Student loan repayments are scheduled to resume in October after a more than a three-year hiatus that shifted how and where consumers spent their dollars during and after the Covid-19 pandemic.

The return of student loan payments will affect how consumers spend their dollars moving forward, as the temporary bereavement shifted those dollars elsewhere, particularly on e-commerce and home spending, Ermengarde Jabir, senior economist at Moody’s, told Retail Brew. Retailers that have a broad customer base and offer lower prices are best positioned, while those that are specialized and target a specific shopper will struggle, especially among households with a large debt burden.

Keep reading here.—KM

Sick of staring at that ever-growing, years-old mountain of receipts? Well, this once-universal nuisance for retailers is on its way out. The payments industry is finally saying goodbye to receipts and hello to a leaner, greener shopping experience.

Learn about Ingenico’s partnership with I Hate Receipts and how they’re making the payments industry more sustainable.

As a payment solutions provider, Ingenico has seen the environmental impact of receipts up close. And it’s not pretty. Receipts can be an effective reminder to customers to revisit their fave shops, but the ecological cost is high.

In their partnership with I Hate Receipts, Ingenico helps merchants improve their environmental impact and stay connected to their customers after checkout.

Read all about the rise of the sustainable payments ecosystem.

Target on Tuesday said it made the “difficult decision” to close nine locations in four states, “because theft and organized retail crime are threatening the safety of our team and guests, and contributing to unsustainable business performance.”

The stores on the chopping block—several of which are small-format stores that were opened in urban areas within the past five years—include one location in New York’s East Harlem, two in Seattle, three in Oakland and San Francisco, and three in Portland.

“We know that our stores serve an important role in their communities, but we can only be successful if the working and shopping environment is safe for all,” the company said.

The problem of theft: This March, the company announced plans to close four small-format stores in urban areas that had opened within the past five years. What distinguishes the new round of closures is that Target is pointing the finger squarely at theft and retail crime—even as its actual financial impact is relatively minor.

Keep reading here.—AV

H&M is the latest retailer feeling the heat of rampant retail theft in the US.

In a recent interview with Reuters, CEO Helena Helmersson said the fast fashion brand is amping up security across its stores as shoplifting becomes an industry-wide problem.

The company is working on new solutions to combat the problem, which was previously noted by H&M CFO Adam Karlsson in a press briefing, Reuters reported. “It is an increasing problem in many markets,” Karlsson said.

Across the board: H&M is certainly not alone in grappling with shoplifting. Earlier this month, Zara owner Inditex said it’s still working on perfecting a new anti-shoplifting system after staff “raised concerns to management that the technology may actually make theft easier,” Bloomberg reported.

Keep reading here.—JS