News Roundup 3/24: 3 Stories That Caught Our Eye

Bevy of payment innovations fuel massive growth

The value of global online, mobile, and contactless payments will increase by 20% between 2015 and 2016, according to a new Juniper Research report discussed by The Paypers. The actual numbers? We’re talking $3.6 billion, up from $3 billion the year before.

Amid all the hand-wringing about low adoption of Apple Pay and potential customer confusion about new technologies, the findings suggest that contactless payments, “buy” buttons on social platforms, and transactions made via messenger apps (like P2P payments made within WeChat) are helping to power the growth – particularly in developing markets.

Amazon’s foray into selfie authentication

Selfies are easy. Selfies are fun. They don’t require typing or remembering strings of letters and numbers. So, why not incorporate them into the payment process? Previously, we talked about Mastercard’s ideas around allowing users to take selfies to verify they are who they say they are.

Now, Re/Code has discovered a patent recently filed by Amazon that would use the same approach: facial recognition, plus an action (like blinking) to prove you’re a real person and not a photo. As we know from past experience, where Amazon goes, others will follow. So, watch this space…

Online retailers embracing Apple Pay

When someone says “Apple Pay,” what do you think of? Someone using their phone at the checkout at Trader Joe’s or to pay for lunch at Panera Bread? While the list of brick-and-mortar merchants that accept Apple Pay is slowly growing, less often discussed are the online retailers hoping that digital wallets will smooth checkout and increase conversion.

Expedia and Overstock.com are two online mega-businesses that recently added Apple Pay as an option, Mobile Commerce Daily reports. Wilson Kerr, VP of business development and sales at Unbound Commerce, told the publication that the “hundreds of millions” of credit cards Apple has on file means “shipping and bill-to-address information can be auto-filled into a retail app checkout flow.” This, in turn, reduces friction … which increases sales … which makes online merchants very, very happy.