Mobile Commerce

Google Most Likely to Win Mobile Wallet War, Survey Finds
January 30, 2013

Google is poised to win the "mobile wallet war," according to a survey of attendees at the National Retail Federation's annual conference in New York. The survey was conducted by ACI Worldwide, an international provider of payment systems. Over half (52 percent) of respondents said they believe Google would come out on top when it comes to mobile payment systems. An additional 25 percent believe PayPal will come out on top, while nearly one in five respondents (19 percent) believes a new market entrant could gain traction in this emerging segment.

Etsy Acquires Mixel for Mobile Team
January 24, 2013

Craft marketplace Etsy has acquired mobile photo app maker Mixel as part of its efforts to beef up native mobile app development. Mixel launched in November 2011 as a hyped collage creation app for the iPad, and later pivoted to be more of a simple photo manipulation tool for the iPhone. The four-person Mixel team, which had talked to a number of potential buyers after its pivot, gets to stay in New York, making the easy move to Etsy's Brooklyn office from the Union Square area.

PayPal and NCR Team Up for Mobile Payments in a Big Way
January 15, 2013

Two of Square's biggest competitors are joining forces: PayPal and point-of-sale (POS) company NCR just announced a major deal that could tip the mobile payments market in PayPal's favor. The arrangement will see PayPal's payments offering implemented within NCR's mobile apps and services for restaurants and other retailers. At first, PayPal will merely be a checkout option within NCR's Mobile Pay app, which lets restaurant-goers place orders, call their waiter, and even checkout from their phones. But eventually, PayPal will offer that mobile dining experience within its own mobile apps whenever you check-in to a participating NCR-customer restaurant.

Tablets, Smartphones Drive Mobile Commerce to Record Heights
January 10, 2013

Maybe 2012 was the year of mobile after all. U.S. retail m-commerce sales shot up 81 percent to nearly $25 billion last year, propelled by rapid adoption of tablets and smartphones as shopping devices, according to new estimates from eMarketer. Mobile devices accounted for 11 percent of total U.S. retail e-commerce sales in 2012, eMarketer estimates, and further growth is expected to push mobile sales to a 15 percent share of all U.S. retail e-commerce sales this year.

Consumers Want Mobile Enhanced Retail
January 9, 2013

Mobile shoppers are expecting more from retailers according to a new study by Latitude, Next-Gen Retail: Mobile & Beyond. Smartphones and tablets aren't just making shopping more convenient and real time, they're fundamentally changing how people think about shopping. Mobile shopping makes people feel more relaxed, productive and informed, as well as more open-minded and receptive to discovering new things, says the report.

Fab Achieves Mobile Commerce Goal With 56% Of Xmas Day Revenue From Its Apps
December 28, 2012

Fab announced today that 56 percent of its Christmas day U.S. revenue was from sales through its mobile apps, a new single-day record for the design-focused e-commerce platform. Forty percent of its European revenue on that day was also via mobile, another milestone for the company. Mobile is a key part of Fab's strategy. Back in October, it launched redesigned iOS apps with an intuitive, friendlier user interface to encourage more browsing, as well as social feeds so shoppers can see what their friends are looking at. 

Mobile Devices Change Shoppers' Habits, Retailers Strategies
December 22, 2012

Tamara Lewis uses her iPhone to search for Christmas presents for her daughter while waiting in the carpool line. At night, while watching the news in bed, she looks for boots on eBay from her iPad. From the Walmart parking lot, the 50-year-old Sandy...

Tips to Optimize Mobile Sales This Holiday Season
December 19, 2012

If you've ever doubted the validity of mobile as a contributor to your bottom line, holiday season 2012 is here to disavow you of such notions. Just days into peak season, retailers were seeing record-breaking sales from mobile devices. Let's take a look at the influence of mobile during this pivotal time of year and what these trends mean for retailers.

The Multiscreen Shopper Has Emerged, and Other Findings From the IBM Smarter Commerce Twitter Chat
December 4, 2012

The 2012 holiday season is in full swing, and e-commerce earnings for retailers are projected to be record breaking. IBM Smarter Commerce held a Twitter chat yesterday to recap the lessons learned, emerging trends and final results of the chaos that was Thanksgiving, Black Friday and Cyber Week. Moderated by Forrester Research Analyst Sucharita Mulpuru (@smulpuru), the chat featured Richard Feinberg (@richardfeinberg), professor of consumer sciences and retailing at Purdue University, and Jill Puleri (@jpuleri), IBM Global Retail Lead, not to mention the Twitterverse.

overstockArt.com Strengthens its Mobile Presence With Updated App
December 1, 2012

With the release of the latest version of its mobile app in September, overstockArt.com, an online retailer of wall art, wanted to create better engagement with customers, many of whom had already downloaded an earlier version of the company's app.