With the launch of Apple's iPhone 5S and more consumer acceptance around using mobile for authentication this year, marketers will leverage mobile fingerprinting in 2014 to supercharge their strategies. However, with Facebook and L'Oreal betting on facial recognition, the technology should not be counted out completely. Fingerprinting and facial recognition have been around for a while, but generated more marketing interest this year as brands look for new ways to leverage mobile for more sophisticated features. Based on Apple's lead with fingerprinting, brands will be close in following the technology, too.

British retailer Ted Baker has a new campaign that links bricks-and-mortar with online marketing by enabling customers to take selfies in front of digital displays and upload them to social media for a chance to win a prize. The Merry Kissmas campaign is designed to drive store traffic and ultimately sales while also building social buzz about the retailer during the busy holiday shopping season. For the effort, shoppers at the retailer's stores in New York City, London and Tokyo are being invited to take a picture of themselves under a large digital mistletoe installation and share it with friends.

Just a few years ago, retailers were trying to figure out what the heck HTML5 was. Today, HTML5 is a widely used tool that helps retailers enhance their sites optimized for smartphones and for tablets-desktop e-commerce sites, too-making mobile sites look and function more like their slick, richer mobile app counterparts. 230, or 46%, of the merchants in the 2014 Internet Retailer Mobile 500 use HTML5 in their mobile commerce web sites, while 181 merchants in the 2013 Internet Retailer Mobile 400 used HTML5, according to data in Internet Retailer's Top500Guide.com.

Southwest Airlines has added a new option for in-flight Wi-Fi, allowing consumers to communicate via iChat without paying for full Internet connection. The messaging functionality will work throughout the entire flight, from gate to gate. Southwest Airlines partnered with connectivity provider Global Eagle Entertainment to launch the new service. The introductory price for the messaging service is $2 per day, but the cost is subject to change in the coming weeks and months

After integrating Google Wallet Instant Buy into their mobile sites or applications, Rue La La, Newegg and Fancy all saw an increase in conversion rates from standard mobile checkout. The mobile checkout solution's success points to Google Wallet's increased competition with players such as PayPal, but also underscores a shift in Google Wallet's strategy from in-store to online. Rue La La's conversion rates have increased four-fold compare to other Android app shoppers, Newegg has been seeing mobile Web shoppers convert 100 percent more often and Fancy has seen its conversions increase by 20 percent.

Customers at participating Tim Horton's stores throughout Canada and the U.S. using BlackBerry 10 smartphones will be able to register a Tim Card on the TimmyMe mobile app and use NFC tap-to-pay technology to complete their order. Future development plans will also see this platform expanded to Android 4.4 devices. Tim Hortons has also launched a barcode payment pilot program in the Niagara region in Canada and at select U.S. Tim Hortons Cafe & Bake Shop restaurants in Maine, Michigan, New York, and Ohio. The barcode technology, which provides a scan-to-pay option once a Tim Card has been registered on …

Massachusetts-based mobile commerce solution provider Loop revealed in an exclusive interview with PYMNTS.com as part of our Breakthrough Series that it has secured $10 million in Series A angel investor funding. Graylin hinted that later funding rounds will not be kept to the company's inner circle and that they will be open to institutions. Further, the CEO suggested that this funding could be imminent. That wasn't all that Loop CEO Will Graylin revealed to Market Platform Dynamics (MPD) CEO Karen Webster, though. Graylin announced that the company is ready to ship The Loop Fob (pictured above), a $34 device that …

European c-level executives believe that market expansion presents a real e-commerce growth opportunity in 2014, according to new research released today from CyberSource, a Visa Inc company. The Payment Management Perspectives study, conducted among European executives, revealed that 86% are planning to increase focus on expanding their e-commerce business into new markets in 2014. Emerging economies represent a significant opportunity, with their plentiful active online shoppers, high mobile usage, and untapped consumer potential. However, executives cite that growth inhibitors-including inconsistent data privacy and security standards, market uncertainty and insight, as well as a need for confident fraud management-must be addressed.

Electronic retailers in China have kicked off an online shopping festival, with the hope of encouraging more consumers to shop using their mobile phones. Known as "Double-12", it follows the success of a similar shopping campaign last month. From consumer electronics to groceries, Chinese consumers are increasingly turning to the Internet for their shopping Hoping to cash in on the year-end spending spree, online retailers have come up with a fresh campaign. On Thursday, apart from the usual consumer items, 16 horses, more than 30 houses and cars from judicial auction - seized in lawsuits by local courts - were …

Keeping the purchase process short and sweet is driving mobile sales for two merchants using a checkout program from Google Inc. for Android apps and mobile commerce sites that enables shoppers to purchase in two clicks. Google introduced the offering, called the Instant Buy Application Programming Interface, or API, to its Google Wallet payments service in May. Consumers who have signed up for Google Wallet can now check out in Android apps and via mobile sites that have implemented Instant Buy without having to manually enter their billing or shipping information. Consumers use payment information they have stored with Google …