A new marketing study suggests. Whilst many large businesses have been steadily investing in mobile marketing over the last few years, this progression has been much slower with smaller companies. In the study by PB Smart Essentials, it has been suggested that as few as 8% of small and medium enterprises even have a mobile optimised website. A mobile optimised website is a key for encouraging mobile commerce but it appears that smaller businesses are left wondering why (and even how) they should go about creating one.

Beam Money Private Limited which had launched Beam Money prepaid wallet has voluntarily surrendered its authorization, according to RBI's website. Speaking to MediaNama, Anand Shrivastav, Chairman at Beam Money informed us that semi closed prepaid wallets did not make financial sense to Beam Money. One of the major drawback, he says, was that it did not allow users to withdraw money from the wallet, which is important for a consumer company. He also mentioned that Beam Money does one million transactions every month and has an average transaction of Rs 250 to Rs 350 per transaction.

If some area chambers of commerce have their way, finding businesses and learning about special events won't just be a click away - they'll be a finger tap away. Chambers of commerce, which serve as a voice for local business, are turning to free mobile applications to let people know what's happening at stores, restaurants and more. Apex, Fuquay-Varina and Wake Forest are part of the MyChamberApp, which allows users to click on screen tiles with business categories such as shopping, dining and automotive.

Hair salon chain Great Clips is seeing success with its online check-in service, particularly on mobile when consumers need to squeeze in a quick haircut. Great Clips rolled out digital check-ins across its mobile and desktop properties in 2011. The company recently hit 10 million online check-ins and has also rolled out an iPhone and Android application.

In its 112-year history, Walgreen Co. has prided itself on continuous innovation: It invented the malted milkshake in 1922, switched from clerk- service to self-service shopping in its stores in 1950 and pioneered the drive-through pharmacy in the 1990s. Now the Deerfield-based drugstore chain is discovering e-commerce.Walgreen is a bit tardy. Amazon.com Inc. launched 18 years ago, after all. And the effort so far is almost immaterial when it comes to revenue. Sales via mobile devices, for instance, come to an estimated 0.04 percent of Walgreen's total-not remotely enough to offset weaker "front of store" sales in its just-closed quarter. …

Mobile Embrace Limited, the marketing and mobile commerce payments company, is expanding into South East Asia. The company said this fulfilled one of its key objectives for 2013. "We commenced with the establishment of a development hub in Vietnam in April which was quickly followed by expanding our mobile advertising business into South East Asia. We are very pleased to see revenue so quickly from this initiative," said Chris Thorpe, CEO of Mobile Embrace.

The largest mobile service provider in Taiwan has been gearing up for the launch of its ambitious mobile payments service that combines the capabilities of QR codes and NFC technology. The service is meant to bring new options to consumers that are interested in shopping via their smartphones and tablets. While the service has been lauded as a major step forward toward a new future of commerce, Chunghwa Telecom has pumped the brakes on this initiative, delaying its official launch

Office Depot is leveraging mobile with a limited-edition line of back-to-school supplies this year that gives consumers an incentive to not only use their mobile device in-store, but also download the retailer's mobile application. The office-supplies retail chain has partnered with musical band One Direction on a line of school supplies for back-to-school shoppers as part of an anti-bullying campaign. An augmented reality component that complements the program has been rolled out to the company's iPhone app.

Uber, a mobile on-demand request tool for private drivers, celebrated its launch in the Hamptons by offering ultra-affluent New Yorkers the chance to book a private helicopter service through the company's mobile application. The company introduced UberChopper exclusively for the Fourth of July weekend to boost its presence in the Hamptons, a posh getaway two hours from New York. On July 3, UberChopper gave a limited number of New Yorkers the chance to book a helicopter ride and door-to-door private car service to a location in the Hamptons through the mobile app.

Braintree is now processing $10 billion in annual payments and continuing to expand its footprint in Europe. Braintree is a payments startup that powers online and mobile credit card transactions for e-commerce vendors. It provides a full-stack payments platform that makes issuing and accepting online payments more accessible and simple than before, when payment processing required extensive infrastructure and resources. Integrating the software allows retailers to process credit cards and international payments, as well as create merchant accounts, enable single click checkout, safely store information, and manage recurring billing.