Imagine heading to a particular security checkpoint inside an airport terminal and suddenly your digital boarding pass pops up on your smartphone giving all the in-flight details. Wouldn't that be a convenience? Well that's what Richard Branson certainly has in mind for his Virgin Atlantic passengers. London Heathrow Airport has been chosen by the airways to pilot first of its kind iBeacon services for its passengers. The plan is to place tiny beacon devices created by Estimote all over the Virgin Atlantic area in terminal 3 of the airport. The technology will initially be set to service iphone users using …

Walgreens announced an iBeacon pilot at 10 New York City Duane Reade locations at the Mcommerce Summit: State of Mobile Commerce 2014. The pilot looks to build on the brand's growing online and mobile presence and bridge the gap between the in-store and online experience. The technology is being implemented into the Duane Reade mobile app and will be used in conjunction with the brand's mobile coupon program. Currently users of the app can virtually clip and save coupons while browsing the app out of the store, and can present them via their smartphone at checkout to activate the savings. …

Walmart's new Fast to Go application enables users to pre-order ready-made meals from the retailer's convenience concept store, a move analysts predict will make the trend towards mobilizing the fast food market more mainstream. The app is designed to allow Walmart to serve its customers when, where and how they want. Go users who pre-order food from the Movista-developed application can customize their orders and schedule an in-store pick-up time. "Walmart has always been receptive in the market, and a star advocate in mobile," said Sheryl Kingstone, director of Yankee Group's Mobile Leadership Strategies, Boston. "With Fast to Go, they've …

The U.K. mobile payments system Paym, which has the backing of most major U.K. banks, launched this week with the ability to serve more than 30 million users, announced the Payments Council, which oversees the Paym system. Banks participating in the system are Bank of Scotland, Barclays, Cumberland Building Society, Danske Bank, Halifax, HSBC, Lloyds Bank, Santander and TSB. That number is expected to expand this year, increasing the number of eligible users to 40 million. At launch, 360,000 people had registered for the program, the Guardian newspaper reports.

E-commerce powerhouse eBay has reported first quarter revenues of US$4.3bn, up 14pc on last year. The company has taken the unusual step of repatriating US$9bn of overseas cash back to the US, incurring a US$3bn tax bill. Total eBay-enabled commerce volume (ECV) increased 24pc in the first quarter to US$58 billion. Mobile ECV advanced 70pc to US$11 billion representing 19pc of volume. Mobile downloads since inception exceeded 240 million and attracted 6.5 million new customers in the quarter.

India's largest e-commerce marketplace, Snapdeal, now gets over half of its sales from mobile-based transactions, up from just 5% from the same platform nearly a year ago. In a statement, Snapdeal said that 45% of the transactions seen on mobile now come through the native applications while the remaining 55% come through the mobile site. Also, the average ticket size of orders place through the mobile apps is higher than those placed through the mobile site. 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 …

Haunting images of abandoned shopping malls seem to say something about the unstoppable decline of the analog shopping experience in an increasingly digital and mobile world. What e-commerce has done to physical shopping in the last decade mirrors what Barnes & Noble and other big-box retailers did to independent stores beginning in the mid-'90s. Back then, every independent bookseller had the same complaint: people would go to their store to get advice and find the perfect book; then they'd head across the street to Barnes & Noble and buy the book for half the price. How could a small shop …

Half of 'millennial mums' - mothers aged 18-34 - have made a purchase via their smartphone within the past seven days according to new research from online parenting website, BabyCente. The study, which looked into the digital behaviours of 2,000 UK mums, also found that one in three mothers find mobile payments are more convenient than cash or cards. This is 39 per cent higher than Generation X mums (those aged 33-44). "A millennial mum will never be far away from her mobile phone," explained Mike Fogarty, SVP and global publisher at BabyCentre.

U.S. Bank is improving its person-to-person payment service by offering instant and personalized options that give customers more ways to move money both online and on mobile. Launching real-time P2P payments through Fiserv's Popmoney service, U.S. Bank's payment handling time has been expedited from standard speed - which can take up to three days to clear - to next-day delivery, with fees contingent on transaction size and receipt time frame. "Real-time for us has been not the end, but a next step to adding speed to mobile transactions," said Niti Badarinath, senior vice president of mobile banking and payments, at …

In a bid to tap both existing and new customers - coupled with the fact that most of the reach and revenues of e-commerce companies will come from mobile-only users in the near future - online shopping portals are not only equipping themselves with mobile apps but are also offering exclusive deals and discounts to users of the platform. Jabong is the latest to jump on the bandwagon. Recently, it launched its mobile shopping app - available for download on Google Play store (for Android users) and iTunes (for Apple customers) - offering an exclusive 38% discount to its app …