General
Agentic Commerce Series – Part 6
Who will win in Agentic Commerce? Owning the customer used to be a huge advantage. Once an agent starts deciding on the customer's behalf, where does the real power move to?
Author
Arif Ünal
Payment systems expert and technology executive
Arif Ünal is a technology executive with more than 20 years of experience in banking, fintech and payment systems. He writes about card payments (issuing and acquiring), POS, ATM, e-money, FAST and Turkish payments regulation (BRSA and CBRT). He has held senior roles at Finagotech and managed payment systems and digital banking teams at Emlak Katılım, Vakıf Katılım and Türkiye Finans. He holds a B.Sc. in Industrial Engineering from Istanbul University and an M.Sc. in Management Information Systems from Marmara University.
976 articles
Agentic Commerce
Agentic Commerce Series – Part 5
Points or habit? Loyalty programs are built on steering human behavior. But if an AI agent starts shopping on our behalf, do points and campaigns still work the same way?
Agentic Commerce
Agentic Commerce Series – Part 4
Are We Ready to Give an AI Agent the Authority to Make Payments? Having long looked at complaint and dispute processes in payment systems, I think granting an agent payment authority is far different from research or product selection.
Agentic Commerce
Agentic Commerce Series – Part 3
Can AI Decide on Our Behalf? Letting an AI agent handle research can make life much easier. The real question is where that should stop, and how much decision-making authority we are ready to hand over.
Payment Systems
Agentic Commerce Series - Part 2
If users start describing their needs instead of searching for products, one of the internet economy's most fundamental habits could change.
Credit Card
Why Was the Credit Card Minimum Payment Threshold Raised to TRY 100,000?
The BRSA raised the card limit threshold used to set the minimum payment rate from TRY 50,000 to TRY 100,000. This post explains what changed, why now, the short-term relief, the risk of carried-over balances, and which data to watch.
Agentic Commerce
Agentic Commerce Series – Part 1
The next customer on the internet may not be human. If AI agents become part of purchasing decisions, the rules of e-commerce, marketing, and payment systems could change.
Closed-Loop Payments
Whose Ecosystem Does the Customer Stay In? | Closed-Loop Payments #7
In the final post of the closed-loop payments series, the common question behind cards, QR payments, and prepaid balances comes into focus: who manages the customer relationship, and whose ecosystem does the customer stay in?
Closed-Loop Payments
Why Do Closed-Loop Payment Systems Want to Grow? | Series #6
Why does a coffee chain build its own loyalty program, and why does a payment app keep adding services? This post looks at how loyalty, data, and new services drive the growth of closed-loop payment systems, and at the financial layers behind that growth.
Closed-Loop Payments
Alipay: Payment System or Digital Economy? | Closed-Loop Payments #5
Is Alipay a payment system, or a digital economy? In the previous post we discussed how Starbucks shows that payment systems can evolve into a different structure. At first the goal was to make payment easier for the customer. As the system grew, loyalty programs...
Closed-Loop Payments
Is Starbucks Selling Coffee, or Building an Ecosystem? | Closed-Loop Payments #4
Is Starbucks really selling coffee, or building an ecosystem? Prepaid balances, a loyalty program and customer data turn a coffee chain's payments into a closed-loop economy, a very different model from Istanbulkart.
Payment Systems
When Does a Transit Card Become a Payment System? The Istanbulkart Example | #3
When Does a Transit Card Become a Payment System? Millions of people in Istanbul use Istanbulkart every day. Passing through metro turnstiles, rushing to a bus or boarding a ferry at the last moment, our hand reaches almost by reflex for our card or our phone...