Jessica's Press Releases

Thursday, September 13, 2018

Survey Finds that Purchase of Virtual Prepaid Cards Delivered Digitally Remains Strong

Mercator Advisory Group's most recent Insight Summary Report, Consumers and Prepaid: Shifting Toward Digital, based on the annual Payments survey in the CustomerMonitor Survey Series conducted in June 2018, reveals that after five years of steady growth from 2012 to 2016 in the United States, consumer purchase of prepaid cards retreated to 2014 levels and maintained that level in 2018. The survey finds that 56% of U.S. adults bought prepaid cards in the year preceding both the June 2018 and June 2017, down from 63% in 2016, but up from 47% in 2012.

Purchase of virtual prepaid cards delivered digitally remains strong, bought by 48% of U.S. adults, nearly equivalent to 2016 figures after years of steady growth. Virtual cards are usually delivered by email, but nearly half of buyers say they bought virtual cards using SMS text or via a downloaded mobile app. Virtual prepaid cards encompass cards from a wide variety of services and merchants. Retailer cards are the most popular type (16% of all respondents bought retailer-specific virtual cards in the previous year), although most retailer-specific prepaid cards are still purchased as physical cards.

The new Mercator Advisory Group report Consumers and Prepaid: Shifting Toward Digital presents survey findings based on responses to an online survey of 3,002 U.S. adults conducted in June 2018 as part of the CustomerMonitor Survey Series. The report examines a demographic shift of prepaid card and virtual card buyers and the changing landscape of prepaid card use and loads on cards as recalled by survey respondents. The shift toward virtual cards delivered digitally in each of seven categories is highlighted. Survey findings cover usage, frequency, distribution channels, the relative importance of feature sets and fees, incremental value and visits, and brand awareness and current or previous use of 13 major brands of general purpose reloadable (GPR) cards, consumers' reasons for discontinuing use, as well as awareness, reload, and use of direct deposit onto GPR cards.

More info here.:

https://jessicapressreleases.blogspot.com/2018/05/sago-mini-launches-worlds-first-pillow.html

The shift toward virtual cards, which is particularly strong in the retailer gift card segment, is fostered by the growth of e-commerce and m-commerce. Young adults remain the most likely buyers of prepaid cards in all segments, especially those who pay by mobile phone. Online and mobile channels are often supported by online payment services using new, emerging payment technologies where traditional bank cards are often loaded and in "one-click," card-on-file scenarios, they become a default payment. Read here.

"The stagnation in prepaid buying recorded by the latest CustomerMonitor Survey after a dip in 2017 is a continued sign of turbulence in the prepaid market and is confirmed anecdotally by some program managers. The growth of PayPal Mastercard, a current market leader, is shaping the role of prepaid in emerging markets, reaffirming the impact of digital channels on prepaid," states the author of the report, Karen Augustine, manager of Mercator Advisory Group's Primary Data, which includes the CustomerMonitor Survey Series.

Highlights of this survey and report include:

Shifts in the demographics of prepaid card and virtual card users and the ways U.S. consumers use them

Categories of retailer-specific cards used

Likelihood of incremental spend by spending more than the value of card, visiting more often, buying additional items, or buying more expensive items

Locations used to buy prepaid cards and virtual cards for self and as gifts

Awareness and use of online gift card exchanges

Purchase behavior regarding general purpose reloadable, or GPR, cards, including length of time the card is in use, load frequency, and awareness and use of direct deposit to GPR cards

Brand awareness, purchase, timing and current use of 13 GPR card brands

Importance of key features of GPR cards and the amount held in interest-bearing savings accounts in GPR card

The report is 85 pages long and contains 43 exhibits

Companies mentioned in this report are: American Express, Chase, Green Dot, H&R Block, N etspend, PayPal Mastercard, Univision, RushCard, and Walmart, Western Union.

