Walmart is testing a new same-day pick-up concept enabling customers to order groceries online or by mobile phone and retrieve their orders from a drive-up facility. The Walmart Pickup – Grocery test is taking place at a facility in the retailer’s hometown of Bentonville, AR, where customers who have previously placed an order can drive up to a kiosk to confirm their order and then park in a parking spot indicated by the kiosk to have their groceries brought out to them. The test is an example of how the growing popularity of mobile shopping is forcing retailers to develop new …

The holiday shopping season is more or less here, isn’t it? Many stores already are decorated for Christmas. Poor Halloween. So, just in case retailers need any more evidence that it is absolutely crucial to be prepared this holiday season for consumers on mobile devices, who now dominate traffic and time spent with online retail, online and mobile marketing firmNetElixir Inc.studied 53 of its numerous retail clients, some with web sites optimized for mobile (either standalone m-commerce sites or responsive design sites) and some with web sites not optimized for mobile. The company, which specializes in search engine marketing, then studied 180 …

According to a new video by The Economist, $100 bills have grown substantially more popular since late 2007. The timing is significant, because that also marks the beginning of the so-called mobile commerce revolution that, along with new payment protocols and cryptocurrencies, was going to help ease reliance on paper bills and allow frictionless, electronic payments in person and on the internet to explode.

The smart technology sector has been increasing the interest that consumers have been having in mobile payments services and apps, and it is now believed that these transactions are finally starting to take off in a meaningful way. Within this mobile payments market, NXT-ID Inc, a biometric security company, is expecting that it will become profitable in 2015. This, according to Gino Pereira, its chief exec, at a time in which it is now rolling out an alternative digital wallet service to some very large competition, including Apple Pay. This service is hoping to be able to stand out from the rest …

Retailers must improve their mobile transaction experience and move away from a “card-based experience” if they want to avoid losing consumers at the checkout, according to head of retail at PayPal Rob Harper. Speaking at the e-commerce expo at London Olympia this morning, for which The Drum is media partner, Harper citied recent research, which found that in 2013 UK businesses lost £1.5bn in mobile commerce sales, with payment friction cited as the leading reason why shoppers abandoned the checkout process on a mobile device.

EBay’s decision to spin-off PayPal – something company executives insisted was not in the works just months ago – reflects just how quickly mobile payments are heating up following Apple Pay’s launch, renewing enthusiasm for near-field communications technology. PayPal is one of the early success stories in mobile payments, with strong consumer adoption enabling it to process approximately $20 billion in mobile payments volume last year.

A Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide Inc. executive at the Mobile Marketing Association's SM2 Innovation Summit discussed how the brand is personalizing guests' stays via a new application that offers specific details about all hotel rooms in its 1,200 worldwide properties.  During the “Starwood Resorts Leverages Mobile to Enhance Guests’ Stays” session at the Mobile Marketing Association’s SM2 conference, the executive discussed the efficiency with which the brand’s new mobile application gathers data and provides extensive details to customers.

Online consignment shops operate in a crowded market these days with a range of stores offering everything from eBay-like, peer-to-peer sales of clothes bought at The Gap and Target to high-end stores where luxury goods are authenticated, approved and sold on your behalf. One company making a dent on the latter side of that spectrum is Shop-Hers, a marketplace for luxury goods boasting 1 million users. And now, the company is going mobile. Shop-Hers recently launched a mobile application that allows its customers to both buy and sell their fashion items easily, no matter their location – something that may appeal to those in its target …

Passengers travelling with KLM from Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport can now use the airline’s app to get a map of the airport that shows the route they need to take to their gate and the time required to get to there. The Airport Navigation Service uses Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) beacons installed by the airline at all piers, KLM lounges and in airport hallways.

The United States is falling behind when it comes to mobile commerce. Over the past few weeks, the mobile world has been abuzz with favor for the new Apple Pay service. the service represents Apple’s first official step into the mobile commerce arena, but excitement concerning the new platform seems to be contained to within the U.S. Apple Pay is nothing new in Asia, where mobile commerce has been thriving for more than a decade.