The focus on certain mobile commerce technologies sometimes can be used in totally different ways from which they were initially intended. For example, NFC (Near Field Communication) technology has long been the darling for mobile payments, especially since Apple finally adopted it in the iPhone 6. But there are other uses for NFC, such as before and after the purchase.

There are beacons and then there are beaconed messages. During the MediaPost OMMA at SXSW conference, it became clear that at least some companies are more focused on the customer messaging experience rather than how those messages get there. One of the key points is that the message timing and context is more important than getting the message there though a beacon trigger.

There's money - big money - in mobile commerce. While mobile internet revenue is growing rapidly across the board, commerce dominates, based on a new study. Mobile internet growth is projected to pass $700 billion in sales within two years, with mobile commerce accounting for more than $500 billion of that, with the largest markets being the U.S., Europe and Asia.

Using Wi-Fi in stores impacts customer loyalty and increases both the amount of time spent in a store and sales, yet most retailers don't yet offer it. However, that's about to change as more retailers plan to have Wi-Fi up and running in their stores within a year, based on a new study. While fewer than half (40%) of retailers have store-wide Wi-Fi, the majority (76%) expect to offer it to shoppers within this year.

Some of the money in mobile payments is starting to be shifted around. Two separate and unrelated recent moves by two different companies point to some novel thinking around mobile payments. While these moves may be in the vested interests of the companies making them, it's the consumer who is likely to see the benefit.

People who use mobile payments are more likely to pay their bills online, make online purchases for personal use and check the weather on their phone. These are just a few of the new insights from the MRI Survey of the American Consumer by research firm GfK. The study is based on interviews with 25,000 U.S. adults in which consumers record their consumption of more than 6,000 products in 600 categories.

Shoppers are spending more time in stores than last year but overall there are fewer of them. Based on the tracking of mobile phones in around malls and stores, overall shopper traffic decreased 1% from last year during the month of February. However, storefront conversions, the number of shoppers who enter a store as a percentage of the people walking by, increased to 9%, slightly up from last year.

For mobile commerce, websites still dominate apps for making a purchase. A new global study finds that only a quarter of those in the U.S. who have made a purchase via smartphone did so via an app. The other three quarters used either a mobile website or a full site. The highest app purchasing is in Mexico (40%) and the lowest is in the U.S. (25%), according to the second annual Pulse of the Online Shopper study conducted by comScore for UPS.

Softcard, the failed mobile payments venture of Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile, is officially calling it quits. The email notice that Softcard is officially shutting down on March 31 went out yesterday to whomever might still be using the mobile payment service. This follows the announcement last week that Google is purchasing the technology of Softcard. In that announcement, there was no mention of what would happen to Softcard, though it seemed pretty obvious the company was done. Yesterday they made it official.

More ads or deals are coming to mobile mall shoppers, courtesy of the mall's WiFi. Following an introduction in a shopping center chain last year, another mall developer is launching a WiFi marketing system in 10 of its malls. When shoppers tap into the mall's WiFi signal, they're redirected to a default page containing promotions or ads from retailers inside the mall.