Members of Mercator Advisory Group CustomerMonitor Survey Series Service have access to this report as well as the upcoming research for the year ahead, presentations, analyst access, and other membership benefits.
Please visit us online at http://www.mercatoradvisorygroup.com.

For more information and media inquiries, please call Mercator Advisory Group's main line: 1-781-419-1700, or send email to media(at)mercatoradvisorygroup(dot)com.

For free industry news, opinions, research, company information and more visit us at http://www.PaymentsJournal.com.

Mercator Advisory Group is the leading independent research and advisory services firm exclusively focused on the payments and banking industries. We deliver pragmatic and timely research and advice designed to help our clients uncover the most lucrative opportunities to maximize revenue growth and contain costs. Our clients range from the world's largest payment issuers, acquirers, processors, merchants and associations to leading technology providers, and investors. Mercator Advisory Group is also the publisher of the online payments and banking news and information portal PaymentsJournal.com.

All information are taken from the news source. We do not promise anything nor take any responsibility for anything the news owner claim. We just share the news as is. You can contact news owner directly in the message for more information.

PwC Joins Forces with AI Pioneer Cortical.io

PwC Germany and Cortical.io have recently signed a joint business relationship agreement whereby PwC becomes partner of Cortical.io and develops natural language understanding solutions using Cortical.io's technology.

A young tech company, Cortical.io has developed a unique natural language understanding technology that solves many challenges related to big text data. The novel, meaning-based algorithm is based on Cortical.io's patented Semantic Folding methodology. It allows both high-precision and high-speed semantic text processing and can be applied to any kind of unstructured text data. The application fields are close to endless and practically all verticals can benefit from this innovation.

Continue reading.:

https://jessicapressreleases.blogspot.com/2018/05/pixel-film-studios-announces-transzoom.html

"Nowadays, every business, whether small or large, collects overwhelming amounts of text data," explains Francisco Webber, CEO and co-founder of Cortical.io, the high demand for new data processing solutions across all industry sectors. "Each business is confronted with at least one big text data issue: some need to classify products based on lengthy text descriptions, other must extract key information from complicated legal or technical documents. Most companies need help to interact with their customers, answer questions, recommend products, and so forth. All need an automated, reliable solution that easily adapts to their particular use case and delivers first results within a few weeks. This is exactly what Cortical.io offers," comments Webber. Be alert to read related news.

PwC is one of the leading auditing and consultancy organizations in Germany and provides support to clients of different sizes, in a wide range of sectors. "In order to create a real value for our customers, our solutions focus on innovative technologies, but only if they have proven their worth in practical applications," explains Sven Fessler, Senior Manager Big Data & Analytics at PwC Germany. "Cortical.io fulfills both criteria: they have developed a completely new approach to text processing and have already successfully deployed solutions in multiple enterprise environments".

Cortical.io's semantic technology is currently in production at several Fortune 500 companies where it integrates in existing software solutions, in very different contexts. Sascha Demgensky, attorney and auditor at PwC, who, together with Sven Fessler, initiated the partnership, comments: "Next to its disruptive character, Cortical.io's technology is easily adaptable to any business domain and delivers prompt, impressive results. We are confident that, combined with PwC's expertise, we can offer our customers intelligent solutions that will impact their bottom line sustainably". Cortical.io solutions that already bring customers significant cost savings include semantic search and contract analytics.

"The partnership with PwC represents a strategic move for Cortical.io," states Francisco Webber. "PwC's focus on high quality, their many years of experience and the wide range of professional services they provide, make them an ideal partner to spread our technology. Major innovations are coming ahead in the field of natural language understanding," concludes Webber, "and you can be sure that Cortical.io and PwC will be major forces behind this disruption."

Read this for more information.:

https://jessicapressreleases.blogspot.com/2018/05/linket-has-4000-users-owning-4800.html

About Cortical.io:
Cortical.io offers Natural Language Understanding (NLU) solutions based on Semantic Folding, a methodology that opens a fundamentally new perspective on the handling of big text data. Inspired by the latest findings on how the brain processes information, the Cortical.io Retina engine converts language into semantic fingerprints, numerical representations that capture meaning explicitly.

