Starbucks is taking a whimsical approach in its latest mobile messaging marketing program to drive interest and sales for its popular Frappuccino drink during the summer months. This week Starbucks launched mobile calls-to-action for its "Frappuccino Fun All Summer Long" SMS and MMS opt-in program. Starbucks also announced its second-quarter 2014 results yesterday, with mobile continuing to play a significant role for the company's revenue. "While many retailers - including many food and beverage QSRs - continue to grapple with how to navigate these shifts, Starbucks' record Q2 results unacquittedly demonstrate how the investments we've began making years ago to …

Wearable technology has become the new craze of the tech field, with a range of big-name companies developing smart watches, augmented reality glasses, and other such high-tech gadgetry. These devices may have a great deal of potential, as they have already managed to attract the attention of consumers around the world, but whether or not the interest surrounding these devices is nothing more than hype is somewhat questionable. While few wearable devices are currently available to the public, future devices promise to change the way people interact with one another and their surroundings in significant ways. AR glasses, for instance, …

Wouldn't it be nice if credit and debit cards came with a remote control switch? A switch that was activated by a mobile phone, could turn cards on and off instantly, and could be set to enable transactions by parameters such as location, transaction type, merchant type and amount? And suppose all that it took an issuer to enable this was to share 3 pieces of information with the service provider: BIN numbers, images/branding of the cards, and card ranges? OnDot just yesterday went public with a solution that does just that, something that this team of now 70 people …

EBay has updated its mobile applications and mobile Web site with new features that enhance browsing, shopping and selling capabilities. The online marketplace's new apps and mobile site play up images and pictures to make it easier to shop. Additionally, several new features, such as a personalized feed, improved browsing visuals and in-store pick-up options have been added. "At our core, eBay is about connecting buyers and sellers," said Kevin Hurst, eBay vice president of mobile products, Atlanta. "Consumers want a streamlined mobile experience that's also beautiful and inspirational. "We focused on these consumer needs by increasing customer engagement by …

MasterCard's vision for mobile commerce is now pretty clear: use the power of digital to enable "shortcuts" to commerce for consumers around the world. In some cases, those shortcuts enable access to digital commerce channels never before available. In this last segment, MPD CEO Karen Webster topped off the digital discussion by asking MasterCard's Chief Emerging Payments Officer Ed McLaughlin to give us a peek into the new mobile commerce initiatives and activities on their roadmap. Earlier this year, MasterCard made news by announced HCE (host card emulation) a new software based "payments-enabling capability" that offers a new and secure …

All the food chains really have one basic aim in mind: to serve the quickest. For this, they go to any lengths to be the fastest and move ahead in competition. With payments being crucial part of their business process, they are looking forward to revolutionizing it by adopting for mobile payment methods. Let us have a look at 15 such examples where mobile payment has changed the way people are paying for their order.

PayPal is piloting a new payment method in its on-campus cafe that links together Bluetooth Low Energy beacons with Samsung Galaxy smart wearables to enable payments without the need for a bank card or even a smartphone. With smartphone-enabled payment adoption continuing to move along at a slow pace, the news is an example of the growing momentum behind beacons as a transformative in-store experience. While PayPal is already a leader in the mobile payments space, it is clearly not resting on its laurels and continues to investigate how best to leverage technology to simplify payment experience.

Home Depot, Coca-Cola and Makita are teaming up on a new campaign that leverages a print receipt to give away a trip and tickets for the upcoming FIFA World Cup in Brazil. Social, direct mail, in-store, digital and mobile components are all included in the Win to Brazil campaign, but the use of mobile is particularly intriguing in the brands' FIFA push since it brings together in-store purchases and digital with the photo upload of a receipt. At the same time, some industry experts believe that the campaign misses out on a bigger opportunity to build ongoing engagement after the …

Coupons.com Inc. announced that Walgreens has rolled out its Retailer iQ targeting and analytics platform in all 8,000 stores, designed to make the promotions and checkout experience digital, mobile and personalized. According to Coupons.com, Retailer iQ combines several components into one omnichannel platform that is designed to drive consumer engagement, activation and shopping behavior. The components include: digital e-receipt via SMS and email, personalized recommendations for products and coupons, integrated shopping lists, extensive targeting capabilities, real time analytics and a wide range of integrated digital media experiences. The platform integrates into the retailer point-of-sale system to manage the entire flow …

Since 1829, commuters in London have been paying cash for public transportation. Currently there are less than 1% of the commuters who pay through cash for traveling in a Bus in London.UK network operators including EE and Vodafone have been in talks with Transport for London to make a move towards smartphone contactless payment schemes, according to Financial Times. 99% of riders paid fares using the Oyster Card, prepaid tickets, contactless payment cards or concessionary tickets, so TfL decided to ban cash payments on buses.