TGI Friday’s is allowing mobile customers at a Manchester restaurant to pay bills by using a free mobile application to scan QR codes without having to wait for a card terminal. Diners at the TGI Friday’s in Manchester’s Piccadilly Station are permitted to use the Zapper app to scan and pay bills printed with QR codes so they can complete the bulk of the dining experience in 10 minutes. The move reflects how mobile is being leveraged by the restaurant industry to bring added convenience to on-the-go consumers – in this case, commuters.

Square, the payments startup from Twitter cofounder Jack Dorsey, has prototyped a Square credit card. The plastic card is all black, and save for the card holder's name emblazoned on the face, features no logos--not even Square's. Over the past year, multiple sources indicate Square employees have been carrying the card--seen here below, partially blurred to protect the card holder's identity--around in their wallets. However, despite buzz about the potential of a Square credit card, other company sources indicate the project was recently killed.

Market research firm yStats has released a new report titled “Global M-Commerce 2014: Smartphones and Tablets.” The report sheds light on some of the new trends that are affecting the mobile shopping space. Notably, the report suggests that mobile shopping is having a major impact on the global retail industry. Mobile traffic to retail websites is on the rise and more retailers are beginning to feel the need to cater to an audience that is primarily mobile-centric. The report notes that smartphones have the highest penetration among the world’s consumers. Many people rely on these mobil.

While the promise of m-commerce and mobile payments has been a large one, recent events in digital security have caused a considerable amount of harm to the confidence that consumers in the United Kingdom are feeling toward the safety of the technology. Recent research from a firm called Intercede has revealed that following the Heartbleed online and mobile security issue, only 18 percent of consumers in the United Kingdom feel confident that their use of m-commerce and smartphone based payments are actually secure.

Mobile devices are now a central part of consumers’ overall lives, or it is for 85 percent of them at least, according to a new report. And while keeping in touch with loved ones has helped push the market along, the enhanced communications capabilities mobile devices offer also have helped reshape how we shop, the research found. Consumers, in fact, view mobile simply. While marketers tend to view mobile as an entire category of non-PC-based technology, many consumers view it more precisely as a specific device–their smartphone, as noted by 54 percent of survey respondents featured in the “2014 Mobile …

While each industry vertical has its own pace of technology innovation and risk-versus-reward criteria in regard to adoption, restaurant chains are experimenting heavily with mobile at present due to many customers using search, reviews and ordering from restaurants via smartphones. Due to the on-the-go nature of their businesses, fast-casual chains need to be available to their customers on mobile.

Pretzel franchise Auntie Anne’s has become the newest mobile loyalty player rolling out a robust program in assertion of its ability to thrive amidst competition via the intelligent use of technology to directly impact the customer experience. The “My Pretzel Perks” app works as a rewards system, allocating points for each visit and every dollar spent. There are three tier levels that can be attained based on the number of points a guest earns: Pretzel Fan, Pretzel Lover and Pretzel Perfect.

Rocket Internet’s cleaning startup, Helpling, has launched a mobile app on iOS and Android to make it more convenient for users in Europe to hire a professional cleaner on the go. The app, supposedly the first of its kind in the countries it’s available in, can now be accessed by users in Austria, France, Germany, the Netherlands and Sweden. Benedikt Franke, the co-founder of Helpling, said the startup’s foray into mobile is primarily aimed at making it easier for users to book local cleaners near them, given that “location-based services are the next big trend in mobile commerce.”

Medium screens for the win. When it comes to conversion rates, tablets beat their smaller smartphone counterparts and their larger desktop computer siblings in the U.S. and the U.K. A new analysis of 2.5 million transactions across 1,600 advertisers spanning retail, travel and telecom from Affiliate Window, finds that the average tablet conversion rate is 5.86%, beating out desktop’s conversion rate of 5.41% and smartphone’s rate of 3%. Affiliate Window, an affiliate marketing network, compiled the data from transactions on the web and mobile commerce sites of such clients as John Lewis, No. 10 in theInternet Retailer Europe 500 and Marks & Spencer, No.17. …

More and more consumers are shopping online from smartphones and tablets, which means that retailers are scrabbling to make sure that their websites and platforms are optimised for those using portable devices. The UK has always been an e-commerce innovator, so it is perhaps unsurprising to see that a new study from Idealo has found that British retailers are actually outdoing their European counterparts when it comes to preparing for the m-commerce takeover. Eighty six per cent of businesses offering shopping online in the UK have been found to offer either a mobile-optimised site or a dedicated smartphone app, through …