Just days after it launched its first app for Apple Watch, eBay is talking up the future of wearables after seeing a massive increase in sales for smart watches and wristbands on its Australian site. The figures come out of a new eBay report, conducted by technology research firm Telsyte, which examines Australians' technology buying habits. Digging into more than 100 million technology-related searches and transactions on the e-commerce portal, it's the first time eBay has examined data from a particular product category on its platform, and the results paint an interesting picture of Australian digital consumption. According to "The Economics …

To strengthen its position in the m-commerce domain, online marketplace Snapdeal today announced that it has acquired Letsgomo Labs, a mobility solutions company. ounded by Manav Kamboj and Vikas Banga, the 76 member team of Letsgomo work across mobile technologies, design and strategy; consults businesses right from building mobile strategies to conceptualization of applications and mobile sites to implementation and hosting. The company also works with e-commerce companies to help them strengthen mobile capabilities. Speaking on the acquisition, Rohit Bansal, Co-Founder of Snapdeal said, “Delivering a great user experience across varying data connections and numerous handsets being used in …

Since making its way to China last year, Uber has grown exponentially in cities like Hangzhou and Chengdu. In fact, during its first nine months in China, the ride-hailing company brought in more than 400 times as many rides as it did in during its first nine months in New York. These numbers come from an email to investors sent by Uber CEO Travis Kalanick, which the Financial Times published Friday morning. Uber now boasts nearly 1 million trips a day in China—and Kalanick plans to maximize on its momentum by investing more than $1 billion in the country this year, according to the …

As mobile ads move from being in their early infancy toward the next phase in their maturity, many companies and marketers are still scrambling to try to find the right metrics to be able to measure their effectiveness. The report was issued by NinthDecimal, a mobile intelligence firm based in San Francisco. What it revealed was that mobile ads that were having an impact on the behaviors of the consumers who saw them, and that this affect was on the rise. The study used data from 2014 in the second and fourth quarters . It measured advertisements displayed through Android …

Heineken is brewing up a strategic mixture of mobile and draft technology to help the brand grab the attention of craft beer fans and drive sales.  BrewLock, a 20-liter, single-use plastic container, functions as a type of microbrewery by allowing consumers to receive the same taste, consistency and quality they would find in a brewery, thanks to its two protected chambers. A complementary mobile application enables users to locate bars serving BrewLock and watch a 3D demonstration of the technology, will likely help Heineken maintain its stronghold in the beer sector and reach a greater amount of millennial consumers.

Mobile application users are quick to judge the quality of a brand based on their initial search and sign-up for a mobile application, suggesting why Uber leads all sharing-economy apps in popularity despite receiving mixed user-experience marks, according to an Applause report. The 48 most popular sharing-economy apps in the United States on average lag all other apps in quality, according to Applause’s report, “The Best Sharing Economy Apps.”  With just eight sharing-economy apps such as Waze earning respectable quality scores, the findings suggest that while customer-obsessed brands built the economic model in which individuals are able to borrow or …

A recent report produced by the Centre for Retail Research (CRR) and Vouchercodes.co.uk states that retailers in the UK could be missing out on as much as £6bn a year in sales because of a lack of investment in mobile. This comes at a time when retailers are reporting an increase in mobile spend, coupled with many stating that their mobile share of online sales has doubled since last year. It would seem however from this most recent report that there is still work to do for retailers to catch up with the ever increasing consumer use of mobile for …

E-commerce florist BloomThat Inc. has raised $5.5 million in Series A funding led by Forerunner Ventures, according to co-founder and President Matthew Schwab. Also joining the round were Sherpa Ventures, Rothenberg Ventures and the company’s earlier seed investors First Round Capital and Vaizra Investments. BloomThat made a name for itself, in part, by delivering bouquets “on-demand,” or within 90 minutes, to recipients in the San Francisco Bay Area. But these days, the startup also allows users to send high-quality bouquets or living plants to recipients at a convenient time designated by the sender, on the same or the next day throughout California. “Not …

Apple plans to launch its mobile payments service in the United Kingdom next month and will be linking with the loyalty cards provided by some retailers. The company has established a strong position in the mobile payments space in a relatively short amount of time. Apple Pay launched in the U.S. in October of last year, with the service being supported by a strong partnership with several prominent retailers. The company has been looking to expand its service into new markets, but this process has been relatively slow. Pinterest and Discover Card will be working with Apple for the launch of Apple Pay in …

Expedia is boosting its mobile momentum with a series of new application features, including the ability to book rental cars, a “Book Now, Pay Later” functionality and a redesigned launch screen. The updates were designed in response to recent Expedia research on mobile travel behaviors, which are catching fire among consumers who prefer to book last-minute deals on smartphones and tablets. Users of the app will now be able to peruse a wider variety of booking options and treat Expedia as a one-stop shop for all of their travel needs, ranging from flights, accommodations and activities.