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Commerce Connected
The Connected Economy: It’s About Time
February 24, 2020

One of the most important innovations in history is the pendulum clock, which was invented in 1636 by Christiaan Huygens, a Dutch scientist and founder of the field of mathematical physics. Although humans had created mechanisms for keeping time for thousands of years, an accurate...

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Making A Sizzling Leap Into Digital Banking
February 21, 2020

To be the bank, buy the bank. Earlier this week, a FinTech took the leap into the full spectrum of financial services, perhaps paving the way for future mashups. Upon releasing its latest earnings, LendingClub, known up until now for its personal loans delivered through...

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Coronavirus Threatens To Leave U.S. Store Shelves Bare
February 14, 2020

The death toll from the coronavirus is mounting. The global impact is worsening. And business, increasingly, is feeling the pinch. A few weeks ago it seemed the focus was on the drastic falloff in Chinese tourism — and indeed, as noted in The Economist, as...

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Big Fizzle: The Incredible Shrinking Mall-Based Retailer
February 07, 2020

Welcome, perhaps, to the mauling of the Great American Mall. The rise of eCommerce has been an inexorable one, and the retail landscape has shifted for retailers. The body count, so to speak, continues to rise – and begins anew, in a way, with the dawn...

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Big Fizzle: MoviePass Passes Away
January 31, 2020

And so it all ends in disappointment, like the umpteenth installment of a Stallone or Schwarzenegger franchise. For MoviePass and its parent company, filing Chapter 7 bankruptcy earlier this week means that what promised to disrupt an industry that has been around for more than...

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Sizzle Fizzle: Virus May Weaken China’s Economic Growth
January 24, 2020

It’s the unforeseen events that send economies into rough patches, toward slowing growth and even into decline. And while we’re not speculating that an economy that grows 6 percent a year should suddenly find itself in the red, in China, the recent spreading of the coronavirus...

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New Year, New Mergers Sizzle For Payments Companies
January 17, 2020

It’s too early into the new year to definitively call a trend. But then again, only two weeks into 2020, mergers and deal-making in payments, specifically within digital payments and FinTech, are sizzling. In just the past few days we’ve seen announcements of more than...

Commerce Connected
Deep Dive: Travel, Hospitality Get A Millennial Makeover
January 13, 2020

Millennials have long been sought-after travel and hospitality customers, partly because they are perfectly placed to seek such experiences. They are old enough to have disposable income, but young enough that they can travel without major health and wellness risks. This unique status creates both...

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The Looming Long Fizzle Of Cyberattacks
January 10, 2020

The new year is still new, and those on the front lines battling cybercrimes and the hackers who work from the shadows might be exhausted already. For now, at least, tensions between the United States and Iran have been dialed down a bit, if only...