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Square (see our review) is finally a publicly traded company. The whole affair generated quite a bit of buzz for a lot of reasons — what it means for investors, what it means for other tech companies (and payment companies) that want to go public…and what it means for merchants. Since its founding, Square’s kept rather mum […]

Being able to accept credit and debit cards is the lifeblood of any business. For brick-and-mortar locations, it’s worth knowing this: About half of all Americans carry just $20 in cash with them on a daily basis, and about 80% of Americans carry less than $50 daily. This means if you don’t accept credit cards, […]

Way back in 2009, a novel company called Square (see our review) introduced to the world pay-as-you-go processing, using only a smartphone and a card reader plugged into the audio jack. In doing so, Square changed the payments game. Before that, most retailers, restaurants, and other businesses had to open traditional merchant accounts. Artists and […]

If you pay attention to Internet buzz at all, you’ve probably heard the word “mobile” thrown out a lot. Just about everything’s gone mobile — gaming, marketing, shopping, and yes, even payments. With the rise of apps like Apple Pay, Android Pay, and Samsung Pay, more shoppers are finding it convenient to ditch the card all together and […]

In 2012, the PewResearch Internet Project found that 65 percent of respondents in its survey believed that by 2020, mobile payments will have almost entirely replaced the need for cash or even credit cards. And if you’re a merchant who’s not accepting mobile payments yet, you’re already behind the curve. Now is a good time to take a […]

Retailers, restaurant owners, and other merchants have been relying on traditional merchant accounts for ages to process credit and debit card transactions. But with the introduction of Square in 2009 and PayPal Here in 2012, pay-as-you-go processing has emerged as the egalitarian solution to card processing. E-commerce has thrived, and vendors of all types — from […]

Back in September 2014, Apple finally did what technophiles have been clamoring for it to do for ages: It added an NFC chip to its newest-generation smartphone, the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus. Suddenly, you could just tap your phone to complete a payment, with no need to dig through a wallet, using the Apple Pay […]

  I spend a lot of time at conventions and arts-and-craft fairs, helping a friend sell her merchandise. It’s a good opportunity to meet other vendors and talk shop, which is not only a great source of ideas for new merchandise, but also a good way to compare notes on how to run a business. That’s exactly […]

eBay is almost single-handedly responsible for championing PayPal (see our review) and transforming it into the world’s premier online payments option. The online auction marketplace scooped up the fledgling company back in 2002, and after more than a decade together, they’re ready to call it quits. Later this year, PayPal will spin off from eBay and become […]

There’s quite a lot happening on the PayPal front at the moment (check out our recently updated PayPal review here) — not only is it preparing to spin off from its longtime parent company, eBay, but PayPal now allows its merchants to accept Bitcoin payments. For those who don’t know about Bitcoin, it’s a virtual […]