4 Lessons Retailers Learned About Digital Gifting in 2015
By Ben Kaplan, president and CEO, CashStar With the holiday season behind us, retailers are applying their observations about consumer and digital gifting purchase behaviors to 2016 and upcoming gifting occasions. Here are four observations merchants can put to use in the months ahead. 1. Gift cards remain in high demand: According to the National […]
How Prepaid Commerce Helps Retailers Kick The Couponing And Discounting Habit
By Ben Kaplan, president and CEO, CashStar Retailers are constantly being tasked with creating new ways to acquire new customers, drive sales, engage with shoppers and increase basket size. While discounts and coupons have traditionally served as a tool to do this, this method can hurt profitability and deprecate brands. In turn, many retailers are […]
2016 Mobile Payments State of the Industry: What’s the Added Value in Mobile Payments?
By Ben Kaplan, president and CEO, CashStar Ben Kaplan was featured in Mobile Payments Today’s executive brief 2016 Mobile Payments State of the Industry report. The entirety of Ben’s article is below. The full brief may be purchased here. Changing habits is not easy, especially when it comes to consumer adoption of new technologies like […]
The United States Of Startups: The Most Well-Funded Tech Startup In Every US State
Originally published by CB Insights. Our map infographic shows the most well-funded tech startups in every US state, as determined by funding totals. The tech boom has diffused beyond the traditional hotbeds in California, New York, and Massachusetts, across the the entire United States. Other states are home to well-funded and well-known startups, including Jet […]
What Should Marketers Do Differently in 2016?
Originally published by Ginger Conlon, Editor-in-Chief on Direct Marketing News. It’s time for marketing professionals to resolve to rethink and reinvent their approach to driving customer actions. Complacency is not an option in today’s marketplace. Changeable buying behavior, channel and technology proliferation, data profusion&mdashthese are just a few of the realities marketers face today that […]
Southern Maine companies dominated equity fundraising last year
Originally published by Darren Fishell on Bangor Daily News. Companies in Cumberland County last year dominated fundraising through private security offerings, selling either stakes in their company or debt to raise cash. Of the $115.5 million private companies in Maine raised last year, mostly from offering company shares, about 83 percent went to companies based […]
A Look Back At Omnichannel
Originally published by PYMNTS.com. For those merchants willing to meet the new demands and expectations of their omnishoppers, the gain from their omnichannel efforts will surely outweigh the pain to get there. This has been quite a year for omnicommerce and the merchant’s quest to deliver it. It’s a journey ripe with challenges. But as […]
If you’re not reading this, you may be out buying gift cards
Originally published by Darren Fishell on Bangor Daily News. The Portland-based digital gift card processor CashStar said its annual survey of online shoppers revealed most gift cards are likely to fly out the door as close to the Christmas holiday as humanly possible. That appears to be true for at least one of the Portland […]
Study: Gift cards remain popular, consumers eager for mobile storage
Originally published by Bangor Daily News. Gift cards are a popular retail consumer focus this holiday season but they’re also the most likely last-minute purchase before the big day. A new CashStar study reveals that 61 percent of online holiday shoppers have gift cards on their shopping list even before December arrives, but 70 percent […]