Payment processing companies are trying their best to streamline payments at the checkout. The main objective currently has been to make payment process quicker and easier for customers at brick and mortar locations. In this payments market, newcomers like Apple Pay and CurrentC are trying to make a mark and grab a prominent share of this market. Even Bitcoin companies are now willing to enter this market. BitPay, a popular player in Bitcoin payment processing, is poised to make the process of paying with Bitcoin much simpler, for both merchants and customers.

Fans attending the QBE International game between England and New Zealand will be the first to benefit from the innovative PowaTag service. The introduction of PowaTag is part of the RFU’s wider strategy to enhance the match day experience for fans at the ‘Home of England Rugby’. Fans can pre-order food and beverages any time before or during a game with the PowaTag App. Purchases can then be picked up from special express lines located at six bars throughout Twickenham Stadium and the West Fan Village, minimising overall queueing time. 

Beauty bible Allure magazine is trying to build a seamless shopping experience where readers can discover new products and purchase them directly fromAllure.com'sktop and mobile site. Starting this month, the magazine is partnering with MasterCard to create a ShopThis! with MasterPass button that readers can click, which will add products to their shopping cart. After payment is processed through MasterPass, Allure's retail partners, including Saks Fifth Avenue, Walmart, and SkinCareRx.com, will fulfill the orders.

According to the Q3 Performance Index that has been released by MarketLive – the e-commerce platform – mobile commerce has grown exceptionally rapidly over the third quarter of the year and is going to be a very important component moving ahead. According to MarketLive in its report, “Merchants must immediately face – and address – the enormous implications and inescapable demands of multi-device shopping and mainstream mobile commerce.

You would think that promoting Bluetooth networking would be the last thing that the world’s second largest maker of enterprise Wi-Fi gear would be doing. But Aruba Networks is flaunting its love for Bluetooth in Santa Clara where it’s kitted outLevi’s Stadium with a massive beacon network. There, San Francisco 49ers fans can use flit among a thousand beacon signals to navigate their way through its seats and concessions. Sure, there’s nothing preventing a networking company from exploring different technologies, but Aruba’s embrace of Bluetooth Low Energy is odd, as Aruba originally planned to accomplish everything a beacon can do with …

In a bet that near-field communications mobile payments may still not be ready for prime time, Burger King has opted to power its application with PayPal’s cloud-based, PIN-driven solution. In addition to paying via PayPal, users can also add a BK Crown Card digital gift card or activate a virtual card to pay from the app. In comparison, Burger King competitor McDonald’s recently ran up the flag for NFC payments by partnering with both Apple Pay and Softcard.

Gartner has revealed that organisations are set to increase their digital marketing spend next year according to its Digital Marketing Spending report. More than half (51 per cent) of the companies surveyed said they were planning to increase their digital marketing budgets by 17 per cent with customer experience technology, such as programmatic trading which serves the right advert at the right time, fuelling increased spending.

By 2017, three times as many retailers as now will explicitly underpin their customer and operations strategies on 3rd platform technologies. That’s one of IDC Retail Insights’ top 10 worldwide retail predictions for 2015. IDC  revealed the predictions during a Web conference, IDC FutureScape: Worldwide Retail Agenda 2015 Predictions. The top 10 predictions from the IDC FutureScape for Worldwide Retail FutureScape are:

Chris Mason thinks of Brookstone stores as the retail version of canaries in the coal mine - harbingers of change in the air. And this year, the chain is all over the smartphone as a weight-bearing pillar of American life. A Brookstone store in a Pittsburgh-area shopping mall recently was showing off a $119.99 device that uses laser technology to project a virtual keyboard onto a flat surface to allow typing on an attached smartphone or tablet.

While hotels have been struggling to leverage mobile keys for years due to a fragmented smartphone industry, varying mobile signal standards and pricey lock system upgrades, Starwood Hotels and Hilton Worldwide are making them a reality with roll outs planned for this year and next. Starwood Hotels has launched the mobile technology at its Element, 10 Aloft and W Hotels, with plans for 140 more of its properties to receive mobile keys in 2015.