News

Commentary
Why Facebook is Ripe for Commerce
June 22, 2011

I have always been up for a challenge. I read just last week a quote from someone from Forrester who basically said that anyone who believes Facebook is the commerce frontier is basically smoking something. (Well, what he said was that they had about as...

Commentary
“Googling” mPayments Ignition? Why Google’s Wallet May Be the Top Search Result
May 29, 2011

– Ask the Industry: Will Google Wallet ignite mobile payments? Share your thoughts here.   Google’s announcement today of its NFC-mobile payments scheme is, with a few exceptions, a real textbook case study in what you need to do if you want to ignite a...

News
S-Commerce- A Fourth Retail Channel: An Overview of Social Commerce and What’s Fueling its Growth
May 25, 2011

Introduction   This section of the Lydian Journal examines the world of social commerce, or as some have described it, the fourth retail channel. Four distinct elements define this commerce opportunity for merchants: (i) the explosive growth of social networks, in particular, Facebook, (ii) the...

Financial Inclusion
Improving the Economics of Small-Balance Accounts
April 21, 2011

Global financial inclusion surveys show that there are billions of low-income individuals who want a safe place to save, and evidence suggests that they are willing to pay for it. Many low-income individuals are currently able to store small values with licensed financial service providers....

Cool
Educating the Next Generation of Security Professionals
April 21, 2011

Editor’s Note   In the world today, few topics are more talked about and less understood than “cyber security.” Almost daily, it seems, we hear of another threat to the computer systems that support and control the world’s critical infrastructure. Attacks on government and industry...

Cool
The FACTA the Matter: Recent Cases Involving Payment Card Receipts Illustrate Flaws in “Bounty” Enforcement...
April 21, 2011

Introduction   Private ordering, rather than government intervention, has been the primary force behind the development of data security measures in the payment card industry. [1] Government intervention often occurs in response to security breakdowns, which draw attention to weaknesses in the private ordering regime....

Cool
From Fat to Thin: How the Cloud and Mobile will Transform our Wallets
April 21, 2011

A History of Your Stuffed Wallet   For centuries, people walked the planet with small pouches crammed with coins and other forms of money, never worrying about their ability to pay for an item at their local merchant (unless, of course, they had no money)....

Cool
Why Social Shopping is the Future of E-Tailing
April 21, 2011

Editor’s Note   At its core, social commerce is about connecting people where they buy and letting people buy where they connect. Dell, a brand in a segment not typically associated with “social shopping,” was really among the earliest adopters of technologies and tactics that...

Commentary
Google Takes on NFC, Will They Crack the Code?
March 17, 2011

Google has signaled that it will do two things no one else in the payments ecosystem has done or even talked about: make a business case for merchants and consumers around NFC and maybe even put some real money behind it. Google has obviously made...