Intersection, an experience-driven out-of-home media and technology company, and LinkNYC, the public-private partnership that created the largest free public Wi-Fi network in the world, announced the official launch of the LinkNYC Self-Service Ad Portal. Featuring expanded free offerings and a lower cost of entry for paid campaigns, advertising on LinkNYC is now easier than ever for New York City’s small business community. Intersection’s launch of the portal includes an enhancement of LinkNYC’s LinkLocal free advertising program. Eligible New York City-based community organizations and local small businesses can now display ads on six LinkNYC screens at a time—up from four—at no cost. The update also includes customizable advertising templates and colors, the ability to add a logo or QR code, and an interactive map to help advertisers select optimal LinkNYC locations. The LinkNYC Self-Service Portal is also the home of LinkDirect, Intersection’s new offering for purchasing larger, branded LinkNYC campaigns, which is designed to accommodate budgets of all sizes. LinkDirect allows advertisers to select specific screen locations and campaign dates. Users can upload custom creatives and include a QR code to boost engagement. “These upgrades to LinkLocal will provide hundreds more community-based businesses and nonprofits with opportunities to amplify their messaging through the most coveted out-of-home advertising space in New York City,” said Margaux Knee, Chief Administrative Officer of LinkNYC. “In 2024 alone, LinkNYC provided over $4 million in free advertising space.”
Shopify’s first-quarter revenue surges 27% aided by the rapid checkout feature, Shop Pay’s 57% YoY growth processing $22 billion in GMV and by 64% penetration for Shopify Payments
Shopify’s first-quarter earnings results showed double-digit growth in gross merchandise volumes (GMV) and a continued movement toward streamlined checkout online and further inroads made in offline commerce. revenues were up 27% to $2.4 billion; GMV surged 22% to $74.8 billion. Offline GMV increased 23% and B2B GMV delivered triple-digit growth, up 109% from the year-ago first quarter, said President Harley Finkelstein. With a nod to the current fluid state of tariffs, Finkelstein pointed out that the company’s managed markets products give U.S. merchants “more options with our merchant of record service for collecting and remitting duties and taxes while managing other markets independently. This means if new duties are announced, most merchants can achieve compliance within hours. Later this month, we’ll introduce duty inclusive pricing, allowing merchants to set international prices that include duties in the product price. This ensures transparent pricing from the start and helps customers avoid surprise fees at checkout,” Finkelstein said. “Shopify Payments continues to be our largest product offering and a key driver. We made great progress in Q1, with payments GMV penetration hitting 64%,” Finkelstein said, as Shopify Payments expanded into new markets in Europe. Shop Pay, the rapid checkout feature, saw 57% growth year on year, processing $22 billion in GMV in the quarter. The Shop App continued its momentum in Q1, hitting over 94% year-over year growth in what Finkelstein termed “native GMV, an impressive acceleration and 84% growth last quarter.” Additionally, merchants are using Sidekick, the platform’s AI powered assistant, in increasing numbers, he said. The company expects current quarter revenues to grow in the mid 20% range year over year. As lower margin payment products are part of the mix, he said, gross dollar profit growth will come in at a rate lower than revenues; non-cash charges will also factor into margin impact.
Almost half of U.S. adults who use buy now, pay later products have experienced at least one financial problem: new study
Dollar General is integrating its retail media arm with Fetch, a rewards app that provides consumers with “Fetch points” when they submit receipts from partner brands and retailers. Via this collaboration, brands participating in DGMN can leverage Fetch to help drive incremental consumer purchasing behavior with rewards-based advertising as part of their DGMN investment. As a result of this new partnership, brands participating in DGMN can now seamlessly put their DGMN advertising spend toward Fetch rewards offers, unlocking a new ad format. “Shoppers come to their Fetch app with intent — they’re planning, buying, and ready to be rewarded,” said Courtney Cochrane, retail industry lead at Fetch. “By partnering with DGMN, we’re giving brands a way to meet consumers in those exact moments and drive real results. It’s not just about impressions — it’s about getting products into carts.” Other partnerships Dollar General has entered to expand DGMN functionality include teaming with experiential marketing platform Recess to let advertisers hyper-target the retailer’s customers through community-driven sampling programs. Through the Recess experiential sampling program, participating DGMN brands will be able to integrate products into consumers’ daily lives before they enter the store. Targeting capabilities allow advertisers to execute experiential sampling programs in targeted communities.
