Alexa App Hits #1 | Amazon and Home Depot's XPO Acquisition Race | Toys R Us Preps For Retail Reset

Is the physical travel voucher going the same way as the paper check? Low-fair airline company Ryanair recently launched a new digital business voucher for European companies to offer as an employee perk. Matthias Wenk, Ryanair’s marketing operations director, speaks with PYMNTS about how a digital-first voucher solution is improving convenience for the budget airline company as well as travelers — and how the company seeks to “cut out the middleman” from the offering. Read More...

Voice-activated assistants have been hot for the last three years, but 2017 was the year that things got so hot that voice-activated assistants went mainstream and became hyper-competitive. We have all the highlights — the winners, the contenders and a few thoughts on how 2017 will set the stage for 2018 — right here. Read More...

Connectivity reigns. Connected devices do, too — as does using them to pay for things. The June 2017 How We Will Pay study sheds new light on how consumers use — and will want to use — connected devices to pay for things, especially while doing other things. For a peek at how connected device payments will evolve in 2018, one might want to get reacquainted with data we collected six months ago when a couple thousand consumers told us exactly what they expect from those connected commerce experiences. Read More...