ASEAN is home to some of the biggest smartphone markets in the world – a key advantage given mobile devices account for 40 percent of global e-commerce transactions, according to a February report from Criteo. In Indonesia, the world's fourth-most populous country, smartphone penetration is around 23 percent, compared with 18 percent in India, Nielson data shows. In more developed economies like Singapore, that figure jumps to 85 percent – the highest rate in the world.

The mobile payments space continues to heat up, with Opentabs integrating PayPal within its mobile payment system to meet consumer demand for order-ahead services. Stoked by Apple’s and Google’s appearing to be the ones to beat, Opentabs, which lets users order ahead by registering a debit card or credit card with a mobile application, is teaming up with PayPal to meet accelerated customer demand for convenience. Mobile ordering is a hot topic so far in 2015, with numerous restaurants chains announcing their own mobile ordering services or plans for them.

The Walt Disney Company owns Mickey Mouse, Han Solo, and Iron Man. It has turned this wealth of brands into big time success in film, toys, and more — and it’s working on making that same leap with its game business. Disney is finding its stride in gaming. It has five internal studios focused on mobile games making stuff like Where’s My Water, Star Wars: Commander, and Marvel Avengers Alliance. These are all successful properties, but success was not the word you would use to describe Disney gaming efforts for much of the last several years.

Time Inc.’s All You and Health are foraying into the sector of branded weekly meal plans by enabling consumers to order food and view recipes via the eMeals mobile application, suggesting that even health brands must have a mobile ordering component to drive sales. The partnership with eMeals, an online meal planning service, suggests that recipe sites or brands must now also have a component that allows fans to order recipes and have quick access to a slew of dietary options. Time Inc. believes that this displays the ability for its media brands to expand across various platforms and advance …

A vast majority of Facebook’s 500 million monthly users are logged on to Facebook Messenger with about 80 million payment cards on file. Facebook’s recently launched P2P payments system is currently built entirely around the Messenger platform. Facebook’s P2P payments begins as a conversation within the Messenger app. Then, with the press of the new $ icon and the entry of an amount, one can send money that will arrive on the recipient’s listed debit card within seconds. What is really interesting is that Facebook is offering a fee-free P2P payment service for several reasons. One of them is that every ad-tech …

Mobile commerce is growing quickly in India. Many of the country’s retailers are beginning to invest in the mobile space as a way to engage consumers that are using their smartphones and tablets to shop online and in physical stores. Vizury, a leading marketing and remarketing firm,has released a new report concerning the state of India’s mobile commerce sector. The report shows that the sector is poised to see exponential growth in 2015. According to the report, consumers are using their mobile devices for more than just searching for products online. Mobile commerce throughout the country has growth by 130% over the past …

Results from Conjure’s Apps and Brands Benchmark 2015 report, found that 18.1% of consumers would rather have beacons direct them around a shop than have to rely on an assistant. As a result Sam Clark, Managing Director at the Digital Studio, suggests that there could be as many as 60m beacons hitting the market by 2019. Retailers must turn digital in order to keep up with growing technological competition, something that Powa and digital agency putitout are looking to push by implementing the Powa Tag to the RAF online museum in early April.

Starbucks is adding several shots of espresso to its mobile ordering strategy by announcing two delivery models, a tactic which will be a game-changer for food and beverage marketers aiming to compete with the brand. On the heels of the Pacific Northwest launch of the Mobile Order and Pay feature, Starbucks will be testing a variety of delivery options this year, in accordance with its dedication to being a leader in the mobile space. If Starbucks sees a successful pilot with the delivery programs, this could raise the bar for other food and beverage marketers, especially those that have not …

Retail CFOs expect U.S. consumers’ feverish appetite for online buying to continue its strong upward trajectory in 2015. According to a recent BDO USA survey, nearly four out of five (78%) retail chief financial officers anticipate their online sales to grow. Overall, CFOs forecast an impressive 9.9% boost to e-commerce sales this year. This projected increase comes after the Commerce Department’s estimate of a record-breaking $304.9 billion in U.S. online sales in 2014. “Consumers crave speed, selection and the convenience of shopping anywhere and anytime at the touch of a button,” said Natalie Kotlyar, partner in the Consumer Business practice at …

Air Wick’s leveraging of a program with a QR code in a pop-up home in a shopping mall promotion capitalizes on the attention-grabbing power of personalized content but risks excluding consumers who lack know-how in scanning the codes. Air Wick is tapping QR codes as part of a campaign in a three-dimensional home in Mall of America in Bloomington, MN that showcases Life Scents, a set of constantly changing fragrances in multiple rooms curated by lifestyle experts around a different immersive scent experience. The program points to the need for marketers to include alternative ways for less mobile savvy consumers …