Mobile Commerce

Nothing reveals strengths and weaknesses of a website or app better than peak demand events. It's a story as old as the internet: a site operates fine under normal pressures but cracks under the strain of peak events like Black Friday or Cyber Monday. The 2014 holiday kickoff events produced a unique set of challenges, leaving the e-commerce industry with a number of lessons to ponder and learn from.

lululemon athletica, the yoga-inspired athletic apparel company, released a new mobile shopping application this fall designed to give its users a faster and more convenient way to shop via their iPhone (the app is available for free in the App Store).

In news that shouldn't really come as a surprise, more consumers will be going online to make their holiday purchases this year. Furthermore, mobile will play a big part in that growth. These are two of the primary trends identified by IBM in its annual holiday shopping predictions. Yesterday, IBM released its holiday forecast based on billions of online and in-store transactions analyzed by its Digital Analytics Benchmark and Quarterly Retail Forecast. Here are some predictions from the report:

Urban Outfitters brand Free People hopes to reverse declining mobile web conversions and page views with a recently revamped site boasting bigger and more visuals, off-screen navigation and a streamlined checkout while simultaneously reducing code volume to minimize the impact on performance. In an exclusive interview with Mobile Commerce Daily, Free People's Director of Marketing and E-Commerce Jed Paulson discusses why the brand felt it needed a better mobile web experience that would more closely match its other digital offerings. 

The mobile payments app — which hasn't been officially released — was created for the sole purpose of getting stores away from credit card fees they pay every time you swipe your card. On Wednesday, those taking part in the CurrentC pilot program received a warning from the consortium of anti-credit card retailers called MCX, or Merchant Consumer Exchange: The program was hacked in the last 36 hours, and criminals managed to grab the email addresses of anyone who signed up for the program.

CVS and Apple Pay were never officially friends, but now they seem to have broken up officially, so the drug-store chain can develop its own mobile wallet in partnership with other big-name retail brands, including Rite Aid, which also shut down mobile payments over the weekend.

If you’re a skeptic like me, all of the talk of beacons in retail stores sounds a little too pie-in-the-sky. Beacons, as you probably know by now, are devices that communicate with shoppers’ smartphones in the hopes of improving their in-store shopping experiences. When placed in-store, beacons use Bluetooth technology to detect nearby smartphones and send them ads, coupons or supplementary product information.

Target has announced the release of a slew of enhancements to its mobile shopping offerings that promise to take location-based shopping to new heights when they go live later this month. Target has partnered with the startup Curbside to offer curbside pickup at 10 San Francisco Bay area stores. Guests simply place an order for store pickup through the Curbside app and collect their purchase in person at a convenient Curbside-branded trailer or tent near

Most retailers today know that mobile is everything. Consumers are increasingly researching products, reading customer reviews and making purchases via their smartphones and tablets rather than desktop computers and laptops. It's a trend that will only continue to increase.

Responsive commerce has become one of this year's hottest buzzwords as retailers aim to optimize their online sites for mobile shoppers. However, understanding just what this design strategy is, knowing whether or when to implement it, and justifying the expense to key decision makers all remain key challenges for many companies. Here then is a crash course in responsive commerce and why it might be time to consider whether it can provide your customers with the seamless shopping experiences they've come to expect across devices.