fraud. But the would-be payments criminals have potent weaponry at hand, including ever faster, ever more powerful and ever cheaper computing power, and they have been targeting, according to data science fir
The whispers have grown to loud chatter when it comes to blockchain technology and the impact it might have on the financial services sector. What once may not have been taken seriously — cryptocurrencies and futuristic payments — is today exploding as the innovation financial institutions are targeting for investments, largely hoping to get a jump on the blockchain before disruption takes a bite out of their traditional business.
Your financial statements hold powerful insights—but are you truly paying attention? Many finance professionals focus on the income statement while overlooking key signals hidden in the balance sheet and cash flow statement. Understanding these numbers can unlock smarter decision-making, uncover risks, and drive long-term success. Join David Worrell, accomplished CFO, finance expert, and author, for an engaging, nontraditional take on reading financial statements.
The path to faster payments in the U.S. doesn’t have to be paved with a 500+ person task force analyzing what the world would look like if we were starting from a clean sheet of paper, competing propositions for who’s going to build and operate a new set of rails, or even what sort of spiffy software can make existing rails faster. Instead, we could do something right away — or almost right away — that would make payments between consumers and businesses faster.
While some Asian country economies may be slowing down, the health of the online retail markets across the continent is booming. According to a recent report from Forrester, as reported on by ZDNet , total eCommerce revenue for China, Japan, South Korea, India and Australia is projected to nearly double in the next five years, from $733 billion in 2014 to $1.4 trillion by 2020.
Cybersecurity firm FireEye warns of the dangers that custom-built malware poses to retailers due to its ability to capture payment card details directly from retail point-of-sale (POS) systems. In an article posted to its research blog on Monday (March 28), FireEye warned about the POS malware called TREASUREHUNT that it said is designed to enumerate running processes, extract payment card data from memory and then transmit the stolen information to a command and control server.
GM is amping up its cybersecurity unit to ready itself against rising possibilities of threats to its automobile firewall. The company has called for hackers to help it uncover loopholes in its cybersecurity net for vehicles, websites and software, under a “coordinated disclosure” program. The program’s launch comes at a time when cybersecurity gaps in the automobile industry are increasingly drawing scrutiny on a regulatory level and are leading to massive recalls, The Wall St
Traditional budgeting and forecasting methods can no longer keep pace with today’s rapidly evolving business environment. Static budgets, rigid annual forecasts, and outdated financial models limit an organization’s ability to adapt to market shifts and economic uncertainty. To stay ahead, finance leaders must leverage a future-forward approach—one that leverages real-time data, predictive analytics, and continuous planning to drive smarter financial decisions.
Blockchain proponents say the disruptive technology is worth the onboarding process. Among one of the loudest of these blockchain champions is Ripple, a FinTech firm that has recently secured millions of dollars in investments and strategic partnerships aimed at promoting blockchain technology’s use for traditionally friction-rich areas, like cross-border payments and real-time payments.
The feud between Apple and the FBI has turned hostile, with the government agency calling out Apple’s actions as false and corrosive to the very system meant to protect rights. “Here, Apple deliberately raised technological barriers that now stand between a lawful warrant and an iPhone containing evidence related to the terrorist mass murder of 14 Americans.
About 18 months ago, Apple Pay awakened the world to the possibilities and potential of using a mobile phone as a replacement for a plastic card at the physical point of sale. Could Apple succeed where so many had failed? The world watched, waited and speculated. PYMNTS, in partnership with InfoScout, decided to put some data behind the watching and launched the PYMNTS/InfoScout Apple Pay Adoption Tracker in November of 2014.
Let’s go back for a minute to the year 1999. It was just about a decade years after Tim Berners-Lee gave people the ability to actually use the Internet via World Wide Web. 171 million of the 6 billion humans on the planet were using the Internet. And 51 percent of CEOs said that the Internet probably wouldn’t have a big impact on their business.
As businesses increasingly adopt automation, finance leaders must navigate the delicate balance between technology and human expertise. This webinar explores the critical role of human oversight in accounts payable (AP) automation and how a people-centric approach can drive better financial performance. Join us for an insightful discussion on how integrating human expertise into automated workflows enhances decision-making, reduces fraud risks, strengthens vendor relationships, and accelerates R
As the FBI works to combat a specific type of ransomware virus, it is calling on businesses and software security experts for emergency assistance in its investigation. Over the weekend, Reuters obtained a confidential “Flash” advisory from the FBI: “We need your help!” The particular strain of ransomware the FBI is fighting is known as MSIL/Samas.A and is being used by hackers for extortion.
