Tesco and The Body Shop are two of the first UK retailers to start using Apple's mobile wallet to market to their customers. Dubbed Passbook, Apple's mobile wallet lets users store items such as receipts, boarding passes and voucher codes on their mobile device. But take-up by UK companies has so far been slow, with the few firms that use it doing so only for managing customer relations. However, the two retailers, plus Seatwave and eFlorist, are now set to use Passbook as an affiliate marketing channel, letting users store vouchers for use later.

Italian label Bottega Veneta is aiming to increase traffic to its mcommerce site through a colorful banner advertisement featured on Vanity Fair's mobile site. The bright yellow Bottega Veneta handbag displayed in the ad is likely to catch the attention of readers browsing through Vanity Fair's site. Although the ad shows only a small portion of the handbag, the color draws the reader's eyes to the ad and is likely to generate click-throughs.

Portland, OR, transit riders can now easily purchase and use tickets from their smartphones via a new mobile ticketing application from local transit agency TriMet. The TriMet Tickets app is available for use on both local buses and trains. The app enables user to purchase transit tickets anywhere at any time that can be used on TriMet buses, MAX trains, WES Commuter Rail and the Portland Streetcar.

The Macau population could soon be able to use their smartphones to pay for services or goods, with an e-commerce service provider planning to launch a mobile payment system here. Hong Kong-based Tradelink Electronic Commerce Ltd says the project, which it calls 'mobile e-wallet', could be up and running in the fourth quarter this year. The project is a collaboration between Tradelink and Joint Electronic Teller Services Ltd (Jetco), the biggest network of ATMs in Hong Kong and Macau. Tradelink confirmed to Business Daily that the company decided to test the public's response to the mobile e-wallet in Taiwan and …

A number of banks in the Netherlands, including Rabobank, Amro, ING, and ABN, are working with MasterCard, the city of Leiden, and KPN (a mobile operator), in order to launch a new mobile payments program. According to a news release, it will involve the participation of 150 different businesses in the city. The mobile payments trial will also include 1,000 customers. It started on September 2 and will be carefully monitored by all of the involved parties to examine its potential in the country. In order to help to prepare for the program's soft launch, UL, a security transaction provide, …

Vodafone in association with ICICI Bank launched the mobile wallet service, M-Pesa in April this year, which is aimed at enabling customers to send and receive small amounts of money via their mobile phones as simply as sending a text message. This was done in a bid to help about 700 million of the country's population who previously had no access to conventional banking. Within four months of the announcement, M-Pesa was rolled out across Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, West Bengal, UP East, Bihar, Jharkhand, and Rajasthan. Recently the service has been extended to UP West covering its 137 Tehsils and …

As more and more people turn to smartphones and tablets to do their online shopping, manufacturers are turning to wearable devices as the next new platform for the masses. Google's got Glasses, and now Samsung is readying its launch of a smart watch. eBay was quick to announce that its mobile app will be compatible with the Samsung Galaxy Gear watch, which will become available on September 25th (October for U.S. consumers).

Retailers are overestimating the growth of consumer spending via mobile devices by over 100%, with 75% of leading retailers expecting consumers using mobile devices to account for 40% of sales and above in two years time, while 50% expect the mobile channel to account for 50% or more of total online sales. Consumers online, however, disagree, with just 13% predicting that 40% or more of their online spending (excluding grocery shopping) will be from smartphones (23% tablet devices) in two years time, and just 9% expecting to use smartphones for at least half of their online purchases (17% tablet devices).

A number of technology news reports that were recently published have suggested that insiders who are close to this issue claim that American Express Co. and Microsoft are both showing interest in purchasing an equity stake in Foursquare Labs Inc. If these reports are true, then it suggests that the two giants would rather invest in the company than work jointly on it.

IBM and Monitise have signed an agreement that helps Visa Europe provide its member banks with new mobile banking, payment and commerce services in the cloud for its customers. IBM will help Monitise extend and scale the adoption of these services with Visa Europe and develop additional services to bring to the mobile marketplace. Monitise's Bank Anywhere, Pay Anyone and Buy Anything services form the basis of Visa Europe's forthcoming mobile offerings will provide banking services on any mobile device.