In this week’s news, we saw Roblox’s plans to go public through a direct listing, consumers’ preferences for a digital-first shopping experience and the rising popularity of quick-response (QR) codes. The Weekender is here to catch you up.
News
Roblox Registers For Direct Listing; Expects To Be On NYSE In February
Digital game platform operator Roblox plans to go public on the New York Stock Exchange next month by a direct listing. Roblox was co-founded by David Baszucki and Erik Cassel in the 1990s.
Hot Affirm IPO Points To Rising Competition And Demand In BNPL Segment
Affirm joined the ranks of the publicly traded elite this week, after formidable demand for its initial public offering (IPO) provided it with an initial value of more than $12 billion.
Skip It: Amazon, Walmart Tell Consumers To Keep Unwanted Gifts
Walmart and Amazon are reportedly some of the large retailers piloting a new method of contending with refunds. Shoppers can seek a refund, but they might not have to give back the item even if they are given one.
SBA Unveils Guidance For Second Round Of PPP Loans
In the second Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loan round, the Small Business Administration (SBA) is putting the priority on underserved groups and will only take applications from community financial institutions (FIs) in the two days following the opening of its loan portal.
J.P. Morgan Looks Toward Payments Modernization
Once considered the leaders of number-crunching and cash management, treasurers today have become enterprise leaders. Treasurers will be taking important lessons from 2020 into 2021 as they continue on their modernization path.
PYMNTS explores how treasurers have contended with the disruption and J.P. Morgan’s strategies to support treasurers’ efforts via its own digitization roadmap.
Trackers And Reports
Even After Vaccine, 75 Pct Of US Consumers Still Want A Digital-First Shopping Experience
PYMNTS research indicates that 54 percent of consumers who have moved a minimum of one of their routine activities online since the start of the pandemic are very or extremely interested in getting vaccinated, but also finds approximately three-quarters of them still don’t plan to return to shopping in stores the way they did before March 2020.
Decoding QR Codes: Retailers Embrace Simple, Secure Touchless Payments Option
The use of QR codes is becoming more popular in the U.S., letting consumers immediately access data and simply pay on their smartphones without going through a URL entry.
Cargomatic On Tapping Geocoding To Streamline Last Mile Delivery
Consumers’ sharp shifts from physical to digital channels since the start of the pandemic have brought about a huge revamp of supply chain logistics, with the inclusion of last-mile infrastructure and resources to make sure successful deliveries occur. PYMNTS explores how geocoding can help shippers and carriers link up to monitor goods live and strengthen last-mile efficiency.
Fun, Cool And Otherwise Interesting
Whole Paycheck Tracker: Amazon, Walmart Gain Q3 eCommerce Sales, But Lose Share Of Total Spend
The newest Walmart vs. Amazon Whole Paycheck Tracker from PYMNTS discovered that the two large retail companies did something atypical in Q3. They either stayed steady or lost ground in the battle for overall U.S. retail spend and consumer spend.
Instacart Leads Debate Over Gig Economy Employee Vaccine Eligibility
Instacart has reportedly started lobbying public health authorities to include its workers as part of the essential workers who will receive early access to coronavirus vaccines. The company follows DoorDash, Lyft and Uber in making similar requests for workers to be provided with essential worker status for the purposes of receiving the vaccine.
Debate Looms Over Crypto Privacy, Security And Regulation
The newest regulatory debate over digital currency boils down to privacy versus security. And the longstanding debate will likely be louder than before as digital currencies aim to be more mainstream in consumer and business environments.
Payments As A Service, Ready For Prime Time?
With the cloud, application programming interfaces (APIs) and open banking surfacing, the description “as-a-service” is applicable to pretty much any business task that can now be outsourced to another party. That includes Payments-as-a-Service, in which providers help enterprise accept a variety of transactions from their end customers.
We’re always on the lookout for opportunities to partner with innovators and disruptors.
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