In Germany, the managers of upscale restaurants take great pride in their ability to recall the names of the majority of their regular customers and to be able to remember each of their preferences in terms of seating, drinks, and meals, and now geolocation technology will be used to help to give them a bit of an edge. The Mook Group, which owns five high end restaurants is now testing the geolocationtechnology from Apple called iBeacon. The owner of the company, Christian Mook, will be using this technology to track the customers who enter one of his restaurants. Should this prove to be …

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 …

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. …

Berlin-based e-commerce incubator Rocket Internet has received funds from a Philippine telecom operator to develop mobile payment systems in emerging markets. Philippine Long Distance Telephone Company is investing 333 million euros (US $445 million) for a 10% stake in Rocket. The deal will combine the Philippine telcom operator’s expertise in mobile payments and resources with Rocket's global e-commerce and web services footprint. The two companies say they will develop mobile and online payment technologies and services in emerging markets. 

The addition of Walmart’s Savings Catcher feature to its mobile application earlier this week pushed the app to the top of the Lifestyle category on the Apple App Store for the first time. The news points to the significant potential that lies in the convergence mobile and consumers’ love for a good deal as well as how bricks-and-mortar retailers can embrace in-store price comparisons. Savings Catcher is a receipt comparison tool designed to take the work out of finding the best price for an item.

Popular messaging service Snapchat has a feature in which messages disappear as soon as they are read. This basically means that the message gets deleted from Snapchat servers and cannot be retrieved. Marketers can use this feature to send time-sensitive deals to customers, thereby maintaining a sense of excitement in a campaign. This was what attracted Groupon to the Snapchat app, with which it is teaming up to broadcast exclusive offers to its followers. The partnership kicked off when Groupon wanted to offer a first-come, first-serve deal for a concert. All a Snapchat user had to do was follow the …

Payment systems globally for decades have been on a constant path in transforming traditional paper-based transactions into electronic ones, with payment cards as one of the chief drivers. More recently, mobile-based payments have done the job in less-developed countries, particularly in Africa. As a result, one might expect cash use to be on the decline, with the potential for paper currency altogether to be on its way to extinction. Yet despite all the effort to displace it, cash use has not disappeared, and it likely won’t any time soon, new research suggests.

The new smartphone app uses augmented reality technology to assist customers in locating the closest branch or ATM, shows transactions, account balances, and spending locations, all of which is displayed in three dimensions, and Westpac New Zealand (NZ) hopes that the app will help customers gain better control over their credit card spending. The application utilizes the smartphone camera, which scans a consumer’s debit or credit card. After scanning, it instantly generates a 3D visual representation that is equipped with bar charts to show the user the amount of money that was spent in different categories, for instance, utilities, food, travel, etc.

Collecting lots of data—even CRM—is useful only to the point that it can be intelligently and meaningfully analyzed. Trying to analyze excessive amounts of data, some of which will be irrelevant and potentially misleading, is unlikely to deliver useful recommendations. LivingSocial is trying to avoid that problem, and the mobile marketer is focusing its efforts on a very narrow and accurate datasource: data collected from recent past offers. Tastes and preferences—and budgets—change over time and it’s almost impossible for data warehouse analysts to know where to draw limits. “This person lost their job a month ago so the high-spender profile …

Mall owner and manager Simon is expanding its use of Bluetooth-enabled iBeacon technology to create 200-plus  retail destinations in the United States and help bricks-and-mortar retailers evolve the shopping experience. Simon’s deployment of Mobiquity’s Mobi-Beacon network, already in place in 75 of its premier shopping destinations, provides a unique, opt-in opportunity for customers to engage with retailers, brands and mall apps for timely and contextually relevant personalized offers, information and real-time experiences. Operating off the Mobiquity network retailers in Simon mall locations are able to reach numerous shoppers every week on their mobile phones.