True Value Company built a mobile application that enables in-store personnel to immediately access inventory to answer customer questions and order products, Michael Weeder, retail systems architect at the company, told an audience here at the CITE Conference. What made this mobile app project particularly challenging is that True Value is a cooperative made up of 3,200 core hardware stores. The stores are not company owned or a franchise; they are run independently. So Weeder had to persuade the owners that the app would be useful for them to use. He couldn't force them to use the app and he …

A couple of weeks back, we had written about Paym - a new service is all set to enable users of Britain's nine biggest banks to send money to each other via their mobile phones. On 29th April 2014, the Paym service was officially launched for use by 30 Mn people in the UK. Registrations began on 2nd April 2014, for the 30 Million users of Barclays, Bank of Scotland, Cumberland Building Society, Halifax, HSBC, Lloyds Bank, Santander and TSB Bank. Danske Bank users however, can register from April 25th. An total of 40 Mn people are estimated to be …

Online voucher and local marketplace provider LivingSocial benefited during the first quarter from the sale of its South Korean business, but the company's first-quarter revenue was down, despite the early effects of a "strategic refocusing" the company announced last fall. Net income for the quarter ended March 31 was $177 million, as compared with a net loss of $45 million a year earlier. Reflected in those results is the $260 million sale ($205 million net) of Ticket Monster to Groupon in January. Revenue was $77 million, down 29 percent from $108 million, while operating expenses dropped 8 percent, to $98 …

The idea of using your smartphone as a digital wallet has gradually risen to prominence in the past couple of years, with banking apps being developed and NFC communication making contactless payment a possibility. Now Santander claims to have built a new m-commerce payments application for its customers which it is describing as a 'superwallet'. It has gone live in Poland this month and is much more than a basic platform for carrying out transactions.The idea is that the app is not just about paying for goods and services, but also about arranging for the delivery of certain items online. …

The global mobile commerce market will grow from $116.1 billion in 2014 to $467.3 billion in 2019. According to a new report from MarketsandMarkets, in terms of geographies, North America and Europe are expected to be the biggest markets in terms of revenue contribution, while Asia-Pacific and Middle East-Africa are expected to experience increased market traction during the forecast period. MarketsandMarkets data indicates m-commerce growth prospects are due to increase in the smartphone, tablets, mobile devices, BYOD and Internet-enabled devices. However, accompanying these would be challenges such as securing the flow of information, application and network infrastructure, and intense competition.

During the next five years, mobile commerce will become even more influential than it is today. Desktop PC use will continue to drop while PC makers try making PCs and laptops function more like touchscreen mobile devices, consumers will start to buy wearable computers (including smartwatches and smartglasses), and consumers also will begin buying new web-connected devices for the home and car that combined are known as the "Internet of Things." As a result, retailers will need to shift their focus from the type of device a consumer uses (mobile or stationary) to a consumer's location and context, Internet retailing …

Retailer Lord & Taylor hopes to increase customer engagement as well as sales by connecting mobile shopping with old-fashioned print advertising. Lord & Taylor's parent company, Hudson's Bay Co. (HBC), deployed a mobile app in January that allows customers to scan print pictures with their mobile phones and then buy the items immediately, without having to visit a Lord & Taylor website. Ryan Craver, senior vice president of corporate strategy at HBC, says the ability to engage customers who are interested in what they see in ads is imperative in this digital age. The mobile purchasing capability lets customers follow …

Vodafone, a leading international telecommunications organization, has announced that the roll out of its M-Pesa mobile payments service has been completed in India. The company has been expanding the availability of its mobile commerce service over the past several months. Vodafone is currently considered quite an influential force in the mobile space and intends to see the use of its M-Pesa service see global adoption in the relatively near future. India is home to one of the most active markets in the mobile commerce industry. Growing affluence among the country's middle class has made it possible for a wide range …

Domino's Pizza's new iPad application gives marketers a much-needed example of how to create compelling mobile ordering apps with 3D technology and touch-based features. Despite the fact that pizza chains have had an early advantage in mobile compared to other quick-service chains, many of the brands in this vertical have focused their mobile initiatives solely around driving incremental revenue. However, Domino's new app suggests that there is a bigger opportunity for pizza chains on tablets that not only have bigger screens, but are also used in significantly different ways.

Mobile payments are becoming more popular around the world and this popularity is growing at an alarming rate. Smartphones and tablets are becoming less expensive, but more technologically advanced, and more people are beginning to rely on these devices in their daily lives. Commerce is becoming more digital by the day and businesses that do not have some type of presence on the Internet are becoming more and more likely of being confronted by failure. As this trend continues to gain momentum, some of the world's largest companies are beginning to fight one another in the mobile space, and the …