ANNOUNCEMENTSStepping up the fight against card-not-present fraud, online payments technology firm BlueSnap Inc. built a new fraud-stack solution into its All-in-one-Payment Platform. Included in the stack are fraud protection integrations with Kount Inc., Chargebacks911, Ethoca Inc., and CardinalCommerce for 3-D Secure, the company noted. "Building this critical functionality into our solution allows businesses to fraud-proof their payments with a single connection to our platform," said Ralph Dangelmaier, CEO of BlueSnap.
Fraud prevention and management firm ClearSale released a new ebook titled, Fraud Protection Buyer's Guide, which is offered as a resource for online merchants who are unsure which fraud protection solution is best for them. The ebook walks merchants through the buying process by identifying the solutions available and outlining critical factors to consider. It describes each of the fraud protection options and explains their impact on the efficiency and effectiveness of a business. Also included is a checklist so that ecommerce merchants can ask the right questions when comparing the solutions.
Net Element Inc. launched Netevia, an omnichannel payment platform designed to connect and simplify payments across multiple sales channels and devices through a single integration point. According to Net Element, the new platform offers end-to-end payment processing through a user-friendly development center that features language-agnostic application programming interfaces and SDKs. Security and fraud protection on the platform includes over 150 risk monitoring filters, vaulting, tokenization and point-to-point encryption, the company said.
The National Retail Federation projected that 2018 retail industry sales will grow between 3.8 and 4.4 percent over 2017. "Online and other non-store sales, which are included in the overall number, are expected to increase between 10 and 12 percent," the NRF noted, adding that the numbers exclude automobiles, gasoline stations and restaurants.
"A robust holiday season for retail sales is just one of many barometers that points to a consumer that is clearly feeling positive about their financial health," NRF President and CEO Matthew Shay said. "Despite headlines to the contrary, the retail industry is strong, growing and meeting consumer demand with the products they want at the prices they expect and the shopping experience they want to have, online or in store."
Sage Payment Solutions Inc., a provider of integrated payment processing and business solutions in North America, is now operating under the new brand name Paya (pronounced pie-ya). The new corporate name signals a tectonic shift in the company's vision and strategy in the fintech market, the company stated. "The Paya name represents the fresh and progressive company we are building for our employees, partners, and customers as we work to become the foremost technology platform helping companies run their businesses better," said Joe Kaplan, Paya CEO. The company also heralded a significant investment to expand its channel partner program.
The Strawhecker Group revealed the winners of its Payment Gateway Awards for 2017, an inaugural awards program. Powered by its Gateway Enterprise Metrics platform, TSG analyzed transaction performance, as well as the onboarding and ecommerce merchant startup processes from merchant, developer, partner and consumer perspectives. The winner for transaction performance was CyberSource, and the runner up was Vantiv (now Worldpay); the onboarding process winner was BluePay Processing LLC, with Authoirze.Net coming in second; and the startup ecommerce merchant category winner was Shopify, followed by runner up Stripe.
RESEARCHThe 2018 Identity Fraud Study by Javelin Strategy & Research revealed that 16.7 million U.S. consumers were impacted by identity fraud in 2017, a record high since Javelin began tracking identity fraud in 2003. The amount stolen as a result of identity fraud last year rose to $16.8 million. Javelin noted fraudsters' continued shift to online away from physical stores to commit fraud, and while credit card accounts remained a prime target, the opening of intermediary accounts, such as email payments and other Internet accounts, saw significant growth in 2017.
Mercator Advisory Group's Payment Channel Alternatives to the Card Networks for Merchants describes ways consumers can pay for transactions and how merchants can integrate these payment acceptance methods into their POS systems. Most retailers, especially small businesses, can save money on interchange and related fees thanks to some existing technologies as well as more recent API developments from payment providers, Mercator stated. Highlights of the research report include consumer in-store payment preferences, types of merchant payment channel alternatives, emerging decoupled debit payment methods, merchant pains and gains from card networks, and merchant payment transaction processing fee examples.
For its Email Benchmark Report: A Marketer's Guide to 2018, Yes Lifecycle Marketing analyzed almost 9 billion emails sent in the fourth quarter of 2017 and over 30 billion sent in 2017 via its Yesmail360i platform. Researchers found that in 2017 smartphone orders accounted for 46 percent of all email-driven orders, representing a year-over-year increase of 33 percent. During the same period, tablet and desktop orders saw declines of 14 percent and 18 percent, respectively. Triggered emails, which are automated emails triggered by specific events, such as an action taken by a website visitor, generated more than double the open rate, triple the unique click rate, and almost double the click-to-open rate of standard emails; yet triggered messages made up only 2 percent of email volume in 2017.
