The Apple Watch announcement not only stirred interest in the product itself, but also made the smartwatch category significantly more credible, according to a new report by Digital Luxury Group. Both the product announcement in September 2014 and the release announcement in March 2015 yielded dramatic rises in online searches for Apple Watch across the world, which had a cascading effect across other brands as consumers sought to understand and find the best deals in this nascent category. The buzz surrounding the Apple Watch has transformed the potential of the smartwatch category, forcing luxury brands to wade in and experiment with …

Office Depot saw usage of its mobile application jump 300 percent thanks to an augmented reality campaign that strived to help students, teachers and parents pinpoint their passions. The #GottaGetINSPIR5D campaign, powered by augmented reality platform Aurasma, won big at the Mobile Excellence Awards, grabbing the title of Best Entertainment Related Marketing Campaign. The technology is being tapped by an growing number of brands to better connect with consumers and provide more enticing calls-to-action to further app engagement.

The payments landscape in the US is changing rapidly as contactless payments gather steam. Moreover, EMV adoption in the US is also growing at a phenomenal pace before the liability shift of October, 2015. The major data breach that happened last year at Neiman Marcus, Target, Sally Beauty, Michaels and The Home Depot is also propelling EMV adoption. The shift from conventional POS to EMV will have a huge impact on POS terminal manufacturers. The shift to EMV had been slow till 2013 but has gained momentum in the last year. With only a few months to go before …

KFC is targeting younger consumers by teaming up with navigational application Waze to lend the voice of brand mascot Colonel Harland Sanders, who will provide turn-by-turn GPS directions and point out nearby restaurants. From now through August 16, users of the Waze app may opt in to use The Colonel’s familiar voice for navigation directions by visiting the app settings and altering voice language. KFC is following in the foot steps of brands such as Domino’s by using a mascot to communicate with consumers and provide convenience while driving.

eBay is continuing its focus on mobile, unveiling Tuesday a new Apple Watch app and tweaks to its smartphone apps. With the e-commerce company's Apple Watchapp, people will be able to to see an overview of their notifications, as well as the items they are bidding on, selling and watching. eBay can also offer up push notifications to help buyers keep tabs on the items they're watching and help sellers quickly see customer messages. eBay started offering smartwatch apps about two years ago with similar functions, such as for theSamsung Galaxy Gear and Pebble. But, the Apple Watch -- which went on sale …

After launching mobile applications, ecommerce and entertainment companies are now focussing on getting them embedded in some popular models of smartphones, a move aimed at tapping into the large customer base of handset makers. For instance, Paytm, Jabong and Hotstar have inked deals with handset manufacturers like Micromax, Intex, Spice, Microsoft and Karbonn.  "Up to 75-80% of our sales come through either our smartphone apps or mobile phones. So, mobile strategy is a vital .. 

While mobile commerce accounts for a larger share of ecommerce, accessing the web through a mobile device is also driving sales at some brick-and-mortar locations. Jason Allen, vice president of multichannel strategy at GameStop, the video game, consumer electronics and wireless services retailer, spoke with eMarketer’s Lisa Barron about the company’s mobile initiatives. How important are mobile sales to your overall mobile strategy? Jason Allen: We focus less on direct mobile sales and more on the sale. We absolutely measure the people who come to us on a mobile device and purchase from a mobile device. That is much fewer …

The relationship between online and bricks-and-mortar stores is reciprocal, with each driving traffic and sales to the other, according to panelists at the Financial Times’ Business of Luxury Summit June 8. During “The Phy-gital Revolution: What is Luxury Doing to Woo its Consumers?” session, speakers explained how a mix of both physical and digital touchpoints is best to give both a well-rounded understanding of the brand and ensure that consumers have access to products in a manner that they want to shop. Without a digital shopping platform as part of their retail strategy, brands may be missing out on opportunities …

Imagine walking into a bookstore, opening the Facebook app on your smartphone, and immediately receiving a notification that — lucky you — there’s a book reading scheduled to happen there in a few minutes, and that your friend Bob posted about the new book he bought there the other day. That’s exactly the nearly-creepy scenario Facebook is envisioning with its Place Tips program, which, after testing for the last few months, is rolling out to more businesses in the U.S., Facebook said on Monday. It’s also now making its beacon units available to businesses who wish to use them in their …

Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) has now announced that it is going to become the first Canadian financial institution to use biometricsfor mobile security by way of fingerprint scanning for authorization. This announcement also stated that the mobile security will be possible through the addition of new features available through Android. Google first announced those new features at its developers conference. They will become available through the use of Android M, which presently remains in the form of a developer preview. That said, it is expected that this version of the software will be rolled out later on in 2015. It has been …