The Inflation Mirage: What Rising Spending Hides About Consumer Demand

The Inflation Mirage: What Rising Spending Hides About Consumer Demand
The Inflation Mirage: What Rising Spending Hides About Consumer Demand
June 25, 2026  |  Consumer Insights

Retail sales and nominal consumer spending are up. Based only on that information, it would seem that consumers are feeling pretty good about the economy....

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Millennials at the Edge: How Cash Flow Pressure Is Reshaping Payments, Banking and Digital Commerce
Millennials at the Edge: How Cash Flow Pressure Is Reshaping Payments, Banking and Digital Commerce
June 23, 2026  |  Consumer Insights

Millennials occupy one of the more complicated positions in the U.S. economy. This cohort of more than 74 million people, now aged roughly 30–45, is...

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The Cutback Economy: How Americans Choose What to Drop and What to Defend
The Cutback Economy: How Americans Choose What to Drop and What to Defend
June 19, 2026  |  Consumer Insights

Americans are reducing their spending, but in different ways. PYMNTS Intelligence finds that consumers are responding to cost pressures through three distinct patterns. Some are...

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When Controls Slow Commerce: The Data Behind Middle-Market Payment Friction
When Controls Slow Commerce: The Data Behind Middle-Market Payment Friction
June 18, 2026  |  CFO

Payment risk controls protect businesses and their customers from fraudulent, slow or erroneous transactions. Yet for many U.S. middle-market firms, these guardrails can delay payments,...

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The Basket Breakaway: How Amazon Is Turning Walmart’s Store Traffic Into a Retail Weakness
The Basket Breakaway: How Amazon Is Turning Walmart’s Store Traffic Into a Retail Weakness
June 16, 2026  |  Consumer Insights

Walmart wins the trip. Amazon wins the basket. It’s an equation gaining urgency as the retail behemoths compete for precious and fragile consumer spending. Walmart...

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How Bank-Linked Verification Cuts AR Payment Risk
How Bank-Linked Verification Cuts AR Payment Risk
June 12, 2026  |  Accounts Receivable

Accounts receivable (AR) teams are under pressure to know whether a payment is good before money moves. “Early Detection: Why Top-Performing Firms Focus on Fraud...

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Captive at Work, Adopted at Home: The Hidden Force Driving Consumer AI Choice
Captive at Work, Adopted at Home: The Hidden Force Driving Consumer AI Choice
June 11, 2026  |  Artificial Intelligence

On a typical workday, the AI menu can look like a row of icons at the edge of the screen. ChatGPT is the catch-all assistant...

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The Three-Speed Consumer Economy: How Financial Capacity Is Rewriting Spending Behavior
The Three-Speed Consumer Economy: How Financial Capacity Is Rewriting Spending Behavior
June 09, 2026  |  Consumer Insights

In May 2026, the University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment Index hit a record low of 44.8. It was its third straight monthly decline, leading some...

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The 24-Day Advantage: What Top-Performing CFOs Know About Working Capital
The 24-Day Advantage: What Top-Performing CFOs Know About Working Capital
June 08, 2026  |  PYMNTS Data Lab

Working capital is the bloodstream of a Growth Corporate. These firms, which generate annual revenues between $100 million and $1 billion and are expanding into...

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