MoneyHash Aligns with Tap Payments
MoneyHash, a leading payment orchestration platform, announced a partnership with Tap Payments, integrating Tap’s gateway across nine MENA markets. The integration lets merchants route, monitor, and optimize payments through a single control layer while accessing Tap’s extensive local payment methods and multi‑currency support. By combining MoneyHash’s orchestration capabilities with Tap’s infrastructure, businesses can deliver seamless checkout experiences across digital channels without added operational overhead. The collaboration reinforces both firms’ focus on scalable, modern payment infrastructure for the region’s growing digital economy.
EBay UK Up & Running Grants Awarded
eBay UK has announced the winners of its Up & Running Grants, selecting 25 businesses to receive a £10,000 cash grant, £1,000 in advertising credits, and personalised account management support. The programme, launched last year, attracted over a thousand applications...
Poundland Joins Retail Trust to Protect Staff Mental Health
Discount retailer Poundland has teamed up with the Retail Trust to extend mental‑health support to its 12,000‑strong workforce. Employees will gain access to a dedicated wellbeing helpline, counselling, financial assistance and resources for young dependents. Store managers will receive CPD‑accredited...
Visa Urges Banks to Rethink Loyalty Beyond Credit Card Rewards
Visa is urging banks to move beyond credit‑card‑centric loyalty programs toward contextual, data‑driven rewards. Margin pressure on interchange fees and the proliferation of consumer loyalty accounts are forcing banks to seek new funding sources, such as merchant‑backed offers. Visa’s suite...
Fiserv and Affirm Expand Partnership to Bring Pay-Over-Time to Debit Cards
Fiserv and Affirm announced an expanded partnership that will embed Affirm’s pay‑over‑time (BNPL) solution into debit card programs. The integration will be available to thousands of U.S. banks, allowing debit cardholders to access installment financing at the point of sale....
CFOs Prepare for AI by Modernizing Payments
CFOs are accelerating payment modernization as AI becomes mainstream, according to Boost Payment Solutions founder Dean Leavitt. The COVID‑19 pandemic forced a rapid shift from checks and wires to digital platforms, boosting transaction volumes and highlighting the need for flexible,...
95% of Shoppers Research Influencer Picks Before Buying
A new PYMNTS Intelligence study of 3,196 U.S. consumers finds that influencers act more as discovery catalysts than direct sales drivers. While 56% of shoppers purchase an influencer‑recommended item at least once a year, 95% conduct additional research before checkout,...
OPINION: Peak Gets Everyone Excited – but January Is Much More Revealing for Retailers
Retailers often treat Black Friday as the ultimate test of customer experience, yet the true test arrives in January when peak‑season buffers disappear. The post‑holiday period exposes weaknesses in returns processing, inventory synchronization, and delivery speed that were masked by...
OneBill and Linked2pay Partner to Streamline Billing and Payments for Merchants
OneBill and linked2pay announced a strategic integration that unifies billing and payment processing for merchants. The partnership embeds linked2pay’s gateway into OneBill’s cloud‑based revenue platform via real‑time APIs, supporting credit‑card, debit‑card and ACH transactions without separate systems. It promises faster...
Dr Martens Boosted by Turnaround Progress
Dr Martens reported progress in its turnaround, with full‑price direct‑to‑consumer (DTC) sales up 2% year‑to‑date, while overall group revenue fell 2.7% to £253 million in Q3. The company’s wholesale channel rebounded, growing 9.3% as DTC revenue slipped 6.5% due to a...
Ecer.com: Driving Foreign Trade Into the Era of ‘Mobile Transactions’
Ecer.com’s mobile marketplace is reshaping cross‑border B2B trade by enabling end‑to‑end transactions on smartphones. Guangzhou Dinghao Furniture reduced a week‑long order cycle to a single call, leveraging instant messaging, real‑time video and 360° factory tours. Platform data shows response times...
Canadian Retailers Urged to Build Trust and Personalization Through Technology: SOTI Study
Canadian retailers are under pressure to rebuild consumer trust and deliver personalized experiences as inflation curtails spending, according to SOTI’s latest global retail tech study. The survey of 1,000 Canadians shows 83% are shopping more carefully, while 53% expect retailers...
