July 5 global payments news

Happy July 5 to our US readers and welcome to this week’s global payments news roundup. We start with a look at the growing Chinese traveler payments market and CITCON’s EU expansion. Most consumers pick online payments security over convenience, but to the Brits, it’s a close call, according to research from GoCardless. Visa buys Verifi in an effort to battle chargebacks. The cost of building fulfillment centers for Walmart to compete with Amazon is huge. OrderDynamics says US retailers are lagging when it comes to buy-online-pickup-in-store (BOPIS).

In Canada, Visa and PayPal enable faster real-time payments for business and consumers. Interesting McKinsey study shows Germans get 24 online shopping packages annually, compared to only two in Italy. Huh? Amazon plans to launch more than 3,000 satellites for a new global internet service. New research looks at the shift from millennials to GenZ shopping influence. Adyen added Interac Debit on Mobile for In-app and In-browser for Canadian merchant payments. If you’re celebrating the remainder of the July 4 long weekend in the US, do enjoy it with friends and family!

CITCON growing Chinese payments market in the EU

CITCON China traveler payments

Chinese tourists made 140 million outbound trips in 2018, up 13.5% from the previous year, according to the China Tourism Academy. To help EU merchants meet this growing market, CITCON, a US cross-border mobile payments firm announced enhanced market support and services that integrate familiar payments options including Alipay, WeChat Pay, and China UnionPay, the most common payment methods for over one billion Chinese consumers. Read more… 

Security over convenience when paying online

payments security vs convenience

Consumers in Europe think security is more important than convenience when it comes to paying online. But in the UK, the difference is quite small. Over half of Brits chose security, while 43% selected convenience. This is one of the conclusions from the report ‘Security vs convenience in the payment experience’ a study by GoCardless among 4,000 customers across the United Kingdom, France, Germany, and Spain about their opinion on security and convenience when shopping online. Read more… 

Visa agrees to buy Verifi as payments players wrestle with rising chargebacks

Visa buys Verifi for chargeback expertise

Visa Inc. on Friday announced it will buy Verifi Inc, a 14-year-old, Los Angeles-based provider of tools that allow merchants, acquirers, and issuers to resolve chargebacks. Visa, which did not announce terms for the deal, said it will integrate Verifi’s technology with risk-management capabilities from CyberSource and CardinalCommerce, companies the card network acquired in 2010 and 2017. The deal for Verifi comes as concerns in the payments industry over chargebacks have risen in recent years. Read more… 

Not even Walmart has enough cash available to compete with Amazon’s e-commerce fulfillment empire, report says

Amazon warehouse product picker

Walmart’s e-commerce push has been hamstrung in part because of its lack of e-commerce fulfillment centers. Amazon has 110 fulfillment centers in the US to Walmart’s 20, Recode reported. Building more of those fulfillment centers requires serious investment. Amazon’s newest fulfillment center, which will open early July on the outskirts of New Haven, Connecticut, cost some $250 million to build. Read more… 

BOPIS: US retailers looking for omnichannel excellence

BOPIS in-store experience is key

As part of launching BOPIS, most retailers integrate inventory systems and invest in technologies such as order management systems that align online and offline channels. Now, only 27.5% of US retailers offer BOPIS, compared to the UK (64%) and France (50.5%), according to OrderDynamics. However, the number of US retailers offering BOPIS increased 5.7 percentage points in 2018, and BOPIS adoption among US enterprise-sized chains is particularly high at 43%. Read more… 

Visa and PayPal join forces to allow consumers and small businesses in Canada to access money faster 

visa and PayPal partner on real-time payments

Visa and PayPal today launched a feature that allows consumers and small businesses in Canada to instantly access funds. PayPal’s new Instant Transfer, powered by Visa Direct, Visa’s real-time push payments solution, moves money from customers’ PayPal accounts to their bank account via their Visa debit cards – providing an experience that offers speed, security, and convenience, 24/7/365. Read more… 

Germans receive the most packages

Amazon Prime delivery challenges

Consumers in Germany receive more packages per year than every other citizen in Europe. Per capita, in Germany, there are 24 shipments per year. That’s twice as many as in the Netherlands for example. Consulting firm McKinsey published a study about the number of packages consumers in Europe and other markets receive. Although Germany is the number one in Europe, it’s not the number one in the study. That honor goes to China, with an estimated 70 parcels per capita. Read more… 

Amazon wants to launch thousands of satellites so it can offer broadband internet from space

Amazon plans to launch 3,500 satellites for internet service

Amazon is planning to build a network of more than 3,000 satellites federal filings reveal, in an ambitious attempt to provide global internet access. Known as Project Kuiper, the move represents the latest space ambition from Jeff Bezos. Amazon has previously announced its cloud business will build a network of satellite facilities on Earth. Read more…

Post-millennial retail

millennial shoppers

As a consumer group subject to countless studies, Millennials provided a key to how brands and retailers could use digital technology to provide convenience, speed, and choice through online channels for shoppers of all ages. Despite a devastating recession early in their careers, epic student loans and rapid job turnover, a number of Millennials have advanced in their lives to the point where they own homes, have kids and manage a sizeable income. Marketers still want to understand this group, but some of the pressure is off, as attention shifts to Gen Z. Read more…

Adyen Announces Support for Interac® Debit via Apple Pay and Google Pay

Adyen expands payments

Adyen (AMS: ADYEN), the global payments platform of choice for many of the world’s leading companies, announced the addition of Interac Debit on Mobile for In-app and In-browser as a payment method for Canadian merchants. In addition, Adyen will be expanding its partnership with foodora Canada, an on-demand food-delivery service. This allows the company to accept Interac Debit payments through digital wallets, including Apple Pay and Google Pay. Read more…