Mobile Commerce

An IBM study that surveyed 30,000 consumers found that mobile phones and other technology are big influencers of purchase intent.

Do you remember when your favorite retailer didn’t have a website? Can you imagine not being able to find your favorite store online today? Unthinkable, right?

Mobile commerce sales hit $1.2 billion in 2009 and will grow to $2.42 billion this year, with that number forecasted to reach $23.83 billion by 2015, said Jamey Maki, director of e-commerce and online experiences at Golfsmith International, in a session he co-presented at this week's National Retail Federation BIG Show in New York City.

Google reportedly will debut a payment and advertising service for retail mobile payments this year.

Consumers are ready to put their money where their mobile devices are according to a recent Sybase 365 survey. After more than 15 years of online shopping, nearly one-third of 1,000 consumers polled would be enticed to engage in mobile commerce. They'd also be willing to make a purchase of goods or services on a mobile device this holiday season if presented with mobile-based incentives and if their current devices allowed them to do so.

eBay acquired Critical Path Software, a mobile application developer that helped eBay deliver mobile apps including eBay for iPhone and StubHub, eBay Classifieds, and Shopping.com iPhone applications.

Shoppers who use eBay's RedLaser barcode-scanning application on their mobile devices can immediately find out through a single scan which nearby retailers currently have items in stock and who has the best local price. eBay added the local shopping results to RedLaser from Milo, which it recently acquired.

Price Check by Amazon lets users simply speak the name of any product when they are shopping to receive instant prices for that item on Amazon.com. Customers can also use the app to scan a barcode, snap a picture or type a product name to return product matches and pricing from Amazon.com and its other online merchants.

Only 21 percent of luxury retailers currently let consumers complete transactions from mobile commerce Web sites or applications according to FitForCommerce.

Premier shopping website Catalogs.com is extending its leading library of retail catalogs to the tablet device that is redefining the way we interact with content – the Apple iPad.