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 …

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 …

The National Basketball Association has teamed up with sports merchandise retailer Fanatics to open a new flagship store in New York and equip associates with mobile devices to ramp up in-store sales. The two brands’ multiyear partnership is kicking off with the new NBA flagship store, planned to open its doors on Fifth Avenue just before this year’s holiday season. The NBA is following in a number of retailers’ footsteps by leveraging in-store mobile devices to ensure that consumers are able to order any piece of inventory on the spot in the preferred style, color or size, a tactic which …

Photo-printing service Mixbook avoids abandonment rates with a new solution that calculates how to best engage consumers through mobile optimization. Its mobile application Mosaic allows users to create a photobook and other photo print projects through any device and social media account. However, the brand was seeing significant dropout rates through mobile, especially during the checkout process and created an experiment to combat these issues.

Retailers underestimate how much digital technology influences physical shopping experiences, but their expectations are rapidly catching up to reality. According to a new study from RSR Research, “Commerce Convergence: Closing the Gap between Consumer and Brand,” while 84% of retailers surveyed say a digital presence is very important to build brand awareness, but only 64% say it is very important to drive traffic to stores. However, retailers do show an understanding that having disparate digital and brick-and-mortar systems produces negative results. For example, 77% of respondents strongly agree or agree that their legacy POS system is holding them back from providing …

Millennial women use technology to be more productive in their everyday lives, adopting the latest Web sites and applications early on and quickly adapting to changing methods of communication, according to research from Refinery29. There is plenty of media hype speculating that members of the millennial generation are obsessed with technology, unable to turn away from their devices as they become increasingly isolated from the real world. New research, presented by Refinery29 at Her Brain On Digital on June 3, however, suggests that while millennial women are certainly using technology at high rates, most feel they are able to improve …

Japanese mobile operator SoftBank has announced that it intends to invest $1 billion into South Korea’s largest mobile commerce firm, Coupang. This would represent the largest Internet investment that has been made in South Korea’s history and will provide Coupang with the financial support it needs to compete with other mobile commerce organizations. SoftBank has not disclosed the size of the interest it will acquire in Coupang and the South Korean company will continue to operate of its own accord. In 2013, SoftBank successfully acquired Sprint, which may have been the company’s first step toward expanding beyond Japan. The latest investment …

British fashion and accessories house Burberry is helping readers of Departures’ mobile Web site give “with love” through a series of advertisements. With Father’s Day approaching June 21, brands are looking to establish visibility in the market by promoting items that can be gifted to the father figure in their consumers’ lives. Timely efforts are beneficial as they may inspire a consumer who comes across an ad to explore the brand’s offerings further since it is not aimless shopping, but rather purchasing with a loved one in mind.

Kellogg has updated its rewards program with a mobile-first approach, claiming to be the first consumer packaged goods company to use a combination of retailer frequent shopper integration and receipt scanning for point collection.  By allowing members of its United States Family Rewards program to collect points by scanning receipts while eliminating the need to enter package codes, the maker of Frosted Flakes and Raisin Bran cereals and other products will make it easier to automatically collect points for purchase, minimizing a challenge in rewards programs. The change points to how mobile remains a critical channel in the expansion of the …

Sprint, Kevin Harrington and Tommy Hilfiger are taking advantage of celebrity-obsessed consumers with a new mobile shopping application that encourages users to shop items celebs are wearing. StarShop is a new mobile app that allows users access to celebrity-favorite products, deals, tips, exclusive merchandise and video content, to leverage consumer interest in fame to drive product sales. The shopping app acts as a virtual mall, while using celebrity content, attempting to gain an advantage on the numerous other mcommerce apps available.