It’s been an up and down week on the stock market as earnings reports have piled in and investors have like, or not liked, what they’ve seen. Western Union’s pair-up with Amazon got a lot of positive attention, while Apple’s decision to stop breaking out iPhone sales each quarter caused a bit of controversy. But cheer- or jeer-inducing, the story of the week is that the times, they are a-changin’. And in some cases, they are at last evolving forward. Cloud-based point of sale systems are emerging with retailers new and old this holiday season and beyond, as retailers of all stripes are preparing for customers ramping up for a very digital shopping season.
Data:
$10 billion: The approximate value of Apple’s Services business last quarter.
$1.39 billion: Western Union’s Q3 revenue, just shy of the $1.42 billion expected by Wall Street.
46.9 million: Number of iPhone units sold last quarter (missing analyst expectations of 47.9 million units), flat growth compared to last year’s sales.
100 percent: Share of transactions done through mPOS at some Banana Republic locations.
62 percent: Share of new merchants that prefer cloud-based point of sale systems.