The uniqueness of the Cortical.io algorithm makes it possible to solve many open NLU challenges, like meaning-based filtering of terabytes of unstructured text data, real-time topic detection in social media, and semantic searching through millions of documents across multiple languages.

Read all the related news.:

https://jessicapressreleases.blogspot.com/2018/05/codemonkey-announces-winners-of-code.html

The company was founded in 2011 and holds a broad general license for Numenta's HTM technology. Cortical.io has offices in Vienna (Austria), New York and the San Francisco Bay Area. More info here.

Disclaimer:
In this document, "PwC" or "PwC Germany" refers to PricewaterhouseCoopers GmbH Wirtschaftsprüfungsgesellschaft, which is a member firm of PricewaterhouseCoopers International Limited, each member firm of which is a separate legal entity. This document is for general information purposes only and should not be used as a substitute for consultation with professional advisors.

Spring Creek Labradoodles Announces the Release of Puppy Care 101

Spring Creek Labradoodles has published a comprehensive infographic entitled "Puppy Care 101" to provide information pet owners need to know before bringing their puppies home.

With this infographic, Spring Creek Labradoodles covers information pet owners should know about basic puppy care. To correctly inform pet owners on puppy ownership, the infographic covers many different aspects including behavioral training, puppy proofing your house, adjusting your puppy to a new environment, and teaching children about puppy interactions. Read latest news here.

When training a puppy, make sure to have realistic expectations and respond immediately after actions (reward for good behavior and corrections for bad behavior). Before bringing a puppy home, spend time puppy proofing your house; remove items that are easily chewable (shoes, clothes, etc.) or harmful to the puppy (cords, human food, cleaning products, etc.). After first bringing the puppy home, keep a low-key schedule so you can stay with your puppy. If your puppy will be around children, spend time teaching the children about proper puppy interactions.

Puppy ownership is an important responsibility and should not be taken lightly. Spring Creek Labradoodles Owner Rochelle Woods said, "Before owning a puppy, it's important for people to realize what it entails. Having a puppy is more than taking cute pictures; it involves training your puppy with proper habits and making your home puppy-friendly. If you put forth the effort, your puppy will thrive in your home."

About Spring Creek Labradoodles

Spring Creek Labradoodles is a puppy breeder specializing in Australian Labradoodle puppies. Located in Creswell, OR, their puppies become beloved family pets, and some even serve as guide or therapy dogs. They focus on making puppy dreams come true with allergy friendly, non-shedding labradoodle puppies. Read all the related news.

Valens Point’s Brand Identity is Evolving with The Introduction of an Updated Logo and New Website

Valens Point has introduced an updated logo and new website to better address its target market - technology consulting companies - and more clearly demonstrate the benefits of having a scalable virtual marketing department – Valens Point's core offering.

Over time, logos and other brand identity elements can become stale and begin to look outdated. Innovative businesses are also constantly evolving in an ever-changing business landscape. "What we do, and how we describe what we do, changes over time. Just like it does for most companies" says Martin Steinhobel, Managing Partner at Valens Point. "Updating our website and adapting our brand to better support our messaging not only makes us more competitive, but also demonstrates our commitment to constantly review, evolve, and improve performance".

The new logo provides a lot more flexibility by providing options that can be stacked, allowing Valens Point's brand to be better represented in an online world. Websites, and website development are also continually evolving. This means that what worked well just a few years ago may now look somewhat dated. As concepts like UX (User Experience) design, and 'Growth-Driven' design become more and more mainstream, companies that are not taking advantage of these changes will fall behind. Read all the related news.

