Warehouse-retail disruptor Boxed raised $25 million in a Series B round of funding, the company said this week. In May Boxed announced $6.5 million in funding, adding then to its $1.1 million in seed funding. The bulk-goods retailer has seen increased popularity on the app store and has reported steady growth, although it doesn’t reveal specifics.

Online sales figures from November and December 2014 show that Black Friday has finally taken hold in the UK. Data taken from the IMRG’s E-Retail Sales Index shows that overall online Christmas sales (defined as 02/11/14 to 21/12/14) were up 13% year-on-year. However the impact of Black Friday meant that the December index was down 4% compared to November.

Apple has Apple Pay, and now it looks like Google may be fattening up its own wallet. According to people familiar with the situation, the search giant and maker of Android is interested in buying Softcard, the mobile payments company formerly known as Isis. The price may be under $100 million, according to our sources. That is either a huge bargain or a testament to Softcard’s difficulties as an enterprise: sources tell us that AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile — the three carriers that started Isis in 2010 — have collectively invested hundreds of millions of dollars in the joint venture. Softcard earlier this month laid off about 60 employees and …

Need a place to stay in Kathmandu within the next two days? Booking.com has got you covered. Today, the hotel booking giant, a subsidiary of the Priceline Group, launched a new app called Booking Now, which lets travelers find last-minute hotel deals anywhere in the world and book them with a single click. In doing so, Booking.com is going head to head with startups like HotelTonight, which has been an early leader in this mobile-first, last-minute booking space, and has raised more than $80 million since it was founded in 2010.

A new Apple patent has been published by the USPTO which reveals the transfer of Touch ID information via iCloud, as reported by AppleInsider. The patent shows a system where Touch ID information can be collected on a primary device and then transferred to a secondary device via iCloud for authentication. This new system has a profound usage in Apple Pay as well. This system can allow Apple Pay terminals, integrated with their own Touch ID sensors, to perform biometric authentication and process transactions without the need for presence of the primary device. In the earlier Touch ID system, the …

Africa may not be the first place Western retailers consider when they ponder expanding globally. But Chris Folayan has introduced an e-retail concept that he hopes will change that. Folayan is the founder and CEO of virtual shopping mall MallforAfrica. The online marketplace, which launched in 2011, seeks to quell many of the concerns Western brands have about selling into Africa such as fraud, customs and duties, and delivery. At the same time, MFA aims to give African shoppers reliable access to hard-to-find, authentic Western goods at a reasonable price. Folayan, who traveled to the United States from his home country of …

Five percent of the base of 600-650 million near-field communication (NFC) equipped phones will be used at least once a month to make contactless in-store payments at retail outlets, as per a new forecast by Deloitte as part of its TMT report. This compared with monthly usage by less than 0.5 percent of the 450-500 million NFC-phone owners as of mid-2014 shows a 1000% growth. Deloitte expects that 2015 will be an inflection point for the usage of mobile phones for NFC-enabled in-store payment, as it will be the first year in which the multiple prerequisites for mainstream adoption – …

The year 2014 has been a great year for Indian ecommerce. From Flipkart’s $11 Billion valuation to Snapdeal’s recent $627 million investment, from Myntra’s acquisition toAmazon’s $2 Billion investment in India, Indian e-commerce market has seen exponential growth in all corners of the sector. The Indian eCommerce industry, one of the fastest growing markets, currently pegged at Rs. 68,000 Crore ($11 Billion) is expected to cross Rs. 1, 25,500 Crore ($20 Billion) in 2015. The biggest contributor to this growth can be attributed to mobile. With over 50% of the sales coming from mobile and set to grow even more, Indian mobile commerce is poised to …

Connected associates armed with tablets, smartphones and PDAs have been helping to bridge the gap between the brick-and-mortar store and digital retail channels for some time now. But 2015 should be the year stores themselves truly become connected. For example, specialty retailer Rebecca Minkoff has opened a “connected store” powered by EBay technology in the SoHo neighborhood of New York City, Using EBay technology, the stores include mirrored displays with touchscreen video content that let customers request associate assistance or order drinks. Other features include the ability to use the Rebecca Minkoff mobile iOS app in-store to obtain personalized shopping options. 

Blue just launched what it's calling one of the most sophisticated computer systems ever built. IBM's new z13 mainframe caps a $1 billion investment and five years of development -- and taps into over 500 new patents in collaboration with more than 60 clients. IBM is pointing to three "firsts" with the z13. It's the first system that can process 2.5 billion transactions a day -- that’s equal to 100 Cyber Mondays every day of the year -- which is a key capability given we're headed toward about 40 trillion mobile  transactions a day by 2025, …