Mobile Commerce Insider Week in Review: Apple Pay & Friends

With Halloween now on hand, and the first weekend in November set to arrive, it's not surprising that mobile commerce is getting just a bit closer look than normal these days. The holiday shopping season is firing up in earnest, and mobile commerce is set to play a big part in that. Playing a big part in mobile commerce this week, meanwhile, was Apple (News - Alert) Pay. So with a weekend afoot, let's take a look back at the week that was and get a better handle on next week with our Week in Review coverage!

First we had a look at how Apple Pay was dominating the world of mobile payments. While it was far from the only horse in the race, it was coming on very strong right out of the gate, adding over one million cards to its roster in just the first 72 hours of operation. Apple CEO Tim Cook offered up some further commentary on the release, as well as on other releases from Apple, noting that, though there was some resistance to Apple Pay, it was resistance that was likely to be addressed in the near term.

Next we discovered that the resistance to Apple Pay may not have been as minor a skirmish as Apple's Tim Cook thought it was. A group of retailers known as the Merchant Customer Exchange (MCX) have reportedly been at work on a similar tool to Apple Pay, and are thus working to keep Apple Pay out of the stores whose parent companies comprise the MCX. Some retailers are reportedly going so far as to shut down support for Near Field Communications (NFC) to cut off Apple Pay.

Cantaloupe Systems came in with the next bit of news, as its line of vending machines, thanks to support from On Track Innovations, are now capable of accepting Apple Pay as a means of payment. Thanks to the combination of On Track's Saturn 6500 contactless readers and Cantaloupe's Seed Cashless systems, the vending machines in question—reportedly everything from certain parking meters to supermarket self-checkout systems—will be able to accept the new payment mechanism.

Then we had a look at the holiday shopping season, now rapidly approaching, and got an idea of how mobile commerce would be factoring into the picture this year. A report from PunchTab showed off a series of potential drivers of holiday shopping, from the overall spending picture—77 percent of respondents looked to either spend more than, or the same amount as, last year—to finding out the best way to figure out just what the intended gift recipient wanted.

Finally, we saw how retailers were turning to visual mobile search tools as a means to drive sales and further business. Several retailers like Macy's and Zalando's had turned to the technology, which is said to be increasingly valuable as more services like Pinterest and Instagram take hold and are themselves more frequently turned to. Customers will be able to, essentially,  be able to show a system a picture of something and find the closest fits available in the store's inventory.

That was the week that was in mobile commerce, and it was clear there was plenty going on in the field. Though Apple Pay represented much of the news, there was plenty else afoot, and our global online community was right in the thick of it bringing back all the latest from the field. So be sure to join us next week for all the latest in news, and every weekend as well for our Week in Review coverage!