PARTNERSHIPSSan Jose,Calif.-based eBay Inc. agreed with Adyen BV, a global payment technology provider headquartered in Amsterdam, to designate Adyen its primary payment processing partner. The move is designed to enable eBay to intermediate payments on its Marketplace platform, which eBay expects will allow it to manage the payments flow and simplify the end-to-end experience for buyers and sellers. The transition to full payments intermediation is expected to take place over the next three years under the parameters of eBay's Operating Agreement with PayPal, which will be in place through mid-2020. Long-time partner and former eBay company PayPal will remain a payment option at checkout.
Payment processing provider Sterling Payment Technologies, a division of EVO Payments International, partnered with POS software developer Osprey Retail Systems Inc. to offer a semi-integrated EMV (Europay, Mastercard and Visa) payment solution to retailers in niche markets, including liquor and wine, pets, and specialty grocers. Using both Datacap NETePay and Ingenico's Telium payment terminals, the joint EMV solution provides multi-layered security with point-to-point encryption, thereby reducing a merchant's PCI compliance scope, the partners stated.
Business accounting platform Xero and ecommerce payment processor Stripe expanded their partnership to enable Xero customers to accept automated clearing house (ACH) payments with Stripe. With the availability of ACH payments, which are efficient but traditionally cumbersome to set up, Xero's more than 1.2 million subscribers have yet another way to get paid quickly, safely and securely, the companies stated. "Our ultimate goal at Xero is to make sure small businesses are getting paid as quickly as possible, while making the experience from set up to reconciliation seamless," said Craig Walker, Chief Technology Officer at Xero. "[T]his new feature gives our customers even more ways to get paid efficiently while keeping sensitive information safe."
ACQUISITIONSAlibaba Group Holding Ltd. and Ant Small and Micro Financial Services Group Co. Ltd. stated that Alibaba will acquire a 33 percent equity interest in Ant Financial. The parties have agreed to certain amendments to their 2014 transaction agreements to facilitate the transaction. Alibaba will acquire newly issued equity from Ant in exchange for certain intellectual property rights owned by Alibaba exclusively related to Ant Financial. There will be no cash impact to Alibaba following completion of the transaction, Alibaba noted.
Merchant services and payments organization Payroc LLC acquired Integrity Payment Systems LLC, a full-service processor and acquirer. The combined Chicagoland companies have more than 27,000 merchants and over $8.2 billion in annual core merchant processing volume, Payroc noted, adding that Payroc and Integrity are expanding their member bank sponsor relationships with the addition of Chicago-headquartered MB Financial Bank N.A. Payroc has registered to become an ISO with MB Financial, and Integrity has registered to become a third-party payment processor, ISO and encryption support organization.
Shift4 Payments LLC acquired industry-leading POS brands Restaurant Manager, POSitouch and Future POS. These acquisitions represent a significant share of the hospitality POS market and join Harbortouch in the Shift4 family of POS brands, Shift4 stated, adding that the companies add nearly 100,000 merchants to the Shift4 Payments platform, including national chain restaurants such as Wendy's, Arby's, Denny's, KFC, Outback Steakhouse, Bonefish Grill and Dairy Queen. "Our considerable experience has given us the confidence to bring together the leading brands in hospitality point-of-sale technology in a move that is truly transformational for our organization and for the industry as a whole," stated Shift4 CEO Jared Isaacman.
APPOINTMENTSPaytronix Systems Inc., a developer of mobile loyalty, ordering, payment and digital communication applications and tools, added three executives to its sales organization: Eric Israel was appointed Head of Global Sales; Carl Gern was named Head of Global Partner Sales; and after a four-year hiatus from the company, Eddie Ayala is returning to the company as West Coast Sales Representative.
Seasoned software executive Israel previously led the North American sales team for Trillium and held senior sales positions at Mblast, Socialware, Invention Machine and Biz360 Inc. Before joining Paytronix, Gern, whose specialty is channel partner program development, built and transformed partner ecosystems with Perceptive Software, Trillium Software and Experian Data Quality. Ayala most recently served as National Sales Director at Bridg, then as Director of Sales at Custom Business Solutions, Paytronix stated.
Mitchell (Mitch) Levy, Marc Seidel and Gary Lockwood joined 6th Avenue Capital LLC as the company's new Strategy Officer; Vice President, Business Development; and Business Development Manager, respectively. Levy, who has more than three decades of experience in alternative financing, held executive and senior level positions at a number of small business funders, including OQUITY, Capify and Bizfi.
Seidel served more than 10 years at Bizfi where most recently he worked in business development and was responsible for managing ISO relationships and driving deal demand. Previously the owner of a consulting business, Lockwood also held executive positions at Fundation, as well as AmeriMerchant (now Capify), where he was responsible for onboarding, managing and training broker and partner groups. 
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