Mobile Commerce

Barneys New York has launched the Micros-Retail miStore mobile point-of-sale solution in its flagship New York store. The retailer will use the new mobile solution to help streamline multiple transaction stations created by its multifaceted holiday campaign around Gaga’s Workshop.

Specialty retailer LIDS has launched a new mobile shopping website, which consumers will be redirected to when visiting lids.com on any smartphone. The new site, which allows users to shop from the entire product selection on the company's website, was designed and developed by LIDS Sports Group.

Catalog Spree will donate 5 percent of all purchases made through the app on Free Shipping Day to Heifer International, which will help those in need around the world. Catalog Spree is the highest-rated catalog app for the iPad and is the only catalog shopping app that offers free exposure to charities who publish catalogs.

On Black Friday, JoS. A. Bank's mobile checkout saw an increase of over 3,000 percent compared to its previous daily average. The exceptional holiday sales demonstrate consumers' growing comfort with purchasing high-consideration goods on their mobile.

Best Buy announced that its third-quarter net income fell 29 percent to $154 million from $217 million in the year-ago period, worse than analysts had expected. The company had 20 percent growth in online sales and 9 percent growth in mobile phone revenue in the United States, along with brisk sales in tablets, appliances, e-readers and movies.

Retailers and manufacturers are pondering whether in a world of augmented shopping via mobile devices we will see a shift away from traditional e-commerce. The evidence shows that m-commerce is arming consumers with a personal shopping assistant and offering new forms of customer rewards, while also providing retailers and manufacturers with valuable digital advertising.

Houston is the nation’s No. 1 city when it comes to “mobile shopping savvy,” according to a new study by the Interactive Advertising Bureau. New York, Atlanta, Los Angeles and Dallas/Ft. Worth were the other top m-commerce cities among the nation’s 15 largest DMAs.

Verizon — the only official carrier for the Google Galaxy Nexus phone — said it will not support Google Wallet in its phones. Google confirmed that Verizon asked the company not to include the feature in the Galaxy Nexus phone.

Mobile commerce is still small compared to the overall e-commerce market, but m-commerce sales are on a steep upward trajectory thanks in part to increasing adoption of smartphones and rising mobile internet usage, according to a new forecast by eMarketer.

Walgreens is offering holiday shoppers one of the largest mobile-only coupon programs to date from a major retailer. At more than 7,700 locations, Walgreens' customers can bring their smartphones to the checkout to have mobile coupons scanned directly from the device.