Etisalat Group, the leading telecoms operator in Africa, the Middle East and Asia,on Monday said that it has expanded its mobile phone-based commerce service "Flous" through its subsidiary Etisalat Moov in Benin. "As Flous comes online throughout our international operations millions of our customers can benefit from world-class financial services - many for the first time," said Khalifa Al Shamsi, Chief Digital Services Officer at Etisalat Group. "By bringing banking to the unbanked, we are investing in communities and giving them the tools to flourish and thrive.

TV, web and mobile retailer HSN Inc. has been giving consumers shopping on smartphones and tablets a leg up on non-mobile shoppers this holiday season. For example, HSN sent texts to mobile phone-toting customers enrolled in its text message program and push notifications to users of its smartphone and tablet apps giving the mobile consumers exclusive advance notice of Thanksgiving and Black Friday sales. Mobile traffic that weekend exceeded 50% of all web traffic that weekend, a first for HSN, No. 9 in the Internet Retailer Mobile 500. Mobile commerce plays a key role in HSN's marketing strategy, says Edward …

A mobile commerce business formerly known as Quincy-based Modiv Media has doubled its workforce after being acquired in 2012 by Florida-based marketing firm Catalina and relocating to South Boston. The workforce, which is driving Catalina Marketing Corp.'s mobile commerce business, grew to about 60 employees this year, and the team is "changing the face of consumer packaged goods (CPG) retail" with digital media, said John Caron, VP of marketing for Catalina. "We have the ability to deliver personalized ads through mobile devices wherever the customer is," Caron said.

Express is taking a lesson from the mobile payment success of Starbucks with an update to its application that tightly integrates the retailer's loyalty program to let consumers pay through their mobile devices while shopping in-store. The mobile payment feature has been incorporated into Express's iPhone app and ties in with the overarching "Own the Moment" holiday campaign. In addition to its revamped app, the specialty retailer is also leveraging mobile email, SMS, RMM and social media as part of its holiday campaign.

According to one of the most recent announcements from eBay, the company is experiencing its best holiday mobile commerce season ever, particularly when its payments through PayPal are taken into account. Though it has continued to experience strong sales since the first shopping weekend, that was a hot performer. From Thanksgiving through Cyber Monday, both eBay and PayPal saw the highest holiday mobile commerce activity that they have ever had. The volume of purchases and payments made over smartphones and tablets was higher than any other equivalent five day period in previous years. In fact, during that time, the company …

One of the key mobile insights that has emerged for Walmart in the wake of the Thanksgiving holiday weekend is the significant role mobile is playing for in-store shoppers, who used their smartphones to browse special offers and shop online from the retailer. Mobile traffic to the retailer's Web site peaked at 7 p.m. EST on Thanksgiving Day, an hour after bricks-and-mortar stores opened with the first set of Black Friday savings and an hour before the second set of savings, which included a lot of televisions, became available. The top product pages browsed by customers on mobile devices included …

The new " Europe Online Payment Methods 2013 - Second Half 2013" report by Hamburg-based secondary market research company yStats.com indicates that the online payment continues to grow in acceptance, driven by fast growing E-Commerce in the region. Use of mobile devices in online as well as traditional retail purchases is growing in European nations along with other areas of the world. In Europe, the share of alternative payments, including mobile and e-wallets, is forecasted to gradually increase from just 1% of total payments in 2010 to a double digit share in 2020. Mobile banking is gaining in popularity throughout …

It's been a strong mobile holiday season so far for eBay Inc.On Thanksgiving, the online marketplace says it tracked a 91% year-over-year increase in the number of transactions through PayPal on mobile devices; on Black Friday, 99.2%. PayPal is owned by eBay. Though good news for e-commerce operators, the growth in mobile commerce-mobile sales were up 80% year over year on Cyber Monday alone, according to Adobe Systems Inc.-perhaps merits a word of caution, to which Santa Claus can attest: Like all free-willed consumers, mobile shoppers can be naughty or nice. More importantly, their ability to bring smartphones or tablets …

Fifteen Dallas-area retailers are pilot testing Cartwheel Register, a free mobile checkout app that provides an intuitive and secure store system while creating a next-generation shopping experience for customers. Retailers in the pilot include gift shops, cafes, clothing boutiques, bakeries, caterers, food trucks and salons throughout the city and surrounding areas. Each business will use Cartwheel Register to perform credit, debit, cash and Skip Wallet transactions. Cartwheel Register combines a next-generation store system, full-stack payments and a powerful social good marketing message to customers. With Tantrum Street's patent-pending number recognition technology, the app uses a smartphone or tablet's camera to …

It's basic human nature to fear or distrust that which isn't known or well understood. As a result, many consumers continue to exhibit a lack of faith or trust in near field communications technology - specifically, NFC payments. YouGov's "The Future of Mobile Digital and Contactless Payments" report indicates that 35% of UK adults are aware of NFC-enabled mobile devices, but fewer than one in ten (9%) mobile and smartphone owners know that their device is NFC-enabled.