Mobile commerce is still going up around the world. A new report shows that mobile payment transactions have increased 27% and now account for 17.5% of all digital purchases worldwide. The overall percentage of purchases over smartphones and tablets both increased, with smartphones accounting for 9% of purchases and tablets 8%, according to the Adyen Global Mobile Payment Index. The index tracks the purchases on its platform, which processes payments for more than 3,500 merchants. By platform, iPhones and iPads accounted for almost three-quarters of mobile transactions with Android devices responsible for most of the rest. For mobile payments, Europe …

As more people use their phones to shop, there will be more opportunities to provide more relevant offers. New research shows that substantially more smartphone owners (73%) are using their devices to research during the shopping process, an increase of more than double from the previous year (see Story). In a bit of potentially good news for brick and mortar retailers, the Local study by the e-tailing group found that a majority (59%) of shoppers will purchase online and go to the store to get an item to skip online shipping charges.