Twitter’s Takes On NRF, Mobile And More

Here are our top five tweets from the week that was. Keep tweeting, and we may feature you next Friday.


This is essentially what I took away from #NRF13 (courtesy @allthingsd) – allthingsd.com/files/2013/01/…

Shameless self-promotion alert: I’ve created a professional Twitter account at @BC_PYMNTS, because several of you were starting to add my personal account, and unless you like tweets about baseball and heavy ales, you were likely to be disappointed. So if you have anything you’d like to bring to my attention for PYMNTS.com, want to set up an interview or just want to try and make next week’s Top 5 Tweets, the account I just listed is the one to contact me through.

Now, as for the content of the tweet: I wrote about this in my NRF Day 3 recap, but I was particularly struck by just how mobile-centric Retail’s BIG Show was this year, and it’s made a lasting impression on me. Yes, I was anticipating mobile to be the biggest topic of conversation, of course. But in many ways, it was the only topic of conversation, and any shadow of a doubt that existed in my mind as to the future of mPayments has eroded.

Read the original tweet here.


@kcolaco: @pymnts the eBay innovation tour is worth taking

I give my thanks to Kevin, who responded to my inquiries about the best booths at NRF and any programs or demos I should check out. While I didn’t get to experience eBay’s innovation tour, I did get to go to PayPal’s Commerce Innovation Center after NRF 2013, as well as hold a one-on-one interview with spokesman Anuj Nayar. Not only was the tour of the innovation center really interesting, but Nayar provided a unique perspective on PayPal, and why characterizing them as any one entity – a mobile payments company, the fifth network, an eCommerce giant – isn’t quite right. 

Check out the piece here if you haven’t yet – PayPal keeps getting bigger and bigger, any just about everything they do lately is newsworthy.

Read the original tweet here


@NFC_SME: Change or expand? RT @pymnts “We believe that mobile can really change the face of payments.” – Sarah Friar, CFO of Square at #nrf13

Thanks for the question, Hank. The exact quote was “change,” although I can see where you’re coming from. We could dive into semantics and argue that when an industry expands, it inherently changes, but if we’re taking expand to be a lesser form of innovation in this case, then I might agree with Friar. Mobile payments are really poised to take over commerce in the long run, and that was echoed time and time again at NRF 2013, and that I addressed above. 

Read the original tweet here


@shukla: Is this a Square competition? @pymnts @DSWShoeLovers

You’d certainly have to think Square is feeling a little pressure after this week, with NCR integrating with PayPal and taking other steps to really push forward in the mobile payments market. Square was great at identifying an opportunity before most others did, but now that the big boys of the industry are catching up, will they have the scale to remain competitive? I think yes, but it might be a bumpy ride.

Read the original tweet here.


@Retail_Careers: Packing for @RetailsBIGShow? The weather forecast predicts it’s going to be cloudy with a chance of retail! #nrf13 ow.ly/i/1LWDq

The PYMNTS.com team is looking to make it rain payments news when we head to NRF’s Retail’s Big Show next week, so be sure to look out of us if you’ll be there too. If you have an especially exciting product or announcement you’ll be making, let us know on Twitter, and we’ll try to set up a time to chat. Looking forward to meeting many new payments faces there!

Read the original tweet here.


Have a good weekend, and keep tweeting!