Likewise, content and how content is presented is also constantly evolving. For this reason, Valens Point has implemented expert topic guides to provide more in-depth content, structured to better inform and educate the audience, streamline user interaction, and encourage engagement. More info here.

The company has deployed two such guides. The first, The Guide to Developing Your Brand Identity, provides a comprehensive look at value and process of developing a firm's brand identity. The second guide, The Guide to Content Marketing Success, makes a case for quality content. The company plans to add additional guides in the future.

About Valens Point

Valens Point provides virtual and scalable marketing departments that help technology consulting companies accelerate their growth. We build and manage marketing systems that deliver predictable and consistent results by balancing strategy, technology, process, and expertise. We remove the hassle and overhead of building and running an internal marketing department, so you can invest your time and energy into growing your business.

Shipping Platform ParcelABC Expands Activities in France and Italy

ParcelABC is already able to collect and deliver packages from any country across the globe and offers a large selection of services to and from its established markets of the United Kingdom, Spain, Poland, Lithuania, Ukraine, Australia, Germany and the United States.

According to Andrius Balkūnas, one of the founders of the ParcelABC online shipping platform, France and Italy were not chosen by chance. Read news here.

"Our goal is to offer a full range of parcel delivery options in the largest European and global markets. These countries are among the fastest growing e-commerce destinations in Europe. In France, which has a population of almost 70 million, there are more than 120,000 active e-commerce sites. For example, Amazon, which is one of the most popular e-commerce sites in the world, attracts over 15 million unique French visitors per month. In turn, Italy is the largest market in Europe for luxury goods such as Armani, Versace, Prada, Gucci and others," says Mr Balkūnas.

ParcelABC's unique system makes it possible to send and receive packages quickly and at an affordable price without leaving your home – all you have to do is enter the addresses of the sender and the recipient. By entering the shipping code, you can track the entire process online. The price depends on, where the sender and the recipient are located as well as the weight, dimensions of the parcel and the speed of service required. More info here.

The ParcelABC shipping platform brings together large and small courier companies around the world and is one of the largest courier networks in the sector.

More information about the parcel services offered by ParcelABC can be found by visiting the website at http://www.parcelabc.com
Contact Info:
Name: ParcelABC
Email: support(at)parcelabc.com
Organization: Parcel ABC Limited
Address: 5 Underwood Street, London, N1 7LY, United Kingdom

Carson-Dellosa Welcomes Ira Hernowitz as Chief Executive Officer

The Carson-Dellosa Publishing Group announced that its Board of Directors has appointed Ira Hernowitz as Chief Executive Officer, effective September 5th, 2018. Read latest news here.

"We are excited to welcome Ira as Carson-Dellosa's Chief Executive Officer. We've selected an exceptional leader who has transformed and helped world-leading brands grow, at a time when our company is rapidly expanding its brand portfolio," said Carson-Dellosa Chairman Scott Evans. "We've recently completed an integration of Rourke Educational Media® to expand our reach into the library market, and we've also introduced Schoolgirl Style™ and I'm Lovin' Lit ™ into retail to reinforce our leading position in the teacher market. We are also aggressively pursuing growth in the parent market. Ira's consumer centric leadership, product innovation, and exceptional storytelling will be amazing assets to Carson-Dellosa. More importantly, he is a perfect cultural fit for this organization." Al Greco will assume the role of President for Carson-Dellosa, and will lead the company's business development and product commercialization efforts.

Hernowitz is an accomplished executive in consumer markets. As GM/SVP Pre-School, Creative Play and Girls at Hasbro Inc., he was responsible for a portfolio that included Playskool™ and Play-Doh™. He also held leadership roles at Melissa & Doug and at Toys "R" Us/Babies "R" Us. As a former President of the Stride Rite Children's group, he led the re-branding of a division which included e-commerce, brick and mortar stores, wholesale, and international expansion. Most recently, as CEO of Kindara, he led a digital company focused on women's health. Be alert to the latest news.

