The use of iBeacons by airlines is quickly ramping up this summer, with Britain's largest airline, easyJet, trialing the technology across Europe to help passengers navigate their way through the airport using the brand's mobile application. The easyJet app was updated on July 7, enabling it to communicate with iBeacons strategically placed around the London Luton, London Gatwick and Paris Charles de Gaulle Airports. The initiative follows moves by Virgin Atlantic, which is trialing iBeacons at Heathrow Airport, American Airlines, which has a trial in place in five United States airports, as well as other airlines.

BBVA (Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria) has made technology news by becoming the initial bank to unveil near field communication (NFC) technology in its commercial contactless payments service that is based on Visa's host card emulation (HCE) specifications. Customers who are interested in taking advantage of the new Visa cloud based payments service only need to obtain the most recent version of the app and they can begin making NFC payments. That said, consumers will also need to have a mobile phone that can run Android 4.4 and is equipped with NFC technology. However, customers who do not have a suitable …

David Tisch has been quietly working on a project called Jello Labs for over a year. He hasn't said much about what the product will be, other than that it involves mobile commerce. However, today we can shed a bit more light on the super stealth project. For one, the product is actually called Spring, with Jello Labs being more of a company name or a placeholder name. Secondly, the company has secured a $7.5 million Series A round led by Thrive Capital, Groupe Arnault, and Box Group, with participation from 41 other VCs and angel investors. Previous to the …

Tencent, one of China's largest Internet organizations, has been finding a great deal of success in the mobile commerce field, and this may be due to the company's approach on the mobile space. Mobile payments have been growing in popularity, but there is little incentive for consumers to stick with one mobile service in particular over another. Tencent's WeChat platform is one of the most widely used mobile applications in the world, but it has only very recently begun to support mobile payments. In a relatively short amount of time, the platform has managed to win consumer loyalty through its …

Mobile commerce continues to show up as a preferred investment area among e-commerce companies, and even more so among those involved in business-to-business transactions. A survey of 100 companies that sell online, both those that sell to consumers and businesses, found that respondents overall cited mobile commerce most often as one of three areas of planned investment, followed in order of preference by investment in web commerce, social media and, in a tie for fourth place, Internet search and e-mail marketing. E-commerce technology provider EPiServer conducted the survey at last month's Internet Retailer Conference & Exhibition in Chicago.

Almost $1.36 Billion (GBP1 Bn) is being transacted via mobile and internet banking everyday by consumers in the UK, according to a new report by BBA and Ernst & Young. Internet and mobile banking is now utilized for transactions worth $8.71 Billion (GBP6.4 Bn) a week - up from $7.8 Billion (GBP5.8 Bn) in 2013, it states. "Digital banking is really shaking up the market, driving competition and innovation. This is great news for consumers and also potentially for the UK economy," stated EY partner in the company's digital financial services, Tariq Khatri, in a press release. "The British public's …

Pizza Hut is deploying augmented reality and a hashtag campaign to help reintroduce a menu favorite, Cheesy Bites pizza, as part of its partnership with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles around the upcoming reboot of the film. The pizza chain is reintroducing its Cheesy Bites pizza to go along with the campaign, which will differ from previous collaborative campaigns given the digital initiatives. The two brands, known to appeal to younger generations, reinstate themselves with a mobile twist to reach the tech-savvy Generation Z-ers.

Transaction-driven sites such as Amazon and PayPal are increasingly embracing adaptive design in order to deliver their sites on mobile up to 40 percent faster than if they used responsive Web design. Speedy delivery times are crucial on mobile phones for many Web sites because users are often on the go and looking to answer an immediate need, such as where is the nearest coffee house. While responsive Web design is an important evolutionary step beyond the m dot sites that were once prevalent, many marketers are now looking toward creating experiences that are even more optimized for mobile and …

Brazil's mobile payments platform Boleto has announced that it has been hacked. The platform is the most popular of its kind in all of Brazil, which has made it a target for malicious groups seeking to exploit financial information. The attack has brought more attention to the issue of mobile commerce security and could have a major impact on whether or not people will participate in mobile commerce in the future. Boleto notes that the hack occurred over a two year period, with some 500,000 transactions being compromised over that timeframe. An estimated $4 billion in mobile payments has been …

Online floral marketplace BloomNation launched BloomSnap, a new project implemented to take the anxiety out of gifting flower arrangements with its mobile-optimized Web site and mobile ordering and payment options. Once a local floral artisan has prepared a consumer's arrangement, a photo is snapped and sent via email to the consumer, alleviating the guessing game and eliminating a disappointing delivery. BloomNation is an idea inspired by unhappy customers receiving flower arrangements in poor condition or appearing differently from stock photos in advertisements.