Edmunds.com is streamlining car shopping with an update to its mobile application that lets consumers use a smartphone’s native texting platform to send a message directly to a dealership representative. Besides providing an option to text questions to a live sales associate instead of communicating by phone or e-mail, the update also provides users with instant vehicle video and picture messages from the dealer’s lot. The feature points to the growth of place messaging, which allows people to interact with businesses through text just as they do with friends and family.

Transit companies flocked to mobile ticketing after Superstorm Sandy caused ticket machine outages all over the Northeast in 2012, inciting a rapid rise in the implementation of mobile transit ticketing, according to Bytemark. During a press event yesterday, a Bytemark executive revealed that mobile ticketing increased 55 percent after Hurricane Sandy. He also detailed how the future of the mobile transit ticket industry is rapidly approaching as consumers relocate to urban areas, increasing the usage of public transportation, with 60 percent of individuals globally expected to relocate to urban areas.

Starbucks Corp. is denying reports that hackers illegally gained entry into accounts of some users of its mobile app. Multiple media reports have indicated hackers broke into hundreds of accounts of Starbucks app users, stole their stored value, and leveraged the reload function to obtain customer payment card data. In a statement, Starbucks said news reports of a hack are false and that it occasionally receives reports of unauthorized activity caused by criminals re-using names and passwords stolen from other customer accounts. “Like all major retailers, the company has safeguards in place to constantly monitor for fraudulent activity and works closely with …

Square recently secured additional outside investments to expand its popular small business financing program, Square Capital. With Square Capital’s first investor, Victory Park Capital, tripling its original investment, and with new money from investors including Colchis Capital, Square will be able to advance hundreds of millions of dollars this year to a wide array of businesses, many of whom have been neglected by traditional financial institutions. Using data-driven insights, Square Capital has extended more than $100M to over 20,000 independent businesses since launching last year. Last month alone, Square advanced nearly $25 million in capital. The program helps businesses …

The American Airlines Center in Dallas is bringing mobile point-of-sale systems to consumers attending events in the stadium, allowing servers to accept contactless payments as well as Apple Pay, and providing a streamlined purchasing experience for food and beverages. The InfoGenesis Flex solution from software solution service Agilysys offers full-scale functionality on Dell tablet devices and enables servers to be more attentive to customers’ needs while also accepting payments anywhere in the center, which is projected to result in higher order volumes and more revenue per server. A growing number of arenas and stadiums are tapping mobile point-of-sale systems to aid …

Department store Bergdorf Goodman is aiming to direct the summer fantasies of female consumers through a mobile advertisement on New York magazine’s blog The Cut. As consumers contemplate summer wardrobe additions, retailers are in a good position to guide the research process with their extensive wares. Although mobile still only constitutes a small percentage of total sales, it plays a big role in informing purchase decisions. “This is a summer for higher mobile user expectations around personalization,” said Jeff Hasen, a Seattle-based mobile marketing strategist. “Like that bathing suit, one size does not fit all.

Maytag and Mondelez International are among brand marketers upping the ante in the chase for direct-to-consumer sales as mobile disrupts the traditional model of selling solely to wholesalers and retailers. Maytag’s new Bring Maytag Home” mobile tool that lets consumers see what their kitchen or laundry space would look like with the latest Maytag appliances, and Mondelez’s “buy it now” buttons, which reportedly let shoppers buy their favorite snacks from all its owned, earned and paid media, are examples of marketers’ efforts to capture additional sales when shoppers intend to buy. As the smartphone explosion redraws the retail landscape, …

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. is partnering with the Alipay payment services subsidiary of Alibaba Holding Group to offer a new mobile payment option in some Chinese Wal-Mart locations. Customers at 25 Wal-Mart stores in the Chinese city of Shenzhen in southern China are now able to use the Alipay mobile wallet to pay for purchases. The stores are equipped with special scanners that will allow them to read a barcode the Alipay app will produce after automatically calculating final purchase price and accept payment almost instantly. All Wal-Mart stores in China are expected to accept mobile payment in the future. Wal-Mart currently operates …

The common objection to using your phone for purchases is that any sufficiently-motivated criminal could lop off your thumb and go on a spending spree. That's one of the reasons why Japanese carrier NTT DoCoMo and Fujitsu have teamed up to unveil the Arrows NX F-04G. The pair say that it's the world's first smartphone with iris recognition technology that can be used to both unlock a device and certify mobile wallet payments. Spec-wise, the Arrows NX F-04G comes with the usual complement of specs, a 5.2-inch QHD screen, Android 5.0, 3GB of RAM and 32GB of built-in storage. Of course, such a device isn't likely to make …

United Airlines has revealed the beta version of its new United.com site, which is touch-friendly across all platforms and provides customized travel history widgets, suggesting that filtering options for streamlined booking and a unified experience are functions sought by travelers. The new site provides users with a sleeker and more modern interface, in addition to personalized features such as widgets customized to Mileage Plus members’ past travel histories. The enhanced sorting functions are also meant to drive sales of more flights as mobile booking applications begin to crowd the competitive hospitality sector.