The Royal Bank of Canada has released its first mobile commerce platform, called the RBC Wallet. The platform is powered by the bank's Secure Cloud, which is used to store customer financial information. The bank claims that its mobile wallet is the first of its kind in Canada, allowing consumers to choose either their debit RBC account or a Visa credit account to make payments. Currently, the RBC Wallet is only available for Android devices. The RBC Wallet makes use of NFC technology, which significantly restricts its use to those with NFC-enabled devices, such as the Samsung Galaxy S4.

The third day of the DMAi 2014 Convention, 24 January, ended with a panel featuring Sunil Kumar, joint general manager (portals), Indian Railways (IRCTC); Deepa Thomas, head - corporate communications, eBay India; and Gaurav Vora, director, Dynaflex. They discussed 'The future of e-commerce'. The session was moderated by Murtaza Adenwala, general manager, e-commerce, Go Airlines. The panel discussed emerging trends that a business should take notice of early and capitalise on. Thomas cited three 'M's - mobile commerce, multi-screen commerce and micro multinationals - as emerging trends. While multi-screen commerce uses interactive smart screens and mobile, micro-multinationals refers to the …

Recent massive data breaches at Target and Neiman Marcus have re-ignited a campaign by retailers to get U.S. consumers to carry "PIN and chip" credit and debit cards to replace the decades-old magnetic stripe cards used by 90% of Americans. Such PIN and chip cards would do what dozens of newer-model smartphones with NFC chips are already doing while using payment apps like Google Wallet and Isis. So why isn't the focus on promoting near-field communication smartphones instead of PIN and chip cards? The answer is complicated and political, primarily because there are questions over who is liable for a …

The leading mobile operators in the United Kingdom are coming together once more in a joint effort to create a new approach to an industry wide jumpstart to the mobile payments market that has been struggling in the country. The three major players in this mobile payments effort are Everything Everywhere (the joint venture between T-Mobile and Orange), as well as Telefonica UK (also recognized as O2), and Vodafone UK (also known simply as Vodafone). These three companies have announced that they will be working together for both transactions and for mobile marketing. UK Mobile Payments - M-Commerce BoostAs this …

The Lord & Taylor and Hudson's Bay department stores are leveraging a mobile application to enable customers to purchase items directly from print media via their tablets and smartphones. Customers who download the Pounce app and scan items appearing in the retailers' print circulars, direct mail and ads will be able to purchase the items in just a few clicks. With print media still an important marketing channel for merchants, the strategy was designed to meet the needs of smartphone-wielding consumers who want to purchase instantly.

The introduction of banking services by T-Mobile could be a significant step forward for mobile wallets if the wireless carrier is successful. Mobile Money by T-Mobile continues a focus on introducing services meant to position the carrier as more consumer-friendly than competitors such as AT&T and Verizon. The program combines a money management application with a reloadable T-Mobile Visa prepaid card to offer customers low- or zero-cost banking services. "What's interesting about T-Mobile's Mobile Money program is the targeting of a segment which is typically associated with either a lack of trust or a lack of positive credit - both …

An AIM-listed provider of mobile commerce, loyalty and payment software solutions declined sharply on Thursday after predicting a full-year loss for 2013. For the 12 month period, losses (before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation) were expected to total GBP3.6m on revenue of around GBP0.83m. 'Management believes the adoption of mobile commerce, loyalty and payments will accelerate throughout 2014, allowing for rapid revenue growth in 2015 as our customers move from pilot based projects to full commercial release and revenue streams increasingly shift from 'fee for service' to 'event based' revenues,' a statement from the company read. It said it had …

The mobile solution provider AIRTAG has partnered with the Madrid-based multiformat grocery chain DIA on a program dubbed "Diadiscount," which includes a mobile wallet for ordering and payment and a system of refrigerated lockers for customer pickup. DIA is now using AIRTAG's AIRSHOP mobile commerce platform, which enables retailers to launch self-branded wallet apps with customized functionalities. With an iPhone app, Android app or mobile website, DIA customers can order groceries from a list of more than 1,300 products and pay online before they arrive at the store. During checkout, the customer chooses a preferred order pickup time, then retrieves …

Traditional brick and mortar stores like Tesco, Morrison's and Marks & Spencer recently announced lackluster Christmas results, while online stores like John Lewis, House of Fraser and Next have reported substantial growth. This isn't just a one-time phenomenon. Trends are showing UK online retailers are consistently coming out on top with staggering revenue increases. Tesco also indicated that more than a third of its online grocery orders were placed on a mobile device in the run-up to Christmas. According to the Daily Mail, retailer John Lewis said three quarters of its web traffic on Christmas day came from mobile devices. …

After hitting 650,000 downloads of its mobile loyalty application, Meijer is arming its stores with Wi-Fi to increase coupon redemptions and keep shoppers engaged for longer periods of time. Meijer has rolled out Wi-Fi to all of its stores at the same time that its mPerks loyalty program has added one million members in the past year. The in-store efforts support a bigger mobile strategy from the grocery chain in building up awareness and use for the mobile app part of the program that streamlines coupon redemption.