After years of sluggish holiday sales, First Data’s latest report on the holiday shopping season is shockingly merry and bright. Consumers are just plain spending more this year, First Data senior vice president Glenn Fodor told Karen Webster in a recent conversation about the SpendTrend report's findings. In fact, barring any shocking reversals, Fodor said the good times will keep rolling.  Read More...

In the latest Data Drivers, Ritual founder Ray Reddy tells Karen Webster how the coffee (and food) run is getting digitized and saving users delivery fees, with the side benefit of bringing people together at the office and beyond — literally. Using the app, people piggyback on one another’s orders, pay online and might even indulge in some face time (not the Apple version, the real kind) back at the office over what they just mobile ordered ahead.  Read More...

Contextual commerce is on the rise, and Alexa’s mission is to use voice and artificial intelligence to make transactions with context just a voice command away. Semafone’s global solutions director Ben Rafferty tells PYMNTS how the voice-activated virtual assistant can help make call centers more efficient, hasten linked commerce through the TV, ensure consumer data security and mitigate the risk of consumers being scammed through spoofed calls.  Read More...