The team behind Plink – an online-to-offline rewards program that motivates members to make offline purchases – has launched a mobile app for iOS devices.

The Plink mobile app lets Plink members manage and track their account on-the-go and even link the credit or debit card of their choice and begin earning rewards by purchasing offline at more than 50,000 restaurant, retailer and travel provider locations nationwide.

Among the participating businesses are Arby’s, Burger King, Dunkin’ Donuts, Outback Steakhouse, Regal Cinemas and Taco Bell.

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Grocery shopping and mobile payments may one day go together like peanut butter and jelly. How do we know? According to the latest industry data, when it’s time to buy peanut butter and jelly at the grocery store, consumers want to do so through a mobile payment option at the point of sale.

Symphony EYC has just published the findings of a new survey that presents a compelling case for consumer demand for mobile payment options and related personalization services everywhere from restaurants to grocery stores.

“While American and European grocery shoppers differ in how they are interacting with their grocers, the majority would like to enhance their in-store shopping experience with mobile services,” says Ellen Dixon, global SVP of marketing for Symphony EYC. “In particular, shoppers want to be able to use their mobile devices to locate specific products within the store, to compare prices with those elsewhere and to provide feedback and suggestions on grocery assortments.”

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In January 2013, TeamBuy.ca and Dealfind.com, two of Canada’s leading eCommerce companies, announced what was billed as a transformational merger that would create Canada’s largest online deals destination. The proposed partnership would become the biggest ‘daily deal’ merger in North American history.

“From a consolidation perspective, this merger gives us a rock solid foundation where one in every 10 Canadians is signed up to our service,” Ghassan Halazon, CEO of TeamBuy, said at the time. “Over the past few years, both TeamBuy and Dealfind have chosen to re-imagine the original daily deal model in very similar ways. This makes the merger a perfect fit from an operational standpoint.”

But has this perfect fit worked out perfectly so far?

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Print ads are dead? Mobile advertising and digital coupons are the future?

That may not be true at JC Penney in the wake of Ron Johnson’s dismissal as CEO.

AdAge confirms today that JC Penney will reverse Johnson’s strategy of reducing discounts and put traditional coupon advertising in newspapers again.

Mr. Johnson, who was replaced by Myron Ullman on Monday, implemented a pricing strategy that eliminated almost all of the company’s discounts and promotions in favor of everyday low prices. Shoppers shunned the department store chain, and sales sank 25% last year.

Johnson’s plan, Friday’s report reiterates, led to a net loss of $985 million last year.

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While the fate of once mighty daily deal giants like Groupon remains unknown, the future remains very bright for mobile coupons.

As major retailers escalate their incorporation of mobile coupons into all facets of their marketing strategy, consumers have begun searching for coupons not only at home on their computer or mobile device, but when they’re actually shopping at bricks and mortar stores.

John Faith, senior vice president of external affairs at RetailMeNot Inc., tells Mobile Commerce Daily that “retailers have an opportunity to combat showrooming by reaching those consumers when they are engaged and ready to make a purchase.”

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NFC, mobile wallet, and mobile marketing technology provider Proxama has confirmed a new partnership this week with The Logic Group.

Together, Proxama will create a complete NFC-based services offering for retail clients.

The Logic Group, which distributes vouchers and coupons via NFC-enabled in-store smart posters, has much to gain from Proxama, which will provide the NFC technology and platform to enable fully branded incentives to be delivered to consumers’ mobile devices following a tap on an NFC tag embedded in a poster.

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According to the revealing findings of a new survey of U.S. college students, those pursuing their higher education are also overwhelmingly fond of pursuing the deals and discounts available to them through the mobile channel.

Incredibly, 90% of college students now use their mobile devices to search for deals and coupons.

Conducted by Study Breaks and Campus2Careers, the survey of 689 U.S. college students shows that 51% use their mobile device to “always” (20%) or “often” (31%) seek out deals and coupons.

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