Weve is developing a mobile loyalty app that will give users a single point of access to their various store cards on their phones, according to its marketing director Tony Moretta. The app is scheduled to launch in beta later this year with a number of "high profile retailers" already signed up to the service ahead of it being made available to Weve's 17 million-plus mobile users in 2014.

As more big retailers such as Kohl's and Circle K hop on board with Merchant Customer Exchange to create a central mobile payments solution, the company is also cozying up to small merchants to create a bigger list of retail partners. Since announcing plans to launch last year, MCX has been partnering with some of the biggest retailers, including Walmart and Target, to create a universal mobile payment system that can be used by multiple retailers. At the same time, the company also wants to involve smaller retailers to capitalize on the growing mobile payments trend.

Luxury conglomerate Kering launched global ecommerce options for six of its luxury brands and is making the in-store and online experience seamless for its customers. Also, Italian fashion house Gucci quadrupled mobile revenue and experienced a 70 percent growth in mobile conversion since the beta launch of its optimized Web site for iOS and Android devices.

The adoption of mobile payments has been far slower than expected, and just as some were beginning to think that they were finally taking off, risk analysts from Riskskill, a U.K. consultant, have released a report that assesses that global market in a much more sobering light. It could be that there are a broad number of challenges and risks associated with that form of transaction. According to the CEO of Riskskill, "It is easy to plan for many risks individually," but he also stated that "the wide and varied nature of the risks associated with the changing and rapidly …

Victoria's Secret Pink is giving its mobile application users exclusive access to an in-store back-to-school event taking place at 300 stores next month. The specialty retailer sent out a push notification on July 15 to its iPhone and iPad app users to announce the Ultimate Shopping Night in-store event. In addition to educating consumers about the event through its app, Victoria's Secret is also building up its loyalty program and tying social media into the marketing behind the event.

Flash-sale housewares and jewelry e-retailer One Kings Lane has shared with Internet Retailer data that gives fellow merchants an idea of what's happening at this moment among leaders in mobile commerce: 36% of total traffic at One Kings Lane is mobile. 60% of mobile traffic comes from tablets and 40% from smartphones. One brand stands out, as 90% of mobile traffic stems from devices running Apple Inc.'s iOS. The average ticket for an iPhone shopper is $163, the average ticket for an Android smartphone shopper is $110, and the average ticket for an iPad shopper is $185. Overall, the e-retailer …

Consumer trust could be key to banks staking a claim in the growing market for mobile payments, according to a panel of finance sector experts, though legacy IT infrastructure could create a barrier to product development. With smartphone adoption continuing to grow, demand for payments via mobile devices is booming. Analysts IDC recently forecast that GBP1 trillion in transactions will be made through smartphones by 2017, mostly driven by mcommerce, and leading payment provider PayPal has seen sales made through its mobile app rocket in recent months.

What has a Wall Street firm most interested in eBay is its mobile reach. "The growth of mobile favors eBay's Marketplaces business and extends its reach advantage vs. traditional retailers. Further, our "app vs browser" analysis underscores eBay's sizable first-mover mobile app edge, as its mobile app traffic is 50x larger than the median traditional retailer, and 11 of the 23 retailers in our sample don't have a mobile app presence at all."

New research has predicted that Internet usage in Turkey will rise 27.5 percent between 2012 and 2017, "driving e-commerce and allowing increased exposure for e-retailers through online advertising." Stating that Internet users made up 45.7 percent of the population in 2012, the report said that the real value of Internet retail expanded by 314 percent in real terms from 2007 to 2012. Noting that the rapid market penetration of smartphones is expected to increase by 124.4 percent between 2012 and 2017, the report said that by 2017, the mobile sector will be a $5.2 billion industry and will drive M-commerce …

European smartphone shoppers would be even more confident engaging in mobile commerce if they could do so using services provided by their bank, research published by the Future Foundation shows. The research, commissioned by mobile money experts Monitise, reveals six-in-10 UK smartphone users (57%) would feel more confident buying goods and services by mobile if they could use apps provided by their bank.