Outdoor gear and apparel retailer The North Face continues to see strong results from its use of natural language and voice-enabled search, helping its sites across mobile and desktop in several European counties to deliver a 35 percent increase in search conversion rate and 24 percent increase in revenue from search. As mobile use continues to grow, consumers are increasingly looking for streamlined on-site search experiences from their smartphone, which natural language and voice capabilities can provide. The North Face introduced the enhanced search capabilities on its sites in the United States and Canada in late 2012 and to the …

Wix emerged in 2006 as part of a new generation of startups on a mission to do for website creation what Blogger, WordPress and Tumblr have done for bloggers and content creators. Riding the increasing demand for easy-to-use, DIY website builders, Wix is now one of the largest platforms of its kind on the Web, along with Weebly and SquareSpace. With over 40 million people now using its free web design tools, in November, Wix debuted on the Nasdaq as part of an IPO that valued the company at just under $800 million - representing the largest public offering for …

India's nearly 100 million smartphone users are beginning to shop online at a pace that the country's biggest e-commerce companies such as Flipkart and Snapdeal are expecting the mobile traffic to surpass their desktop user base anytime this year. And as these e-commerce marketplaces shift their models to woo customers buying on mobiles, Paytm - a mobile shopping app - wants to leapfrog this transition by targeting India's more than 230 million mobile Internet users. The shopping app, launched in February this year, comes with a mobile messenger and a digital wallet. The Delhi-based startup is chasing an audacious goal …

According to two execs from Crocs, their recent decision to create a website that was specific for mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets has been a tremendous success, as the mcommerce site was able to earn back the money needed for its creation within a period of only two months. This information was revealed at the "Increasing Mobile Conversion through an Emphasis on Usability and Design" session at eTail West. Also speaking were execs from Skava and the Wyndham Hotel, with Artisan Mobile's CEO, Bob Moul, acting as moderator. Throughout the discussions regarding the advantages of mcommerce, the global …

While the mobile channel continues to grow in importance for retailers, so does their fear of fraudulent attacks and the realization that combating the risk requires specialized tools. Those are some of the findings from the 2nd Annual Mobile Payments and Fraud Survey. The study, conducted By Kount, The Fraud Practice LLC and CardNotPresent.com, surveyed more than 1,000 merchants around the globe as well as service providers, card associations and issuers. Notable findings from the study include: The mobile channel accounts for 20% of their business, double that of last year.

Almost all (94 per cent) of Twitter users are engaging with mobile commerce, recent research from the social company has discovered, as part of its research with Nielsen. The research, looking at the role Twitter plays in influencing consumers' shopping behaviour on their mobiles, discovered that the Twitter users who engage with m-commerce span different phases of shopping: research and looking at product reviews, visiting a website and adding products to the basket and purchasing. Nielsen found that 56 per cent of Twitter mobile users say they are influenced by content on Twitter when they are buying a product or …

Lord & Taylor and its Canadian counterpart Hudson's Bay Company are now accepting bitcoin payments through the mobile application Pounce, enabling customers to purchase directly from a print ad. The two retailers are among the first to accept bitcoin, following Overstock.com and Tiger Direct. Consumers will have to download the Pounce app first and add their Coinbase bitcoin wallet account to purchase products using the digital currency. "We've heard from multiple customers that they're interested in paying with bitcoin and buying gift cards and products using bitcoin," said Ryan Craver, senior vice president of corporate strategy at Hudson's Bay Company …

MasterCard and PRIME Research have released a new study that highlights consumer behavior when it comes to mobile commerce. The study shows that people are quickly becoming very comfortable with the concept of mobile payments and shopping for products from a mobile device. This is partly due to the growing number of people that have access to smartphones and tablets. This increasing exposure to mobile technology is also causing an increase in the demand for mobile-centric services. The study suggests that mobile payments moved from a lofty concept to actual adoption in 2013. The idea of mobile commerce has been …

Software firm SAP sees security and privacy as two major issues when it comes to using big data in the mobile sector. Big data is a term that is used to identify the large amounts of unstructured data that businesses accumulate. This data is comprised of information regarding consumers and is typically collected by retailers without the express consent of customers. Security and privacy have become very controversial issues in recent years, partly due to the fact that people are becoming more reliant on mobile technology in their daily lives. According to a recent survey conducted by SAP, many mobile …

Lionsgate is running its fourth campaign to target mall shoppers via Bluetooth and Wi-Fi with a new initiative around the upcoming film "Divergent." The mobile content will include a trailer for Divergent as well as a calendar function that will allow consumers to opt-in to be reminded to purchase tickets on the opening day of the film. The campaign is a reflection of the significant role that location plays for Lionsgate in promoting new films. "Studios have already identified mall shoppers as a target demographic as seen by their use of both static and digital out-of-home advertising in the malls …