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 …

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.

Times are good, at least potentially, for the two leading manufacturers of stand-alone point-of-sale terminals. The U.S. market is moving to EMV chip card acceptance, and there’s growing demand for terminals that can support advanced encryption and other security protocols to better protect transactions in transit. Yet when looking at what’s at stake for the region’s – and the world’s – two top terminal makers, VeriFone Systems Inc. and Ingenico Group, it seems VeriFone is the most vulnerable, at least in the U.S. Ingenico also recently took on a majority interest in mobile commerce platform provider ROAM as part of a …

More than 2,200 movie theaters are enabling moviegoers to snap pictures of interactive ads in their lobbies and on the screen with their mobile phone and be redirected to shopping sites where they can shop the looks of the characters in their favorite films. Visual search platform Slyce has teamed with in-cinema marketing and media solutions company Screenvision to bring the experience to the theaters, including nearly 400 universities across the United States, through Screenvision’s partner theaters, such as Carmike Cinemas and Regency Theatres.

At W.W. Grainger Inc., a Chicago-based business-to-business distributor of office and industrial supplies, mobile apps are big business. And that business is about to grow. Today, Grainger’s mobile app accounts for about 40%—$23.4 million—of the company’s 2014 Internet Retailer-estimated mobile commerce sales of $58.5 million. But within two or three years, Grainger’s mobile app, first deployed in 2012, could account for between 60% to 70% of all mobile sales. Grainger sells products ranging from paper notebooks to power tools and refrigeration equipment that companies use for their own maintenance, repair and operations—a category often referred to as MRO.

TD Bank is offering mobile-optimized Web pages for opening an account to meet the banking needs of on-the-go customers. Mobile Account Opening is designed to help consumers opening an account easily and quickly no matter where they are. The optimized Web pages can be used to open checking, savings, money market or CD accounts by accessing TDBank.com using an Android or iPhone smartphone. “‘Prime time,’ or typical usage for a PC, is typically between 9am and 4pm,” said Spencer Jones, head of digital channels at TD Bank. “However, most people live a very busy life and are often not near …

Apple and Visa could soon announce an alliance in mobile payments, Pacific Crest Securities speculated in a research note Monday. Such an Apple-Visa partnership would be a negative for eBay's PayPal, Pac Crest says. Apple is expected to roll out the iPhone 6 in September or October. "We expect the iPhone 6 to be launched with near-field communications (NFC) and secure element technologies, which would provide Apple with a broad technology portfolio to disrupt mobile payments," wrote Pac Crest analyst Josh Beck.

Samsung Electronics is actively seeking to get into the Online-to-offline (O2O) business. O2O is an emerging business model combining online shopping and front line transactions, and global IT giants are eyeing the worldwide O2O market. The local O2O market is estimated to be 300 trillion won (US$291 million). According to industry sources and sources in Samsung on August 4, the company has decided to make inroads into the mobile commerce market using location-based services as part of its O2O business. The firm also established a strategy to expand trial services.

Facebook has announced that it will be shutting down its Facebook Gifts service in August. This service had allowed the social network’s users to purchase and trade gift cards from businesses like Starbucks and Fandango. Shutting down the Gifts service will result in no layoffs, as those working on this service will have their attention refocused on Facebook’s Buy initiative. Earlier this month, Facebook unveiled the Buy Button, which is meant to promote mobile and e-commerce. Facebook Gifts was launched in 2012 and was moderately popular among the social network’s users. Gifts and the Buy Button will serve a similar purpose that makes the …

Great Britain’s next great e-commerce run up will be powered in large part by purchases on mobile devices, a trend that U.S. merchants can look at with envy or with hopes of learning a thing or two. In some ways, it’s hardly surprising that the UK is seeing such success in mobile, an area that has bedeviled U.S. retailers. While the United States is also seeing dramatic growth in smartphone and tablet adoption, the devices’ popularity hasn’t translated to wild increases in sales on mobile. Mobile sales are expected to make up 19 percent of e-commerce sales in the U.S. 2014, …