Virtuo to launch its AI-powered homeownership concierge platform that offers range of services from contract to move-in, including utility setup, address changes and home maintenance in Texas by partnering with builders
Virtuo, a company that offers an AI-powered homeownership concierge platform, is launching operations in Texas. The move marks Virtuo’s formal entry into the U.S. market, although the company has already assisted homebuyers in four states through partnerships with Canadian homebuilders. Virtuo will partner directly with builders in Dallas, Austin and Houston to provide technology and support services aimed at simplifying the homebuying process. The platform coordinates a range of services from contract to move-in, including utility setup, address changes and home maintenance. The expansion comes amid rapid population growth and new residential construction in Texas, where homebuilders are seeking digital tools to improve customer experience and stand out in a competitive market, company leaders said. “With Shane Homes opening our first showhome in the Dallas area this summer, the timing of Virtuo’s launch in Texas couldn’t be better,” said Melanie Gowans, vice president of sales, marketing and interior design at Shane Homes Group of Companies. Virtuo’s platform combines software with human assistance to help buyers manage their transition into homeownership. Its features include HomieAI, a generative AI tool available around the clock that provides personalized support from the time a home goes under contract to long after the move-in date. For builders, HomieAI also serves to reduce demand on customer care staff by offering consistent, automated assistance.
Lowe’s is expanding third-party marketplace assortment to include full range of homeowner products for every project around the home while also featuring wider assortment across the full price spectrum
Lowe’s is partnering with digital marketplace technology provider Mirakl to scale its e-commerce business while allowing marketplace sellers to more easily manage their catalogs on Lowes.com. Since first introducing its marketplace, Lowe’s has expanded its offerings from third-party sellers to include indoor and outdoor furniture, kitchen and bath, home décor, and power and hand tools. Lowe’s chief digital and information officer Seemantini Godbole said “Our partnership with Mirakl allows Lowe’s Marketplace to offer a full complement of products to homeowners for every project around the home, driving our Total Home Strategy forward.” In addition to offering customers more product categories and brand choices, Lowe’s Marketplace will also feature products ranging the full price spectrum from value to premium products. Benefits of Lowe’s Marketplace also extend to members of the MyLowe’s Rewards loyalty program, with members accruing points on any marketplace purchase. All marketplace products are currently available for home delivery, and customers may return marketplace products purchased through Lowes.com directly to any of Lowe’s over 1,700 stores, creating more convenience for customers.
More Americans say they might need BNPL just to keep up, to help them manage household expenses in the next six months
The latest CivicScience data show that both usage and intent in Buy Now, Pay Later have risen steadily since before the 2024 holiday season. As of May 27, 37% of those aware of BNPL use these services, up from 32% in Q3 2024. The percentage of those who are planning to use BNPL has also increased, ticking up to 12% from 9% in Q4 2024. Notably, usage and intent have also increased among high-income households ($100K+), with experience rising five percentage points since late last year. Users and intenders are particularly leery of looming tariffs – 84% of users and 83% of intenders are at least ‘somewhat’ concerned about the impact of tariffs and trade policies on their household expenses, outpacing non-users by at least eight percentage points (75%). While consumers are turning to BNPL for discretionary purchases, such as live events or food delivery, additional data finds that a noteworthy percentage of Americans worry they’ll have to utilize BNPL just to get by. More than one-third (36%) of consumers who don’t currently use a BNPL service are at least ‘somewhat’ concerned they might need to turn to a Buy Now, Pay Later program to help them manage household expenses in the next six months. This concern is most common among households earning under $50K, but notably, 19% of those expecting to make $100K also share this anxiety.
Zest AI enables AI-powered lending decisions, supporting policy simulations, application insights, unbooked application analysis and loan performance monitoring
Zest AI says it has introduced a tool to help banks make AI-powered lending decisions. LuLu Strategy is the newest model of the company’s AI lending intelligence platform. The new offering will — at least initially — be available exclusively to customers of digital lending firm MeridianLink. “By equipping financial institutions with advanced generative AI tools like LuLu Strategy, we’re strengthening the entire financial ecosystem by fostering greater innovation throughout the sector,” Zest AI CEO Mike de Vere said. “Now, financial institutions have better insights to responsibly expand access to affordable credit to Main Street consumers, which strengthens the economy overall.” By teaming with MeridianLink, he added, Zest can scale its solution quickly across the financial services landscape, giving regional banks and credit unions the same level of technology that was once exclusively available via national lenders. With the new LuLu Strategy module, financial institutions can access: Policy simulations: ask LuLu for policy recommendations to achieve certain business objectives or change policy rules and quantify the impact on automation, approval rate, and risk.
