Blending Data And Payments To Boost Wine Trading

Trust is crucial in any relationship – and that’s particularly true for consumers and businesses that are sending and receiving payments through an online platform. While mobile wallet adoption in the United States has been slow, other countries are rapidly adopting the technology, despite the remaining skepticism of how secure it may be. And for businesses and professionals, platforms could provide more transparency and trustworthy data to help improve their decision-making.

In the latest Payments Powering Platforms Tracker, powered by WePay, PYMNTS explores the latest developments in the platforms space, including how platform providers of all shapes and sizes are looking to protect payments, and the people who make them.

Around the Payments Powering Platforms World

In an effort to bolster consumers’ trust in mobile payment solutions, platform providers and security companies are investing in new fraud-fighting solutions.

Some, including Google, are turning to partners to help protect its payment platforms. Google Pay recently collaborated with payments solutions provider Ingenico Group to make Google Pay Smart Tap available at its point-of-sale (POS) terminals in the U.K. The system is designed to speed up transaction time, enable easier transmission of loyalty and reward information and provide improved data security for mobile wallet transactions.

Meanwhile, according to Michael Bruemmer, vice president of consumer protection for Experian, consumers’ safety concerns are overblown. Vigilant consumers who avoid public Wi-Fi and utilize multi-factor authentication or other options are taking extra steps toward keeping fraudsters at bay, Bruemmer said.

For more on these stories and the rest of the latest headlines from the space, check out the Tracker’s News and Trends section.

Buying Fine Wine, with Data Bottled Inside

Before the advent of payment-powering platforms, professional wine traders had a dilemma.

For long, the only source of data on wine bottles available for purchase came from sellers themselves, and buyers couldn’t blindly trust that the price points were what they should be. Liv-ex, a fine wine trading and exchange platform, believes it may have found an answer for professional wine traders.

In a recent interview with PYMNTS, director and head of exchange Anthony Maxwell explained the goal of the company’s platform. Founded in 2000, Liv-ex is aimed at providing wine professionals with a faster and easier transaction process, as well as transparent, trustworthy data and an increased sense of security and safety on purchases.

“For us, all of these different things go back to what we originally set out to do, which is bring transparency, efficiency and safety to the wine trading industry,” Maxwell said.

To read the full feature story, along with the latest Payments Powering Platforms headlines and trends – and the rankings of more than 100 industry providers – download the Payments Powering Platforms Tracker.

About the Tracker

The Payments Powering Platforms Tracker serves as a monthly framework for the space, providing coverage of the most recent news and trends, along with a provider directory highlighting the key players contributing across the payments-integrated platform ecosystem.