Aligne Appoints Ellie Dickinson as Global DTC Director
Aligne, the London‑based contemporary womenswear label, has named Ellie Dickinson as its global Direct‑to‑Consumer (DTC) director. Dickinson arrives from a commercial director role at Australian brand Dissh, where she oversaw the UK, EU and US markets since September 2024. Her...
What’s In Your Cart?: E.l.f. Beauty’s Chief Brand Officer Laurie Lam on Her Obsession with Black Sesame, Hotel Experiences and...
Laurie Lam, chief brand officer of e.l.f. Beauty, shared her personal shopping habits, emphasizing a preference for minority‑owned and female‑founded brands. She highlighted recent impulse buys such as a black‑sesame crunchy butter from Rooted Fare and sustainable travel experiences at...
Michael Hill Expects Strong Earnings Uplift as Sales Grow
Michael Hill International forecast a 12‑24 percent rise in comparable EBIT for the half year to December 28, targeting $27‑30 million. Group sales increased 3.1 percent to $370.3 million, led by a 6.2 percent surge in Canada and modest gains in Australia and New Zealand. Same‑store sales...
C&I Expo Returns to Sydney as Convenience Retail Decision Makers Gather
The Convenience & Impulse Retailing Expo returns to Sydney on March 17‑18, gathering Australia’s petrol, convenience and independent grocery decision‑makers. Organisers project 1,200‑1,800 senior attendees and more than 120 exhibitors showcasing food, beverage, technology and store‑fit solutions. The event emphasizes...
Enhancing the E-Commerce Experience: Innovative Approaches to Customer Interaction
The latest PaySpace Magazine roundup highlights three pivotal fintech and e‑commerce developments. NEXA Lending introduced a Chat & Social AI platform to streamline loan originators' customer interactions. A European footprint firm closed a €76 million fund targeting 30 climate‑focused and deep‑tech...
McCabes Goes Digital
Ireland’s leading pharmacy chain McCabes announced a transformative digitisation programme that has streamlined operations across its 150 stores. The initiative automated inventory tracking, prescription processing and workforce scheduling, delivering thousands of staff‑hour savings. It also secured more than €100,000 of...
PODCAST: What to Look Out for in 2026!
In a recent podcast, analyst Miya Knights outlines the retail technology landscape poised for 2026. She highlights AI‑powered personalization, edge computing for instant inventory visibility, and immersive AR/VR shopping as key drivers. Knights also stresses the growing importance of sustainable...
U.S. B2B Sales Top $15 Trillion, Ecommerce Redefines How Companies Buy
U.S. manufacturing and wholesale distribution sales reached $15.12 trillion in 2025, marking a modest 0.4% year‑over‑year increase. After a post‑pandemic surge of over 14% in 2021‑22, overall B2B demand has plateaued, while digital commerce channels are expanding at double‑digit rates. The...
Nike to Lay Off 775 Employees as It Accelerates ‘Automation’ at US Distribution Centers
Nike announced it will lay off 775 employees, primarily at its distribution centers in Tennessee and Mississippi, as part of a broader automation drive. The cuts follow a previous reduction of 1,000 corporate roles announced last summer and reflect CEO...
Secret Service Foils Card Skimmers
The U.S. Secret Service’s fraud‑prevention unit partnered with local law‑enforcement to locate and deactivate 411 illegal point‑of‑sale card‑skimming devices in 2025. Across 22 coordinated operations, agents inspected roughly 9,000 businesses and examined about 60,000 terminals, potentially averting $428.1 million in fraudulent...
How Groupe Dynamite Is Personalizing Its POS With Agentic AI
Groupe Dynamite has deployed an agentic AI platform across its point‑of‑sale network to deliver real‑time, personalized product recommendations and dynamic pricing. The system integrates shopper data, inventory levels, and local trends, allowing cashiers to suggest items tailored to each customer’s...
Equifax Offers Verified Employment and Income Data Alongside Credit Reports
Equifax launched Income Confirm, a service that bundles verified employment and income information with its traditional consumer credit reports. The product pulls data from The Work Number and the recently acquired Vault Verify, delivering details such as employee name, Social...
