Mobile Commerce

There's no other platform that can allow you to touch and engage with a product or brand like mobile can, so intrigue users to interact with your advertising campaign.

Best Buy U.K. today unveiled a site for use on smartphones as it aims to improve its multichannel presence. The retailer, which launched its first big-box store in the U.K. in April 2010, has had a disappointing first year as the electricals sector continues to struggle during the ongoing economic downturn.

The end of the year has always been an exciting time for retailers across both online and offline channels. This year, the game will change with a likely uptick in mobile usage during the holiday shopping season. In Q4 2010, we witnessed the impact mobile had on shopping behavior as 59 percent of smartphone users used their phones while holiday shopping. Some people used their smartphones to shop on the go, and even more used them to research products while in a retail store.

Verizon Wireless will be adding one more item to its accessory rack in its store — a credit card reader. The wireless carrier has formed a strategic alliance with Intuit to start selling the company’s GoPayment credit card reader in its 2,300 retail stores and other distribution channels.

What do Solo Cup, Kellogg’s, 3M, and Ecover have in common? They're the latest of more than 100 companies to use online storefronts that incorporate Facebook from Alice.com, an online marketplace for household essentials and e-commerce platform.

Elie Tahari, a luxury lifestyle brand with a growing global presence, has launched ElieTahari.com on the Demandware Commerce platform to drive the growth of the brand and deliver the Elie Tahari experience to a broader audience.

British retailers will be giving over more of their marketing budgets to mobile this year and luxury retailer Harrods is no exception. In a bid to give the brand a greater global presence, Harrods.com will be launched along with a fully transactional mobile website. Many of the store's rivals, including John Lewis and Debenhams, already have transactional mobile websites and apps.

After a successful launch this past spring, Macy's is bringing back its customized mobile barcode program, Backstage Pass. In addition to sending new promotional videos to shoppers' phones when they scan the QR codes, customers will also have the chance to win daily shopping sprees.

Office Depot has launched a national back-to-school mobile campaign that was developed by Momentum, using SpyderLynk’s 2-D mobile barcode SnapTag technology.

HSN is letting fashion-savvy consumers shop Queen Latifah’s new line by scanning a QR code featured in its static magazine ad. Consumers can download a QR code reader to shop the collection. The Queen Latifah collection is available exclusively on HSN on Aug. 27.