The menu of mobile commerce services at Starbucks will increase this year, with mobile tipping as and new ordering tools in coming months. The company also plans to leverage its mobile and social media efforts to drive consumers to its Teavana stores.

A Chilean startup backed by a $200,000 seed from a venture fund has relocated to San Francisco and wants to turn smartphones into a free mobile marketplace. The app lets people sell to each other, including friends and strangers.

Ecommerce is almost two decades old. Mobile commerce is what everyone's talking about. Stores are even offering apps that will keep updating the price of a product you are interested in through alerts on your smartphone. So when there's a huge price-off, you immediately get to hear about it instead of checking the website or visiting the store time and again. BC: "For once, I'm glad I don't carry a smartphone regularly. If people are going to be bombarded with deals, there's no getting away from them."

One of the largest challenges that Australian companies had once faced is now being overcome through the use of mobile commerce, which has allowed retailers to reach out and connect with the massive Chinese consumer base.

France's mCommerce market rose to around EUR 1 billion in 2012 from EUR 400 million a year earlier, accounting for nearly 2 percent of all e-commerce sales and the number of e-commerce websites increased by 17 percent to 117,500.

The Russian state-owned railways monopoly, has just launched a free mobile app offering train schedules and allowing travelers to purchase electronic tickets. A click-to-call function allows users to reach the company's call center and a few clicks is enough to choose your train and indicate your name and pay by credit card.

Researchers analyzed the amount of time spent by consumers across more than 1,800 iOS and Android shopping apps in December 2012, compared to the same month a year earlier and found the biggest growth category by far was apps developed by retailers. The study found that the time spent in retail apps skyrocketed by 525 percent year over year.

A Swedish electric device retailer has just granted a contract to the mobile payments service to help the company upgrade its mobile commerce experience for consumers, to offer an enhanced shopping experience over smartphones.

Some companies are taking a crack at using customers' smartphones at physical retail locations to capture more data. One system offers an in-store portal for large retail stores that lets customers use their smartphones to access free in-store Wi-Fi. When customers log in, the system captures customer activity, including in-store locations, and can offer deals and other enticements based on where the customer is in the store.

The Chief Operating Officer of Square is leaving the fast-growing mobile payments startup and the CFO will serve as acting COO while the firm searches for a permanent replacement.