Retail giant Target CIO Beth Jacob is working toward a day when multichannel commerce is just assumed and shopping becomes more social as technology blends into the consumer's daily life. Beth Jacob, Target CIO, oversees the massive retailer's technology operations. Here's a look at 10 takeaways from a recent video interview I did with her at the CBS Broadcast Center in New York. Working with Facebook. Target has developed a social savings program called Cartwheel. The effort was co-developed with Target and Facebook developers. Jacob said the program has 2 million guests who have saved $7 million so far.

Groupon has acquired Korean e-commerce company Ticket Monster (aka TMON), who specialises in product, local and travel offers, for $260 million in cash and stock. 2010-launched TMON is currently owned by LivingSocial, but the Groupon deal is expected to close in H1 2014. The firm has seen consistent year-on-year billings growth, with annual figures at $800m. Interestingly, it was the company's mobile success that caught Groupon's eye, as more than half of sales come via devices. TMON has more than 1,000 employees and four million active customers.

Groupon Inc. said more people are flocking to deals offered on mobile devices as the company transforms itself into a service offering thousands of discounts instead of a daily deal e-mailed every day. The e-commerce company, which said yesterday that it agreed to buy Ticket Monster Inc. in South Korea for $260 million in cash and stock, reported that sales rose 4.7 percent to $595.1 million in the third quarter, and a net loss of $2.58 million. While revenue missed analysts' average projection for $615.7 million, the loss was narrower than the prediction for $14.3 million, according to estimates compiled …

A Nestl executive said that the recent Kit Kat Android partnership was one example of how the CPG brand leveraged different platforms and touch points to engage consumers. During the "Digital transformation the Nestl way" session the executive laid out four different pillars of Nestle and gave examples of different success stories. The Kit Kat Android partnership, for example, generated more than 1.3 billion Twitter impressions and two million views on YouTube within 72 hours. "There was a very big thing around the paid earned optimization and there was a thing around how do you leverage the platforms to really …

Premium Swiss chocolate manufacturer and retailer Lindt & Sprungli USA recently launched a redesigned Web site that leverages responsive design to streamline checkout for mobile users. The new Lindt.com site is more interactive and features a stronger visual look for both desktop and mobile devices. By streamlining the checkout process, Lindt has experienced a significant increase in ROI and mobile revenue.

Pizza Hut has always been a technology friendly company, after having been one of the first companies to offer online purchasing and having had a mobile commerce app available for a number of years. From that point, Pizza Hut has continued to look to technology to help consumers to be able to order their products more quickly and conveniently. In 2009, it introduced its mobile commerce app, and the chain has continued to enhance its smartphone and tablet based experience since that time. It was the first ordering app in the pizza category and continually aims to make new firsts …

The latest annual holiday survey from Burst Media has revealed that consumers are already getting ready to start their shopping during the heaviest season of the year, and that while they plan to head to brick and mortar shopping malls and online shops, alike, they will be using mobile commerce in a number of different ways to help them throughout their purchasing journeys. For instance, this year, Hanukkah will be starting ahead of Thanksgiving, and for the first time since 2008, Cyber Monday will be occurring in December. This could be a defining pattern, particularly when it comes to mobile …

Latin America's version of the Amazon marketplace is thriving. Linio, which positions itself as the 'Amazon of Latin America,' is soaking up $50 million in new funding to continue its growth. The e-commerce platform features a wide range of electronics, jewelry, toys, health and personal care, clothing, books, sporting equipment, and more. People buy online at discounted prices, and the items are delivered to their door. The Rocket Internet-backed venture claims to be the largest online store in Latin America and recently released a mobile app to capitalize on the popularity of mobile devices.

Mattel and Walmart are ramping up a QR code-driven virtual toy store program first introduced last year with more locations around Canada to help commuters shop for gifts this holiday season. The virtual toy stores are located in Montreal, Vancouver, Toronto and on trains. The stores will run for four weeks, enabling commuters to purchase some of the season's most popular toy gifts by scanning a QR code with their smartphones.

QVC is a mobile monster, ranked No. 3 in the 2014 Internet Retailer Mobile 500, behind only Apple Inc. and Amazon.com Inc. And a steadily increasing number of QVC online shoppers continue to go mobile. In the third quarter of 2013, QVC's U.S. mobile commerce sales grew 63%, reaching $169.2 million, or 31.6% of total web sales, up from $103.8 million, or 21.7% of web sales, in the third quarter of 2012, reports QVC parent company Liberty Interactive Corp.