Mobile Commerce

Scanbuy's ScanLife Mobile Barcode Trend Report illustrates the continued phenomenal growth in barcode scanning. The report reflects the accelerated adoption of mobile barcode technology, including QR codes, by code publishers and end-users as well as the various changes that have developed around the use and scanning of these codes.

While all eyes in the online retail space seem to be on social networks and smartphones these days, we’re seeing an emerging trend with tablets that could be the most interesting of all.

ShopRunner is letting its fashion-savvy members shop their favorite brands and track their orders via an iPhone application. The app lets consumers receive access to deals that can be combined with free shipping.

Nokia has launched NFC Hub, an online service designed to make it easy for businesses to begin adopting near-field communication (NFC) tag reading solutions. Nokia told NFC World that over the next 18 months it will be focusing on the marketing aspects of NFC rather than the mobile payment side, as it asserts NFC tags will initially have a broader scope in the marketplace than mobile payments.

Michaels announced it's rolling out a mobile-optimized site app as well as mobile coupons with the objective of driving in-store traffic. The retailer has zeroed in on mobile initiatives as a way to reach time-pressed customers. The company is using QR codes and SMS to engage with its customers, and is now targeting smartphone users with mobile discounts.

Sephora North America announced its iPad app is now available on the App Store. The app offers a fully integrated digital beauty experience that brings diverse social feeds into one fun, magazine-like format. The Sephora app also includes up-to-the-minute beauty news and information from Sephora's Facebook and Twitter feeds, its BeautyTalk community, Beauty And The Blog website, and newly revamped YouTube Channel, providing the latest beauty trends and advice.

American Express has launched “Link, Like, Love,” a new daily-deal program and app. The best part of this new daily-deals e-commerce solution is that you don’t need to “buy” a deal to take advantage of it.

Best Buy launched the first campaign under the new partnership between mobile shopping application ShopSavvy and vertical ad network Longboard Media. The campaign is currently running with targeted and location-based feature offers, local store inventory, and branding content delivered when ShopSavvy users scan relevant products with their smartphones at Best Buy locations.

Daily-deal site LevelUp has enabled its users to pay for their purchases via mobile app. After customer payment information is entered into their LevelUp account, a customer-specific QR code is generated and that code can be displayed to pay for a LevelUp deal at any participating vendor, according to the company's blog.

Today's mobile users demand exceptional web experiences and highly satisfying, convenient, on-the-go mobile site speeds regardless of their mode of access. A new independent survey of more than 4,000 global users worldwide was conducted to understand consumers' mobile web and application expectations and experiences.