The mobile wallet has not panned out in the way the tech industry expected. But Kenneth Chenault, chief executive at American Express, is not giving up hope just yet. During a conversation at the M1 Summit in New York Tuesday, Chenault attributed the recent failure of some of the most-hyped mobile payments products to a lack of focus and an inability for these services to equal the established ease of the credit card. But he remained confident that a fundamental transformation in the payments industry was still underway. "I don't think [the mobile wallet] is dead. At the end of …

Taiwan's e-commerce sector is expected to see major growth in the coming years. More people throughout the country are beginning to shop online as new services become available to them The Institute for Information Industry has released a new report concerning this trend, highlighting the fact that e-commerce is becoming more attractive to these consumers because of its convenience factor. The growing adoption of mobile devices is also playing a role in the growth of e-commerce. According to the report from the Institute for Information Industry, e-commerce in Taiwan is expected to grow by 20% annually over the next few …

Samsung is gearing up for the eventual release of its new Galaxy S5 smartphone and new details concerning the device are being released. The company intends to equip its new smartphone with biometric sensors that will be able to identify fingerprints and even scan a user's retina. These sensors are expected to make the device much more secure than its predecessors, which may be good news considering how popular mobile commerce has become. Security is a major challenge in the mobile payments space. Because this market deals in the trafficking of financial information, it is often targeted by malicious groups …

The pedestrian store receipt gets a significant mobile makeover in Walmart's hands thanks to a new platform currently rolling out in stores that is designed to help customers store digital receipts on their Walmart applications and interact with the content in a variety of ways, including to build shopping lists. While many retailers offer ereceipts, these are often simply emailed to customers but they typically offer no value beyond being a digital alternative to a print receipt. What is unique about Walmart's take is that there is a strong mobile component running throughout a program that is viewed as an …

Adidas is taking its customized sneaker program to the next level via a new mobile application enabling users to apply a photographic image to create their own ZX Fluxshoe and have it delivered. The sportswear brand has offered the mi adidas sneaker customization program for several years but in the past it entailed enabling customers to pick from a variety of available materials, colors and prints as well as being able to add their name, a country flag for team logo.

The identity theft protection services LifeLock announced in a blog post that their Wallet apps for iOS as well as Android were pulled down, since they might not be fully compliant with PCI security standards. The company has pulled down the app and atomized it to delete a user's data, next time he opens the app. "One thing I've learned in business and, for that matter, life is the importance of authenticity and transparency. With that in mind, I want to make you aware of an issue that we identified related to our recently acquired LifeLock Wallet application. We have …

Tencent, one of China's largest online retail and technology organizations, has seen profits from the mobile sector soar over the past several months. The company has long held a strong place in the mobile space, but has only recently begun to heavily involve itself therein through social media, gaming, and commerce. As the company continues to grow, it is beginning to become more cavalier with its mobile interests, launching new initiatives and services that are meant to enthrall mobile consumers throughout China. Tencent is currently valued at over $120 billion, making it one of the largest and most influential business …

Groupon has announced the introduction of Gnome, a new tablet based platform that will provide sophisticated tools to local merchants to run their businesses in a more effective manner, as well as better understand their customers. This however, is not Groupon's first foray into the POS space. In May 2013, the company had released Groupon POS aimed at local merchants, an iPad based version of its mobile payments service. Around the same time, its wider payments service was rebranded as 'Breadcrumb', with the addition of a merchant app called Breadcrumb POS. Groupon says that the new tablet will enable merchants …

Vodafone India which operates the mobile payment service M-Pesa through its wholly owned subsidiary Mobile Commerce Solutions Ltd, has completed the pan-India rollout of the service in March 2014, about one year since its India launch and about 16 months after the initial announcement. The company has disclosed this in its earnings results for the quarter ended March 31, 2014. Vodafone India had also mentioned this last month during the M-Pesa launch in Andhra Pradesh (we missed it then). It claims the service is now available across 60,000 agent outlets, covering over 1.2 million customers pan-India. However, there is currently …

While much of the talk around geofencing has focused on driving foot traffic with an ad delivered to a nearby customer, a growing number of retailers are recognizing opportunities with geofencing after stores close or when a location has shut its doors for good. The trend points to the growing sophistication of mobile marketing, with brands increasingly looking beyond simple location to take into account other factors that can drive more contextually relevant experiences for consumers. For example, by geofencing stores that have recently shut down, retailer Ashley Stewart hopes to retain customers by driving them to another nearby outlet …