Starbucks continues to see an uptick in consumers using their mobile devices to pay for food and drinks with 10 million active application users, the company revealed during its first-quarter 2014 results. During Starbucks' first-quarter 2014 results, Howard Schultz, CEO of Starbucks, Seattle, chocked up a strong holiday season to the company's innovations that blend digital and bricks-and-mortar marketing together. In particular, mobile helped the retailer turn first-time gift card receivers into loyalty members during the holidays. "Holiday 2013 was the first in which many traditional bricks-and-mortar retailers experienced in-store foot traffic give way to online shopping in a major …

German automaker Audi is helping business travelers monitor expenses with its Audi Mileage Tracker application. The app allows drivers to log the travel information of current trips, while archiving previous trips. Ideally, business travelers will no longer risk underclaiming on travel expenses, while businesses can safeguard against overclaiming.

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 …

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 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 …

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 …

Fine jewelry maker David Yurman is seeking the opinions of its Facebook fans to generate an enthusiast-approved gift guide for Valentine's Day. The jeweler has partnered with media partners InStyle Style Ambassador and Details to release a Facebook application that allows David Yurman enthusiasts to select preferred styles to then be included in the brand's Valentine's Day Gift Guide. David Yurman's Facebook app is also shoppable, giving consumers direct access to the jeweler's Web site where additional items not included in the app can be viewed.

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.

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. …

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 …