Mobile Commerce

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.

Customers who want fast and easy access to the WomanWithin.com, Roamans.com, JessicaLondon.com and KingSizeDirect.com websites can now search for the latest styles and trends and purchase directly from their mobile device.

American Eagle Outfitters (AEO), the Pittsburgh-based multichannel retailer of on-trend apparel and accessories, found a unique way to bring shoppers into its stores earlier this year.

Combining the best features of online shopping with the in-store experience, mobile shopping platform provider AisleBuyer has launched the first-ever virtual assistant and mobile self-checkout system.

Online activity will influence in-store shopping this holiday season, as social networks and mobile applications are playing a more prominent role in the shopping process. As such, retailers should seek to deliver tightly-integrated and consistent merchandise, inventory and promotional messages to customers moving between Web-based and physical storefronts, a Deloitte study suggests.

A new study by mobile ad network Millennial Media and comScore suggests that a small segment of mobile consumers prefer to shop via mobile rather than other ways. Among the 8 percent of wireless subscribers who are mobile retail users, 27 percent said they had purchased or browsed retail items only through their handsets in the last 30 days as opposed to online or in brick-and-mortar stores.