merchants

Groupon’s Mason on Strategy, Investment and (Finally) a Way to Stop Those Pole-Dancing Offers

Tricia Duryee in Commerce on February 8 at 4:56 pm PT

Groupon’s CEO Andrew Mason is known for his sense of humor, but during the company’s first earnings call today, it was all business … pretty much.

Behind the Scenes at Groupon’s Tech Headquarters as It Prepares to Report First Public Earnings

Tricia Duryee in Commerce on February 8 at 6:00 am PT

Groupon is slowly building out its technology prowess in Palo Alto, Calif., 2,000 miles away from its headquarters — one acquisition at a time.

Visa Places Bet on New Approach to Payments With Rare Investment in TrialPay

Tricia Duryee in Commerce on January 31 at 7:00 am PT

Visa, Greylock’s Reid Hoffman and others are pouring $40 million into TrialPay, which helps companies like Facebook, Gap and Fandango increase sales through the use of incentives.

Japan’s Rakuten Set to Challenge Amazon With Help From Kobo

Tricia Duryee in Commerce on January 27 at 11:40 am PT

Who is Amazon’s biggest competitor? It may be a Japanese-based company you’ve never heard of.

Google’s Head of Consumer Payments, Vikas Gupta, Resigns

Tricia Duryee in Commerce on January 26 at 5:35 pm PT

Vikas Gupta joined Google 18 months ago after it acquired Jambool, the virtual goods payment platform where he was a founder and CEO.

Online Commerce Trend: More Spending, Smaller Purchases

Tricia Duryee in Commerce on January 20 at 12:22 pm PT

The average checkout size is shrinking, even though more people spent more money online. Why? Here are three reasons.

Greylock’s Reid Hoffman Invests in Swedish Social Gifting Company

Tricia Duryee in Commerce on January 18 at 4:31 am PT

Stockholm-based Wrapp, which was founded by former executives from Spotify, Groupon and other companies, has just received a $5 million gift from Reid Hoffman of Greylock Partners.

News Byte

Intuit’s GoPayment Mobile Credit-Card Reader Beats Square’s into Canada

Tricia Duryee in Commerce on January 9 at 7:00 pm PT

Intuit will soon launch its mobile credit-card reader in Canada, beating the well-funded-and-recognized Square to the market. Both companies distribute devices that allow small-scale merchants to accept credit cards on a cellphone or tablet; so far, Square only operates in the U.S. Intuit, the publicly held company that sells other small-business resources, such as QuickBooks, said its GoPayment device will be available in Canada early this year; it plans to push into other international markets in the future.