Small and medium businesses (SMBs) are the backbone of the American economy. They account for almost half of payroll (48%) and have created about 60% of new jobs since 2009. Given the rapid growth of technology solutions that can help these businesses thrive, not to mention get an edge with their customers, PYMNTS.com and Sage set out to measure the rate of adoption of these technologies for SMBs across the U.S.
An inherent truth of the retail industry — that consumers, at the end of the day, wield the ultimate power in determining what products and companies succeed — can even be applied to entire business models. Pet retail is, by and large, in no danger of slowing down any time soon, given that consumers’ affection for cuddly companions (and not-so-objectively-cuddly ones, like fish and reptiles) translated into a $17.5 billion business worldwide as of last year.
Every generation has to eat, but every generation doesn’t have to eat the same way. Whole Foods and other retailers capitalizing on the at-home health food craze were able to get out in front of millennial eating trends — or, at least, start riding at the crest of the wave. Fast casual restaurants weren’t so prescient, though, and now, cracks are appearing in one of the Baby Boomer generation’s most enduring retail trends.
Based off SkyStem's popular e-Book, the book of secrets to the month-end close will be revealed in this one-hour webinar. Learn leading practices when it comes to building a strong and sustainable month-end close that has room to grow and evolve. Learn about the power of precise estimates, why reconciliations are critical to closing the books, how and when to automate, and how the chart of accounts play into your close process.
The story behind the massive $101 million bank hacking that hit Bangladesh’s central bank last week just got even juicier. It turns out those funds were stolen from Bangladesh’s account at the New York Fed through the use of official government codes. This has left officials across four countries digging for answers, and one top bank chief has turned in his resignation.
Cars that can find cheap gas, a table for 2 at a restaurant nearby and advance order milk, cereal and paper towels for a quick pick up on the way home are no longer a wild and crazy idea never to see the light of day. Software and applications are eating commerce. Well, to be precise, enabling it in ways that are limited only by the imaginations of the innovators who see ways to tuck commerce into the places where consumers and businesses meet to do business.
“There exists a bizarre gap in today’s state of financial services.” That’s the philosophy of Shake, a new startup in the bitcoin world that is (unsurprisingly) trying to pitch a payment method that doesn’t involve banks, governments or regulators. Instead, its latest product rollout is all about making bitcoin and digital currency payments easier to make.
First, video killed the radio star. Then, CDs, MP3s and the iPod caused the death of their predecessors. From the 1990s to the mid-2000s, it seemed like the future of music was directly headed for increasingly smaller players in increasingly intangible formats. But just when the last iPods started giving way to entirely online streaming services, millennial audiophiles suddenly fell back in love with vinyl records — a music format they never even knew growing up.
AI is reshaping industries, yet finance remains one of the slowest adopters. Concerns over compliance, legacy systems, and data silos have made finance teams hesitant to embrace AI-driven transformation. But delaying adoption isn’t just about efficiency—it’s about staying competitive in a rapidly evolving landscape. How can finance leaders overcome these challenges and start leveraging AI effectively?
Starbucks isn’t quite done tinkering with its rewards program. Following the news last month that the coffee giant will, beginning in April, revamp its loyalty program so that it rewards customers with “stars” (AKA points) based on dollar amount spent rather than per transaction (a change that was met with a mixed response from consumers), The New York Times reports that Starbucks is also going to offer a prepaid card that will provide customers with another way to earn stars.
A decade ago, Etsy was the only way that some small-scale crafts makers and artisans could participate in the eCommerce world. Now, however, the pop-up shop is quickly enshrining itself as the preferred way for emerging brands to bring their wares quickly and efficiently to market. The New York Times has the story of how several brands with small-to-nonexistent physical footprints are using the phenomenon of the pop-up shop to make big waves in areas only traditional retail proved able to until
The world of mobile payments news this week started out in the one region of the world that doesn’t often make much news when it comes to what U.S. companies are doing in mobile commerce: Cuba. And everyone wanted in. Which brought about news from some of the biggest players in mobile payments, like Xoom, PayPal and Western Union. Beyond that, there was also plenty of news (and stats) that broke from the mobile pay bigwigs, like Apple, Google and Alibaba.
While successfully onboarding customers is critical to many organizations, the process of finding and attaining these potential customers, along with the cost, isn’t always easy. The approval process itself can be prone to a variety of different friction points, but even with an efficient approach there is always the risk of unknowingly approving bad or fraudulent customers.
Is your tech stack working for you—or are you working for it ? 🤖 In today’s world of automation and AI, technology should simplify workflows—not add complexity. Seamless integration and interconnectivity are key to maximizing productivity, optimizing workflows, and improving collaboration. Join expert Joe Wroblewski for a practical and insightful session on how you can build a smarter, more connected tech stack that drives efficiency and long-term success!
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