After a haircut in its IPO earlier this week, to $9.00 per share, Square’s first day of trading yesterday soared more than 60%, closing at $13.07. It was expected to price in the $11 to $13 range but there has been growing skepticism among institutional investors in regard to tech unicorns.
Five interconnected forces are set to disrupt retail, presenting retailers with powerful challenges and opportunities. Economic, demographic, technology, urban and consumer forces are combining to create new markets, transform consumer expectations and reshape the rules of retail.
U.S. Millennials (aged 16-30) are the most likely to adopt new buying methods such as mobile payments with 9% of U.S. millennials using mobile payment applications daily.
A new website linking retailers to a comprehensive offering of retail payment technology services, including IT security, merchant services, Ecommerce, cloud-based IT services, POS systems, payment gateway, PCI compliance and network management has been launched.
Holiday retail sales are expected to grow by 3.6% driven by growing consumer optimism about personal finances, Nearly half (47%) of those surveyed indicate they are more confident in their financial situation than last year (37%), and 48% plan to start their holiday shopping earlier this year.
CardFlash News Briefs: HYPERWALLET (loyalty); CARDINALCOMMERCE (patent); MYPINPAD (study); and PARKMOBILE (Pittsburgh).
CardFlash News Briefs: TSYS (CQM); HEARTLAND (LiquorPOS); MEMBER SOLUTIONS (PCI-DSS); and CARDFLIGHT (TSYS).
The average late stage U.S. credit card delinquency (90+ day) among the nation’s top four issuers increased six basis points (bps) sequentially, to 0.98% for the third quarter, compared to 0.92% in the prior quarter and 0.98% one-year ago. However, all the issuers, except Capital One, were down year-on-year (YOY), according to CardData.
The national VantageScore credit score is up by three points, from 666 to 669. Bankcard lending continues to increase, with new bankcards up 7.7%.
Merchants continue to fail in delivering a seamless and localized ecommerce experience to shoppers outside their own country- a dangerous choice when 20% of all online shoppers currently come from foreign IP addresses, which is estimated to become 45% of all online shoppers by 2020.
New research shows criminals are becoming more creative where, when and how they take advantage of the season, as the number of fraudulent purchases increases proportionately when sales peak during the holidays.
About a third of Americans say they either exclusively make holiday season purchases using credit cards (15%) or that they make more purchases on credit than they do using cash or debit cards (17%). Thirteen percent (13%) use each in equal measure, while roughly half (49%) say they use cash/debit either predominately (20%) or exclusively (29%).
