The international e-commerce market, from 2012 to 2017, will expand more than twice as fast as the U.S. e-commerce retail industry will expand, according to retail specialists and market research. Market intelligence firm International Data Corporation (IDC) has projected that global e-commerce sales for physical goods, like clothes and consumer electronics, will grow 18 percent annually on average over that period, outpacing U.S. growth of 7 percent. The figures don't include online sales of items like movie tickets, software or travel bookings. U.S. retailers have been slow to capitalize on the overseas e-commerce market, according to Michael DeSimone, CEO of …

Este Lauder's Bobbi Brown Cosmetics is leveraging augmented reality with an interactive print-to-mobile campaign that lets users browse and shop beauty looks. The beauty brand is using the Blippar application to add an interactive element to the brand's new campaign with actress Katie Holmes. It is the first time that the makeup brand has worked with a celebrity as part of a campaign, with mobile video and commerce playing a key role. "Very often women see pictures in magazines and ads that inspire them to create a similar style, but they may not know which products are needed or how …

The proliferation of smartphones is having a dramatic effect on retail sales, with new figures from Deloitte predicting that mobile will influence 10-15% of store retail sales by 2017 - equating to GBP27bn and GBP41bn in store sales. That's a steady increase from this year's mobile influence factor - the percentage of store sales where mobile phones are used as part of the shopping journey - which Deloitte has currently pitched at 6.8%, equating to GBP18bn of stores sales. The growing mcommerce trend was reflected in recent figures from Capgemini and IMRG, which found that purchases made using smartphones and …

Victoria's Secret is one of a few different retailers this holiday season that is incorporating augmented reality into its own branded application for both driving sales and engagement. The retailer is using augmented reality that has been built specifically into the Victoria's Secret mobile application. Victoria's Secret is launching the new feature to work with the brand's new winter style guide catalog. "It makes total sense for Victoria Secret to integrate augmented reality into their own app as opposed to using a third-party branded app," said Ritesh Bhavnani, chairman of Snipp Interactive, Washington.

In the first three quarters of 2013, consumer packaged goods brands have run a number of interactive mobile campaigns that are aimed at moving the needle away from purely branding to driving sales, which will likely play a more prominent role in holiday spend.CPG brands' mobile efforts run across multiple mobile tactics and reflect how marketers can reach consumers with tailored, personalized content and offers. While some CPG brands remain rooted in traditional channels such as SMS or mobile Web, others are experimenting with augmented reality and purchase-based data.

According to the latest study results issued by comScore and The Partnering Group based on data collected and analyzed since June, 55 percent of all online shopping began with mobile commerce over a smartphone or tablet in some way. The results of the data analysis has underscored the importance of mobile commerce and that the world is moving increasingly in that direction. Though it may not have reached the point, yet, that people are making their final purchases over these devices, they are playing a growing role in the overall shopping process. Shoppers are using these gadgets for informing themselves …

Sears has enjoyed an uptick in mobile conversion rates in response to enhanced user experiences that are now "faster, more personalized and require fewer steps to check out," Mobile Commerce Daily reports. With the holiday shopping season fast approaching, the potency of mobile will be felt across the retail landscape to a new degree this year. "We have seen improvements in visits, conversions, average order value and especially our Shop Your Way member engagements," says Imran Jooma, one of the online marketing chiefs at Sears.

Restaurant chain Cosi is engaging consumers with a unique mobile sweepstakes that requires consumers to bring mobile or print game pieces to a Cosi location. The "Fall into Cosi" campaign asks consumers to bring in their mobile device to a Cosi store or print out a game piece via a microsite to see if they won one of several prizes, including a grand prize trip for two to Paris. The campaign is running through Oct. 31 and is powered by ePrize.

Mobile commerce is undoubtedly growing at a rapid clip. In 2013, mobile retail sales for the 358 U.S. merchants ranked in the 2014 Internet Retailer Mobile 500 combined with U.S. mobile commerce sales for eBay Inc. will grow about 64% to $34.2 billion from $20.9 billion in 2012, according to the Mobile 500. Still, there's a significant portion of consumers who do not shop from smartphones because they are concerned about security and privacy. In a recent survey of 500 online consumers about their shopping plans for the upcoming holiday season, 28% of respondents said they will not use their …

Based on the results of a recent study, consumers continue to love everything about their mobile devices and are using them on an increasing basis as a part of their overall shopping experiences through mobile commerce. This, according to a mobile commerce report that was recently released in a partnership between the Partnering Group and comScore. What it revealed was that 55 percent of all time spent online on retail had originated from a smartphone device, compared with only 45 percent stemming from a desktop or laptop device.