Ecommerce giant Snapdeal today announced that it has acquired Hyderabad-based mobile technology StartupA startup is a "temporary organization used to search for a repeatable and scalable business model," says Steve Blank, author of Four Steps to the Epiphany. When a business model is repeatable,(...) Term details" style="box-sizing: border-box">startup MartMobi for an undisclosed amount. With this acquisition, Snapdeal hopes to strengthen its position in the mobile commerce space. This move would help the company boost its mcommerce capabilities, especially for its merchant partners. MartMobi was co-founded by Pramod Nair and Satya Krishna Ganni. It’s a mobile ecommerce platform that creates mobile and tablet interfaces as well as apps for …

Express is joining the growing list of retailers to roll out Apple Pay in bricks-and-mortar stores in an attempt to further develop customer service by offering a faster checkout and shortening purchasing lines.  The apparel retailer released the option for Apple Pay in all of its stores worldwide on May 21. Express is hoping to generate a more authentic bond with consumers by making sure its customer service is sufficient, and a large faction of that is checkout lines, which Apple Pay significantly reduces.

In addition to refining its transit mapping service, Apple has also been making headway on itsindoor mapping project. Apple intends to update iOS Maps to help users navigate major buildings, offices, and landmarks. While the feature may not go live this year, sources tell us that Apple is already mapping out its own offices in Cupertino. The company has let loose autonomous robots with iBeacon sensors, similar in size to iRobot’s Roomba vacuum cleaners, to collect data for its indoor mapping project. This comes in addition to its new van-based project to map out high-resolution street view footage.

French shoppers have become the first to experience a new LED lighting system that sends special offers and location data to their smartphones. The technology was designed by Philips and has been installed at a Carrefour supermarket in Lille. It transmits codes via light waves, which are undetectable to the eye but can be picked up by a phone camera. The innovation offers an alternative to Bluetooth-based "beacons", which are being installed by many retailers.

A security flaw has been discovered on the Apple Watch concerning Apple’s mobile payments service. Apple Pay has become quite popular among iOS users, receiving praise for being secure and convenient. On the new iPhone, consumer financial information is kept secure thanks to biometric technology. Those wishing to make a mobile transaction through Apple Pay on an iPhone must scan their fingerprint before they can do so. This feature is absent from Apple Watch, however. Apple Watch is not equipped with a fingerprint scanner, so must rely on other security solutions in order to keep consumer information safe. GadgetHacks recently posted a video to …

Target Corp. plans to roll out RFID-enabled “smart labels” later this year to aid inventory accuracy and improve in-store stock levels. In a corporate blog post, Keri Jones, executive VP, global supply chain and operations of Target, said the retailer is working with “key vendors” on a “fast paced timeline” to deploy RFID. By obtaining greater inventory visibility through the real-time tracking capabilities of RFID, Target intends to better inform customers of what stores specific items are available at. Target also plans to leverage this insight into its inventory to better fulfill online orders placed for in-store pickup, which represent 15% …

Alibaba is on a course for mobile commerce dominance. The Chinese company has become one of the most prominent Internet organizations in the world, having found major success in the e-commerce field. Taking note of the growing importance of mobile technology, Alibaba has begun to invest heavily in the mobile space, looking for ways to become a more powerful force in commerce by doing so. Alibaba has already made major strides in the mobile world, establishing itself as an insurmountable force in mobile commerce. Alibaba announced last week that it has experienced a 352% increase in mobile revenue, driven by its mobile …

StubHub’s mobile and tablet applications have undergone a significant update to customize the process of purchasing event tickets even more, including adding a personalization algorithm to recommend activities, ESPN content for sports fans, enhanced mobile ticketing options to replace physical tickets and mobile payment options for Android users. While the brand previously offered Apple Pay capabilities for iOS users, Android customers can now use PayPal or Braintree to purchase their tickets directly within the app, and present their smartphones to event associates for quick bar code scanning and seamless entry. Consumers with iPhone and Apple Watch devices will also be …

As PayPal prepares to become an independent company in the next few months—it’ll trade under the old stock ticker PYPL—future company CEO Dan Schulman gave the media a glimpse at what the future will look like for the payment giant at a San Francisco event on Thursday. eBay of course decided to spin-off PayPal as a public company, the company it acquired more than a decade ago, under pressure from activist investor Carl Icahn.

What's happening now is reminiscent of the time, not so long back, when online retailers came in as the upstarts and successfully challenged the reigning kings of modern retail by offering better selection of products, convenience of shopping from the confines of one's home and eye-popping discounts. Today, the disruptors of brick-and-mortar retail are finding themselves becoming increasingly vulnerable to the threat of a new breed of smartphone app-based, hyper-local ventures which bring on boa ..