Float Raises $73 Million for Canada-Focused Working Capital Tools
Float Financial, a Canada‑based business finance platform, announced C$100 million (≈US$73 million) in new debt financing from Silicon Valley Bank, First Citizens and a tier‑1 Canadian bank. The facilities allow Float to continue offering up to 4 % interest on business accounts—the highest...
Signet Jewelers Names Carter’s Exec as New Chief Digital and Technology Officer
Signet Jewelers appointed Raghu Sagi, former Carter’s EVP and chief information and technology officer, as its permanent chief digital and technology officer, succeeding Shawn Cornelius who moves to the CIO role. The hire is part of Signet’s "Grow Brand Love"...
The New Retail Reality: Using Site-Level Intelligence to Build More Resilient Supply Chains in 2026
Retailers are confronting mounting ethical, labor and environmental risks that threaten continuity, with 43% lacking visibility beyond Tier‑1 suppliers. Site‑level SMETA audits now reveal roughly 1,000 critical issues each week, including wage violations at 46% of sites and excessive hours...
How to Implement Effective Payment Plans for High-Ticket Retail in 2026: A Guide for Retailers
Retailers of high‑ticket items face declining conversions as consumers balk at large upfront costs and rising credit‑card rates. Offering flexible installment financing—especially 0% or low‑interest plans—creates a clear path to capture otherwise lost sales. The guide outlines a three‑step framework:...
Dollar General Expands Delivery to 17,000+ Stores, Concentrates on Rural Areas
Dollar General has expanded its MyDG same‑day delivery service to more than 17,000 stores, targeting traditionally underserved rural markets. The rollout leverages existing partnerships with DoorDash, which covers 18,000 stores, and a new Uber Eats integration now available at 17,000...
Temu Becomes Local-Only in Türkiye
Temu has halted cross‑border sales in Turkey, limiting the marketplace to products offered by domestic sellers after a recent inspection by the Turkish Competition Authority. The shift follows the company’s 2025 establishment of an Istanbul office and a regulatory push...
Google’s Universal Commerce Protocol: Why the Future of Agentic Commerce Depends on Security
The episode examines Google’s Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP), an open‑source standard designed to unify AI‑driven shopping across retailers and payment providers. It highlights UCP’s advantages—single‑point integration, leverage of Google Merchant Center, modular flexibility, and merchant‑first control—while noting the competitive landscape...
There’s a New Standards War Brewing Around Identity, Data and Payments
The article warns of a brewing standards war as major players roll out new protocols to unify identity, data, and payments. Google’s Agentic Unified Commerce Protocol (UCP) and Agent Payments Protocol (AP2), the industry‑wide ISO 20022 upgrade, and Visa’s Commerce Enablement...
Private Label Sales Set Another Record in 2025
Private‑label sales in the United States reached a record $282.8 billion in 2025, climbing 3.3% from the prior year. The growth rate was nearly three times faster than that of national brands, which only rose 1.2%. Refrigerated items led category gains...
Levi’s Claims ‘Home Turf’ Advantage with Super Bowl Pop-Up Activations
Levi Strauss & Co. is leveraging the Super Bowl spotlight in its hometown with "Home Turf," a series of immersive pop‑up activations across Bay Area stores and a flagship event at 1 Montgomery in San Francisco. The program features exclusive...
Payment Outages Cost $44B in Lost Sales Annually
A new study by Dynatrace, FreedomPay and Retail Economics estimates U.S. retail and hospitality lose $44.4 billion annually due to payment system disruptions. Outages average two hours, yet shoppers abandon purchases after just seven minutes, costing $1.2 billion per minute in the...
De Minimis’ End, Tariffs Spur Headwinds for Aritzia
Apparel retailer Aritzia faced higher import costs after the U.S. de‑minimis exemption ended, prompting it to shift all U.S. e‑commerce fulfillment to its expanded Ohio distribution center. Despite a 410‑basis‑point pressure from tariffs and the exemption loss, the company’s gross...
Retail’s Risky AI Commerce Bet
Retailers are increasingly embedding their product catalogs into external AI assistants such as ChatGPT and Google Bard to capture shoppers where they spend time. This shift promises instant, conversational commerce but forces brands to hand over transaction data and customer...
