Can chatbots motivate online buyers and one-time holiday shoppers to return to brick-and-mortar shopping malls? Mall of America and Simon Malls are giving it a try for the holidays and beyond. The greatest benefit, however, may not be in reaching the one-time customer, but in better serving the frequent shopper — and driving discovery by pushing regular customers off the beaten path with offers and deals.  Read More...

Fiverr And The 'Other' Gig Economy

The term “gig economy” is used today as shorthand to describe the Uber driver or the InstaCart delivery guy. But seven years ago, Fiverr created a marketplace that aggregated demand for a different sort of gig worker: The skilled freelance worker looking for her next, well, gig. In this week’s edition of The Matchmaker Is In, Karen Webster chatted with Brent Messenger, Fiverr’s global head of community, about the role of payments in enabling a marketplace that adds 6,000 of skilled gigs every day to the millions already online — and attracts a buyer base that now includes the enterprise.  Read More...

In this brave new digital world, how can merchants and banks be sure the customer with whom they’re dealing is who he or she claims to be? Jumio vice president of products Philipp Pointner believes that as society migrates away from plastic IDs and toward digital ones, the future of identity verification will lie in the roots of identity — and in person present authentication methods. Here’s how.  Read More...