Ally Bank, seeking to deliver a more personal banking experience, has expanded its mobile application to include a virtual assistant with which users can interact via speech or text to transfer funds, pay bills, make deposits and perform other banking tasks. With Ally AssistSM, users also can request detailed information on accounts and transactions, and obtain information on interest earned and saving or spending patterns. The move points to how, as consumers rapidly adapt to the mobile environment, they are also becoming more familiar with voice-assisted applications.

HotelTonight and other brands are using in-car rewards to encourage sensible drinking and driving behavior through a program that combines a rewards network and a mobile application with a Bluetooth connection to a wireless smartphone breathalyzer. When motorists using the Kiip-developed program inside the Breathometer app blow a blood alcohol concentration result of more than .04, halfway to the legal limit, the app will offer rewards such as $25 off a night’s stay in a nearby motel from HotelTonight. The feature highlights mobile’s ability to play a role in promoting intelligent choices when motorists may be close to exceeding the legal blood-alcohol …

Bricks-and-mortar retailers could increase footfall and improve the shopping experience for consumers by combining beacon technology and parking apps. HotSpot, a Canadian mobile parking payment solution and proximity marketing company, partnered with beacon provider Kontakt.io to contact shoppers in parking lots and then track behaviour at nearby retail locations. They found that 30% of those people using a HotSpot parking app entered a HotSpot-enabled store and then stayed up to 13% longer than average.

French jeweler Cartier is encouraging mobile readers of New York magazine’s blog The Cut to explore gemstone-specific content and find their fit. The brand has been promoting its Amulette De Cartier collection recently and this latest effort continues to guide consumer focus. By maintaining a consistent message across platforms and channels, Cartier increases the likelihood that this collection is remembered.

Verifone Mobile Money has now partnered with Airtel Ghana in order to be able to provide a new mobile payments solution that is based on NFC technology that can be used through mobile devices within that country. The idea behind the partnership is to be able to use this NFC technology to be able to provide consumers with a simpler and easier method of paying for the products and services that they wish to purchase. The transactions are designed to be both convenient and secure. This partnership will bring the strengths of both companies into a single transaction service that will become …

Apparel brand and retailer Lilly Pulitzer is equipping store associates with tablets as part of a new push to improve the in-store experience and offer omnichannel capabilities, including mobile payments, with a goal of providing a customized shopping experience. Consumers increasingly expect a personalized shopping experience specific to their wants and needs. Recognizing the growth in mobile adoption and use, retailers are looking to mobile to provide unique ways to enhance their digital and physical brand experience.

CHINESE E-COMMERCE GIANT Alibaba has a fake goods problem. The company knows it, and the Chinese government hasmade abundantly clear it knows, too. Now, to combat counterfeits, the company has come up with a solution: Slap unique QR code-like tags on every product. Today, in conjunction with the Israeli startupVisualead, Alibaba debuted what it’s calling dotless visual codes. The codes resemble traditional QR codes with patterns of dots in all four corners. Unlike QR codes, Alibaba’s version can include images in the middle of the code, which can help with more visual branding efforts, says Nevo Alva, cofounder …

Popular mobile messaging application Tango, which is backed by Alibaba, is receiving the ability to participate in e-commerce. The apphas become a resounding success among consumers, giving them a convenient way to communicate with one another. A new service called Tango Shop has been launched that will allow app users to browse for products and make purchases. The products available through Tango Shop come from Walmart and Alibaba’s international shopping branch, called AliExpress. Tango now has mobile commerce capabilities. This may make the application significantly more popular than it already is. Adding a mobile shopping service to the app …

Smartwatches have been designed to help users manage specific aspects of their daily needs. Payments and commerce being part of consumers’ daily activities, it’s expected that smartwatches have the robustness, and moreover the capabilities, to enable day-to-day commerce transactions by leveraging existing payments technologies. With this notion in mind, technology giants such as Apple, Samsung and Qualcomm have not only developed smartwatches with growing hardware hardware capabilities but have also embedded powerful platforms to enable developers to bring payments and commerce capabilities through applications. Here are 21 prominent apps enabling smartwatch users to handle payments and commerce oriented requirements:

United Kingdom travelers are choosing mobile travel content at an equal rate to information offered on desktops, but smartphone usage is growing more quickly, according to a new study from Expedia Media Solutions. Mobile users in the U.K. are more frequently accessing travel information, encouraging travel related companies to maintain a mobile-optimized presence. Understanding habits and trends among users will help hotel, plane, cruise and other travel marketers best reach clients in the U.K.