Today is Wednesday, June 15 and retail sales for May will be reported by the Commerce Department today at 8:30 a.m., forecasted to rise 0.2% month over month, well below April’s 0.9% increase. The Federal Reserve is anticipated to escalate its fight on inflation this afternoon with the first 75-basis point rate hike in almost 30 years.
If anyone still uses Internet Explorer (IE), Microsoft is ending support as of today for IE11 and most versions. The browser launched in 1995 and was replaced by Edge in 2015. Here’s what else should be on your radar this morning.
BNPL Data Edge. Affirm said during a fireside chat with shareholders that it has an edge over competitors in the buy now, pay later (BNPL) space because its data analysis approach leads to a successful underwriting process. Affirm said that because it analyzes transactions beyond someone’s credit score and considers factors like the time of day and other seemingly small details, it has limited short-term exposure to risk. READ MORE
Faster Payments. Sole proprietors get a lifeline by way of faster payments, making cash flow and day-to-day survival easier amid challenging economic conditions. In this month’s Real-Time Payments Tracker®, PYMNTS takes a deep dive into how real-time payments can empower individual financial wellness. READ MORE
The Great Unsubscribe. PYMNTS research shows that estimated total monthly expenditure on subscriptions fell by 46% in March versus six months prior. The latest edition of “The Subscription Commerce Conversion Index,” a PYMNTS and sticky.io collaboration, shows that preventing cancellations is where subscription commerce firms need to focus. sticky.io President and CEO Brian Bogosian told PYMNTS CEO Karen Webster that the impact of inflation is being felt by all. READ MORE
Less is More. Riskified VP Marina Moraes told PYMNTS that one way to combat fraud and keep consumers’ confidence while shopping online is to “manage data collection and storage by doing less of it.” Moraes said there is a lot of unnecessary data being collected. READ MORE
ICYMI. Federal Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Gary Gensler said yesterday that cryptocurrency investments are “highly speculative … and are likely to fail.” He reiterated that crypto fit the category of assets that must be sold by registered entities. READ MORE