Dash, the mobile payments app for restaurants has received a $1.2 million round of funding. The investment will help the company expand its services in New York and launch in Chicago, reports Venture Beat. Along with this, Dash is rolling out a redesigned app for iOS7, which includes a brand new payment flow as well as iBeacon integration. Using this method payment eliminates the wait time for customers wanting to pay their bill, which can sometimes spoil the over all dining experience.

Convenience store chain 7-Eleven is putting an extensive push behind getting mobile coupons into consumers' hands to drive trial for the new Diet Coke Cherry flavored Slurpee. The new flavor - Diet Coke's first outing as a frozen carbonated beverage - is available exclusively at 7-Eleven until May, when it will roll out to other convenience store chains and merchants that sell frozen, carbonated drinks from machines. 7-Eleven is making the most of its partnership with a mobile strategy that spans in-application promotion, cost-per-install campaigns and SMS campaigns.

Two of China's largest companies have entered into a proverbial war over the mobile payments market. Both Alibaba and Tencent have high hopes for the mobile space and have been aggressively establishing a strong presence in the mobile commerce sector. Alibaba has managed to capture a strong lead with its Alipay platform, but Tencent still has a strong connection to Chinese consumers through its WeChat application. Now, the two companies are beginning to fight in the cab-calling services arena.Mobile Payments competition. Cab-calling services are becoming somewhat common in China. These services are very straightforward in than consumers can call for …

eBay India today announced the launch of its 'Deals@10PM' initiative, aimed at helping more people shop online using their mobile phones. Available between February 26 to 28, eBay will offer mobile only deals across different products categories like perfumes, watches, audio accessories, auto accessories and video games from 10 PM to 12 midnight, eBay said in a statement. "A survey conducted last year indicated that 78 per cent shoppers prefer shopping on mobiles to get great deals on purchases and 45 per cent shoppers said they accessed shopping sites only at night. On eBay India, 24 per cent of all …

Dunkin' Donuts is using a mobile offer for free coffee to help make customers aware of the location services inside its application and to support its sponsorship of basketball team Orlando Magic. A new coupon will be available every Monday through April 21 to customers in Orlando, FL, who have downloaded the app and turned on location services. The promotion is a good example of how national chains can leverage mobile's contextual awareness to provide offers that are more relevant to customers. "There is a lot more of this going on," said Adam Lavine, CEO of FunMobility, Pleasanton, CA. "I …

Now that Net-A-Porter's print magazine Porter has hit newsstands worldwide, how does its inaugural spring 2014 issue compare to well-established fashion imprints? As many luxury publications have slowly turned toward mass in response to the changing publishing industry, Porter's introduction, the retailer's first venture into print media, has created tension among competitors because of how far down the purchasing funnel it resides. With no regional content and only pure fashion and beauty coverage, Porter instantly appeals to Net-A-Porter's following of 6 million in a way that other imprints may have trouble competing against. "We are constantly seeking new ways to …

There's more evidence that m-commerce is on the rise in China, after a recent MasterCard survey found that over half of Chinese consumers who shopped online did so via their smartphones. The annual e-commerce survey, which was conducted across 25 markets between November and December 2013, included interviews with 7,010 respondents from 14 Asia-Pacific markets. It found that two-thirds of consumers in the Asian region go online to shop. What's notable is that nearly 100 percent of respondents from China indicated they made at least one online purchase in the last three months - and 59.4 percent of them made …

As e-commerce gave way to m-commerce, the focus of the marketers worldwide is now concentrated on the emerging patterns in behavior of the smart phone carrying customer. xAd--a marketer specializing in location based mobile advertising - in its quarterly study highlights interesting trends, such as-77 percent of smart phone related purchases are actually taking place in the brick and mortar store. 16 percent of all online purchase in the U.S. is taking place through mobile. Customers while researching for a product or taking a purchase decision through mobile want to interact with the business (through an app). After clicking on …

West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin is appealing to Treasury Secretary Jack Lew, Fed Chairwoman Janet Yellen to ban Bitcoin. “This virtual currency is currently unregulated and has allowed users to participate in illicit activity, while also being highly unstable and disruptive to our economy,” Manchin writes in his letter to financial regulators. As Forbes reports, “He went on to cite Bitcoin’s use by the Silk Road and other black markets for anonymous transactions, as well as its volalitility as a currency.” 

Last year marked an important first in mobile payments, with tablet payments comprising almost half of all mobile commerce, according to Javelin Strategy & Research. In 2013, tablets accounted for $28.7 billion in mobile online commerce, or over 50% of the entire mobile online payments space. That is quintuple 2012's $5.1 billion. The portion of commerce generated through tablets is fueled by rising device ownership, as mobile consumers' ownership of the device doubled since 2012. As tablet ownership rates continue to grow, the devices are expected to serve as an increasingly dominant purchase channel. Creating tablet-optimized shopping experiences through the …