More than 80 years ago, Winston Churchill said war would be waged on multiple fronts: the beaches, the fields, the streets and in the air.In today’s digital age, the battle for eCommerce is waged, similarly, across several areas of engagement — the online search, the checkout, the fulfillment.Amazon is but one easy target here. There’s no shortage of firms gunning for position against the eCommerce colossus. And in doing so, they might strive to reinvent their business models. In some cases, acquisitions ar ...

Walmart will build, convert or remodel hundreds of stores over the next five years.The retail giant announced in a Wednesday (Jan. 31) press release plans to modernize and expand what U.S. CEO John Furner called “the facilities most core to our business: our stores.”That means building or converting more than 150 stores while remodeling 650 more, “creating tens of thousands of jobs supporting these projects,” Furner said in the release, noting that is in addition to the hundreds of jobs that result from the ...

For Mastercard, new payment flows and digital innovations outpaced spending growth on cards — though consumers remain resilient.And as management noted in a press release and on an earnings call discussing the fourth quarter of 2023, demand has been strong for security and authentication solutions that protect those transactions.Supplemental materials reveal that fourth-quarter gross dollar volumes were up 10% to $2.3 trillion.In the United States, debit and prepaid card spending was up 2.7% to $345 billion ...

Retailers are embracing augmented reality (AR) to improve consumer experiences, leave a lasting impact, foster greater confidence in the brand, and ultimately encourage purchases. This is critical in the turbulent sea of inflation and shifting consumer sentiments. Walmart’s approach is aimed at a specific category of products. Starting next month, customers shopping online can virtually try on over 750 pairs of eyeglasses, gaining a realistic preview of how the glasses will appear on them, as if they were l ...

Microsoft said its artificial intelligence (AI) companion, Copilot, is being adopted across industries.This and other AI offerings helped drive the company to a record quarter during the three months ended Dec. 31, Satya Nadella, chairman and CEO of Microsoft, said Tuesday (Jan. 30) during the company’s quarterly earnings call.“We’ve moved from talking about AI to applying AI at scale,” Nadella said. “By infusing AI across every layer of our tech stack, we’re winning new customers and helping drive new bene ...

Global snack and candy giant Mondelez International is pivoting its focus to healthier chocolate. Reporting on the fourth quarter of 2023, Mondelez, which owns brands like Oreo, Cadbury and Ritz, said it recorded a strong quarter, with a 14.4% growth in net revenue year over year, with a healthy performance across the globe, according to a Tuesday (Jan. 30) press release. Mondelez has focused on core categories like chocolate, biscuits and baked snacks for its direct-to-consumer (D2C) sales, which offer att ...

For Alphabet, the artificial intelligence (AI) boon has helped boost subscriptions.But advertising sales for the parent company of Google, having fallen just short of expectations despite surging 11%, were in focus. And as a result, investors took the shares down 3% in after-hours trading.Sundar Pichai, CEO, said that subscriptions reached $9 billion in quarterly revenues in the December period, have reached $15 billion annualized, and are up fivefold since 2019.  That accelerated growth, he said, “was driv ...

Block is reportedly cutting jobs as part of its previously announced effort to limit the size of its workforce to 12,000 employees.The company announced that goal in November during an earnings call, saying it aimed to boost earnings by reducing costs, and it started cutting jobs on Tuesday (Jan. 30), Bloomberg reported Tuesday.Block did not immediately reply to PYMNTS’ request for comment.The company did not specify how many jobs will be affected, according to the report. It said it will reduce its workfor ...

Starbucks is seeing its artificial intelligence data efforts boost its rewards program effectiveness, incentivizing consumers to spend more and visit more often.On a conference call Tuesday (Jan. 30) accompanying the coffeehouse giant’s first-quarter fiscal 2024 earnings report, CEO Laxman Narasimhan discussed the company’s successful efforts to drive greater value from Starbucks Rewards members.“In the U.S., we implemented targeted offers aimed at bringing our occasional customers into our loyalty program, ...

PayPal will eliminate about 2,500 positions, or about 9% of its workforce, this year.The company aims to “right-size” its workforce by cutting jobs and by not filling open roles, PayPal CEO Alex Chriss said Tuesday (Jan. 30) in a letter to staff. Affected staff will be notified this week.“While I have been encouraged by the innovation our team is delivering, we must execute faster and ensure we are focused on solving our customers’ most critical needs and problems,” Chriss said in the letter.“Specifically, ...