Brands should expand their mobile strategy to ensure that customers feel cared for amid a blurring of the lines between customer service, information technology and marketing to avoid damage to bottom lines, according to a new study by Millward Brown. The study, produced for Mblox, found that a 20 percentage point gap exists between how businesses and consumers rate customer care.

John Frieda Hair Care is testing a mobile application that simulates a personal hair consultation for in-store shoppers and delivers a coupon by interacting with sound waves at bricks-and-mortar store locations. The program was developed in partnership with John Frieda parent Kao USA and technology provider Lisnr, who would say only that it is being tested inside 50 mass merchant store locations. 

There has been a tectonic shift in the way consumers spend their time online. In October 2014, 52% of the time consumers spent online occurred within smartphone and tablet apps, according to new data provided exclusively to Internet Retailer from web and mobile measurement firm comScore Inc. 40% of online time was spent in web browsers on desktops and laptops and 8% spent in web browsers on smartphones and tablets. Giants are leading the way, with consumers spending quite a bit of time in the mobile apps of such players as Facebook Inc., Google Inc., Twitter Inc., eBay Inc. and Amazon.com Inc

In China, the trend in mobile commerce has been a rapid growth this year, according to a report that was released by the smartphone based payments branch of Alibaba, Alipay. The Alipay report showed that over half of the online transactions that occurred at Alibaba over the first ten months of the year occurred over mobile commerce. In fact, mobile phones were responsible for 54 percent of the online transactions using Alipay from January through the end of October. Comparatively, throughout all of last year, it had represented a much lower 22 percent of total online payments volume for purchases made online through the …

Location, location, location. That’s more than just the mantra of the real estate industry. It’s also the focus of modern mobile technology and related services. And in the location space, Google is losing ground — and fast — to its chief rival Apple. There has been significant change at the top of the indoor location technology market, according toABI Research. “Google’s lack of progress has cost it as Apple has taken the bull by the horns and is now driving this market forward,” the research giant recently summarized.

State Farm is leveraging object recognition technology and partnering with Edmunds.com to launch the CarCapture mobile application that allows users to snap a photo of the back of a car and instantly receive detailed information. Consumers will be able to use mobile to make a more informed purchase decision when browsing for vehicles and be assured that they will be accessing up-to-date information on the car of choice, including make, body type, model and year range. 

Krispy Kreme is ramping up its mobile strategy to reward customers and compete with other major quick-service restaurants’ loyalty platforms with the release of its My Krispy Kreme Treats mobile application. Customers in the Nashville, Richmond, Grand Rapids and greater Detroit areas can take advantage of the loyalty app, which offers rewards point for each purchase made that can be redeemed for free products at bricks-and-mortar Krispy Kreme stores.

Online ticket services such as SeatGeek as well as movie studios are seeking out Twitter for mobile ticket sales through Promoted Tweets and embedded links, reflecting the social network’s potential as a platform for mcommerce. As uses of social commerce are becoming more possible with Twitter’s Buy Now feature, ticket search engines such as SeatGeek, Fandango and Movietickets.com can leverage this feature to reel in more sales. Consumers are more open than ever to mobile deals, proving that the Twitter News Feed is an appropriate place to reach them.

The Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) has released the result of a recent study and data analysis that has revealed that there is a growing number of people who are looking to mobile commerce as a part of their overall shopping process, regardless of the fact that worries about privacy remain high. While not all of those activities involve actually making a purchase, these mobile commerce behaviors remain quite important to the process that will eventually lead consumers to a purchase decision. For instance, the CEA found that about 70 percent of mobile device using shoppers will conduct an internet search using that …

A tie-up between Alibaba Group Holding Ltd  and Apple Inc. is expected to be reached in the near future, which will open huge avenues for both companies in the Chinese market. Apple’s Touch ID is reported to have been introduced on Alipay’s smartphone app today. After updating Alipay’s mobile app on devices featuring Touch ID, like the iPhone 5s, iPhone 6, and iPhone 6 Plus, users will be able to use their fingerprints to authorize payments, in both brick-and-mortar stores and online stores in China. The updated Alipay mobile app will allow users …