California-based payment technology provider “Square” has expanded to Australia by launching its headquarters in Melbourne. Australia is the fourth country where the company has opened offices, others being Canada, Japan and the United States. The company has opened up in Australia in response to the demand from small and medium entrepreneurial community in Australia. “We are thrilled to open our local office in Melbourne due to its thriving small business community of merchants who are already benefiting from Square, as well as having a growing reputation as Australia’s technology hub,” stated Ben Pfisterer, Australian Country Manager for Square in …

Chili's Grill & Bar is introducing a state-of-the-art loyalty program, My Chili's Rewards, which leverages technology, personalization and gamification. My Chili's Rewards provides a fully digital experience where customers can use the Ziosk tablet provided on their restaurant table or the Chili's mobile app to sign up and track points. Customers can also use the Ziosk tablets to redeem points in restaurant real-time. To interact with the program when dining, customers enter their phone number and four-digit password on the tablet to obtain unlimited access to their point balance, available rewards and more right on the screen in front of them. The …

We’ve heard a lot about how our bodies—our faces, our irises, even our heartbeats—will replace passwords. Now, a group of neuroscientists are adding another body part to that list: the brain. Or more specifically, the brain’s response to certain words. Brainprint is the name of a study from Neurocomputing featured on New Scientist andEngadget this week authored by a group of researchers from the Basque Center for Cognition and Binghamton University. It’s an appropriate title, since the paper describes how the researchers were able to reliably identify subjects’ brains by watching how they reacted to certain words. In other words, it’s like a fingerprint for your brain …

Recently, China put a new regulation into place that has banned the members of its armed forces from being able to use wearable technology in the form of any connected device that can be worn on the body. For example, the official military newspaper in China, the People’s Liberation Army Daily (PLA Daily), explained that after one military recruit received a birthday gift that consisted of a smartwatch, there have been concerns that have been steadily voiced about the security issues that could be linked to the use of this type of wearable technology. Now NBC has reported that its own sources have …

Digital download websites are enjoying the benefits of mobile commerce—and many feel they’re ahead of the average online merchant when it comes to balancing the opportunities and risks that m-commerce brings. As a result, fraud is waning as a focus, according to a recent study: Just 11.3% said addressing the fraud risk was one of their biggest challenges—down from 20.1% the previous year. In the third-annual Mobile Payments & Fraud: 2015 Report, commissioned by Kount, the Fraud Practice and CardNotPresent.com questioned nearly 1,500 fraud and payment professionals representing merchants, fraud and ecommerce service providers, card issuers and card associations.

Nordstrom Inc. is launching a text-based shopping service called TextStyle at all 116 U.S. stores. Customers can now make curated purchases from their salesperson or personal stylist using text messaging. In 2014, the retailer launched Next, an opt-in, secure one-to-one service that lets Nordstrom customers communicate with their salesperson using their smartphone. TextStyle leverages the security, privacy and capabilities built into the Nordstrom Next texting service. NTo use TextStyle, customers use their Next account TextStyle opt-in, and then a customer or salesperson can send a private text message with a description and/or photo of a product. If the customer likes any …

Digital marketing executives at the Mobile Media Summit Upfront at Internet Week 2015 conference suggested that geofencing could be an optimal solution to enhance mobile’s influence on the travel sector, as location-based targeting takes off and more resorts become comfortable with sending personalized deals to consumers in the vicinity. During the “Audience Intelligence and Travel in Mobile session,” the executives discussed how their clients are using geofencing, a strategy that is experiencing lifts in spend for participating marketers, and agreed that the travel sector is one of the most forward-thinking industries when it comes to mobile. Consumers’ increasing tendencies to …

Kohl’s and The Limited are getting behind online ordering and pick-up services that would serve up immediate gratification for consumers who are unwilling to wait for delivery while opening opportunities for retailers to serve up mobile-specific offerings. By fall, Kohl’s plans to roll out to tablet and smartphone customers the in-store pickup program it now only offers on its desktop site. The Limited also has announced an in-store pickup service. The moves illustrate how retailers are striving to deliver real-time product availability in the mobile context, so consumers can be sure the product they want is waiting for them when …

Swiss watchmaker Tag Heuer is using the latest live-streaming technology to share fun and exciting events with its followers. The brand hosted a tennis match outside its store on the Champs-Élysées in Paris, pitting brand ambassadors Maria Sharapova and Nei Nishikori against each other for a lighthearted game. By streaming the event on Periscope, Tag Heuer ensured that consumers around the world would have real-time access to the match as it unfolded.

Ever since Google announced support for Host Card Emulation (HCE) on Android – banks, tech providers and NFC based mobile payment companies have left no stone un-turned. After the early enthusiasm, there are several questions that need to be answered. It’s been a while since its launch, but HCE hasn’t gained the expected number of deployments across geographies. This article highlights the the two school of thoughts about HCE. One that is overly optimistic (based on Pros) and the others who are not so optimistic (the Cons). Quick recap before we go into Pros and Cons. “HCE” describes the …