German Ecommerce Grows Beyond Expectations
German online product spending reached €83.1 bn in 2025, growing 3.2% year‑over‑year and surpassing the 2.5% forecast. For the first time since the pandemic, every quarter posted higher sales than the same period a year earlier, driven by pharmaceuticals, groceries and...
Digital Transformation and the Challenge of Differentiation for FIs
The episode explores how digital banking’s rapid expansion—driven by AI, AI‑powered search, and an ever‑growing suite of services—makes it harder for banks and credit unions to stand out. Guest Dylan Lerner critiques the current “door” approach to embedding wealth‑management tools...
How Smarter Restaurant Tech Is Powering Loyalty Even as Dining Frequency Declines
Restaurant operators face declining visit frequency and rising menu prices in 2026. To retain diners, they are adopting customer data platforms that unify guest data across ordering channels. Real‑time, segment‑level insights enable behavior‑based, spend‑band, and predictive segmentation, delivering offers at...
KAST Launches Earn Vaults Combining Stablecoin Yield with Institutional-Grade Risk Management
KAST has introduced Earn Vaults, a new suite of stablecoin yield products that combine high‑interest returns with institutional‑grade risk controls. The vaults support USDC, USDT and DAI, offering up to 12% annual percentage yield while employing audited smart contracts and...
How New ‘Concept to Commerce’ Event Helps Move Product Teams From Idea to Execution
Retail TouchPoints reports the inaugural NHS Concept to Commerce trade show launching March 31‑April 2, 2026 in Las Vegas. The event expands the National Hardware Show with over 400 exhibitors, including Global Manufacturing, Brand, and Inventor pavilions, and introduces an AI‑powered matchmaking tool...
Why Your ESP Alone Won’t Carry You Into 2026
Retail marketers still rely heavily on email and SMS, but traditional ESPs only reach customers they already know. With up to 95% of website traffic remaining anonymous, the gap between known and unknown shoppers is widening and eroding engagement. Adding...
How Payment Processing Works
The article breaks down payment processing into its core components, detailing the six key players—from cardholder to acquiring bank—and the four-stage transaction flow of authorization, authentication, clearing, and settlement. It explains the distinct roles of acquirers, processors, and gateways, then...
4 Challenges Growing eCommerce Businesses Often Overlook — and How to Address Them
Elavon outlines four common challenges that fast‑growing eCommerce firms often overlook: reaching the right customers, seamless payment processing, fraud protection, and scaling without overburdening systems. The company recommends integrated, all‑in‑one solutions that combine payment, marketing and analytics to reduce administrative...
Payments for Retail: How Membership-Style Saves Money
Retailers are squeezed by rising costs and thin margins, and payment‑processing fees are a hidden drain on profitability. Traditional tiered, flat‑rate, or interchange‑plus models tie fees directly to sales volume, penalising growth. Membership‑based pricing swaps per‑transaction markups for a predictable...
Digital Wallets vs Traditional Payments: Which Drives Faster Checkouts?
UK payment habits in 2026 show digital wallets now used by 57% of adults, overtaking cash for everyday purchases. Contactless and mobile payments account for over half of in‑store card transactions, delivering faster checkout through biometric and tokenised authentication. Traditional...
Nexi Joins Agentic Commerce Alliance
Nexi Group announced its membership in the Agentic Commerce Alliance, a global initiative focused on establishing open standards for autonomous, AI‑driven commerce. The alliance aims to create vendor‑neutral protocols that enable agents to operate securely and interoperably across platforms. Nexi...
SportsShoes.com to Open Flagship Experiential Store in Shoreditch
SportsShoes.com will launch its flagship experiential store, House of SportsShoes, on Shoreditch High Street in early March. The 5,000‑square‑foot venue blends digital‑first retail with a “no bags, no hassle” model, allowing shoppers to try over 100 running shoes and complete...
Beauty Bay Appoints Advisors to Undertake Strategic Review
UK‑based online beauty retailer Beauty Bay has engaged advisory firm Interpath to conduct a strategic review. The review aims to explore fresh capital options, including attracting an investment partner or pursuing a sale. Sources say the process to secure new...