"I am honored to lead Carson-Dellosa. Our brands and intellectual property are terrific assets, and our team is passionate and innovative," says Hernowitz. "The education market has a personal connection to me: my parents were educators and my daughter just started her teaching career. I think the opportunities for Carson-Dellosa are immense, and I look forward to working with the team and growing the business."

About Carson-Dellosa™ Publishing Group (http://www.carsondellosa.com)
At Carson-Dellosa, we believe that learning is everywhere. Whether at school, at home, or on-the-go, life is filled with learning moments. As the market-leading publisher of children's supplemental educational products, we've been bridging school and home with innovative solutions for teachers and families for more than 40 years. Our market-leading brands Carson-Dellosa Education™, Spectrum®, Summer Bridge™, Schoolgirl Style™, Thinking Kids™, Rourke Educational Media, and Brighter Child® are available at more than 10,000 retail locations.

Contacts
Julia Davis, VP Marketing, Carson-Dellosa Publishing, 443-631-0683; jdavis(at)carsondellosa.com
Scott Evans, Chairman of the Board, Carson-Dellosa Publishing, 610-263-0107

Paper Crafting, Home Décor, Calligraphy, Macramé among Education Lineup for Creativation

Conference registration for the 78th annual Creativation trade event, where creative business professionals go to learn, connect and discover, is now open at http://www.CreativationShow.org. This year's conference features hands-on product workshops in popular consumer craft categories, including but not limited to paper crafting, cardmaking, scrapbooking, home décor, mixed media, celebrations, party décor and needle arts. The premier education program also offers interactive seminars on topics that are critical to today's retail and creative professionals, including social media, content and digital marketing, business operations, legal, point of sales and technology. The conference program kicks off with two full days of education on January 17 and 18, 2019, and runs throughout the trade show, January 19-21, at the Phoenix Convention Center in Phoenix, Arizona.

In response to the hand lettering trend, Creativation is introducing a new calligraphy education track. American Crafts, an innovative leader in scrapbooking, is offering the workshop, "Beginner Bouncy Brush Lettering" where buyer attendees will learn the basics of brush pen calligraphy. This new track also features a workshop with world-renowned calligrapher Paul Antonio, sponsored by the Phoenix-based company Spellbinders Paper Arts, where buyer attendees will create one-of-a-kind cards and invitations using calligraphic flourishes and elements.

"Our in-person peer education model enables our attendees to learn directly from the manufacturers they buy products from," says Andria Gibbon, CEM, Vice President of Education & Events for the Association For Creative Industries (AFCI), the event organizer. "We're excited to host an event that provides universally interesting content that will benefit all creative businesses."

Laurie Karian, Director of Brand Strategy for Gel Press by PolyGel, one of the exhibitors, shares, "We are able to showcase our products, bring a new brand/product to market, educate the industry professionals on the 'best practices' of the products, and create a community around the love of artistic expression."

Creativation is also accepting exhibitor applications. Manufacturers of general arts and crafts, memory and scrapbooking, yarn, needle arts and other creative products are encouraged to view the floor plan and complete an exhibit space contract at http://www.CreativationShow.org and contact Nadine Schwartz, Director of Sales and Sponsorships, at (201) 835-1203 or nschwartz(at)afci.global.

For more information and to register, visit http://www.CreativationShow.org.

Media interested in attending can apply for a free press badge here.

ABOUT THE ASSOCIATION FOR CREATIVE INDUSTRIES
The Association For Creative Industries (AFCI) is the premier trade association for the global creative arts products industries. AFCI strives to deliver innovative high value services as we support our Members who provide products and services to educate, entertain, and inspire creative consumers. Our Members include the manufacturers, retailers, distributors, designers, educators, digital content providers, professional makers and DIYers, and other creative professionals that comprise the $36 billion+ creative arts industries in the United States alone. For more information about AFCI, membership, or its annual Creativation trade event, visit http://www.afci.global.

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