Application insights: provide deeper understanding of borrower behavior patterns, analyze application metrics and track borrower statistics over time.
Unbooked application analysis: identify missed opportunities by comparing pricing and performance of funded versus unfunded loans.
Loan performance monitoring: access ongoing intelligence to continuously refine lending strategies with in-depth tracking of loan performance, approvals, automation, and fraud as well as delinquency and charge-off investigations
FICO’s AI framework, enables Bradesco Bank to execute instantaneous credit and fraud decisions once managed by entire departments
FICO and Bradesco Bank are collaborating closely to embed responsible, real-time AI decisioning into core financial operations, enhancing fraud detection, credit modeling and customer experience. “For FICO, responsible AI consists of four major pillars,” said Scott Zoldi, chief analytics officer of FICO. “It’s around building the AI responsibly, which means building it correctly. It’s around explainability and interpretability. It’s around ethics, ethical AI, and then accountability and auditability of that AI.” One such case study in responsible, purposive AI adoption is Brazil’s Bradesco Bank. With FICO’s AI framework, the bank executes instantaneous credit and fraud decisions once managed by entire departments. However, with this power comes an absolute demand for transparency and accuracy. Customers won’t tolerate unexplained decisions, especially in financial services. For Bradesco Bank, responsible AI isn’t a bonus — it’s business-critical, according to Rafael Cavalcanti, CDAO & CRM director at Bradesco Bank. “I do think that this golden age brings high expectations of customers as well,” he said. “They want to have that same experience that they have when using streaming solutions or while doing online shopping. They want banks to do that. We need to combine these techniques, and at the same time, understand that what we do has a core value that is privacy and responsibility, and that’s what we do in Bradesco.”
Arteria AI’s end-to-end digital documentation workflow auto-logs each change and decision to the deal and memorializes it in a detailed audit trail
Arteria AI has partnered with TruStage Compliance Solutions, a provider of financial transaction technology and expertise, to launch Deal Flow, a content modification and deal management integration that is purpose-built to support community banks and credit unions. Clients can now gain access to Arteria’s proven, end-to-end digital documentation workflow for commercial lending. Deal Flow is accessed through existing dynamic documentation workflows and streamlines the modification and redlining of commercial loan documentation. Each change and decision to the deal is automatically logged and memorialized in a detailed audit trail for complete assurance on compliance and procedural consistency. Notably, TruStage’s compliance warranty is preserved for all unmodified parts of the document. The result is that negotiated transaction documentation moves into the digital sphere – communication is centralized on a digital platform, the right workflow steps are automated, and rich reporting insights become available to further streamline the deal process. Arteria removes the need for legacy manual processes by streamlining the documentation lifecycle, speeding up decision-making for all stakeholders through a highly-intuitive interface.
RegEd’s AI Advertising Review solution achieves >90% accuracy in identifying problematic content in advertising and marketing materials through continuous refinement driven by real-world uses across leading financial services firms and uses a closed-loop system to offer complete client data privacy
RegEd announced the release of Version 3.0 of the proprietary AI model that powers its Advertising Review solution. This marks a significant milestone in the evolution of RegEd’s Submission Intelligence suite of capabilities and underscores the company’s leadership in enterprise-grade, AI-enabled compliance technology. The AI 3.0 release achieves more than 90% accuracy in identifying problematic content in advertising and marketing materials, with continuous refinement driven by real-world use across dozens of leading financial services firms. Developed within a closed-loop system, RegEd’s AI ensures complete client data privacy. The model is governed, trained, and deployed exclusively within RegEd’s secure infrastructure, avoiding the security and privacy risks associated with third-party models, or those that are externally trained or managed. Key Enhancements in Version 3.0: Improved Accuracy, Client-Calibrated Tuning, Consistency Across Review Teams. In addition to the enhancements in Version 3.0, RegEd will introduce AI-assisted pre-review later this year. This next-phase capability will enable firms to screen materials for compliance issues before human review, further accelerating review cycles and improving speed to market.