[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="709"] Source Business2Community[/caption]

According to this, "almost six in ten U.S. social media users will go on to make a purchase based on a friend’s social media post, with more than one quarter (28 percent) of 18-34 year-olds ‘fairly’ or ‘very likely’ to buy following social recommendations of friends."

"Data also noted that 35-44 year-olds are also greatly impacted by social media recommendations from friends, while users aged 55+ are least likely."

Source: eMarketer

According to this, global B2C e-commerce sales are expected to reach USD 1.5 trillion in 2014 driven by growth in emerging markets.

"Worldwide business-to-consumer (B2C) e-commerce sales will increase by 20.1% in 2014 to reach USD 1.5 trillion. Growth will come primarily from the rapidly expanding online and mobile user bases in emerging markets, increases in m-commerce sales, advancing shipping and payment options, and the push into new international markets by major brands."

"Results predict that in 2014, for the first time, consumers in Asia-Pacific will spend more on e-commerce purchases than those in North America, making it the largest regional e-commerce market in the world. This year alone, B2C e-commerce sales are expected to reach USD 525.2 billion in the region, compared with USD 482.6 billion in North America."

"China will take in more than six of every USD 10 spent on e-commerce in Asia-Pacific in 2014 and almost three-quarters of regional spending by 2017. The country’s e-commerce market is second only to the US, but this is not expected to last much longer. Beginning in 2016, China will overtake the US in spending. Massive gains in China, as well as in India and Indonesia, will push Asia-Pacific’s growth ahead."

"These countries, along with Argentina, Mexico, Brazil, Russia, Italy and Canada, will drive e-commerce sales growth worldwide. E-commerce markets in other countries are nearing maturity."

"The strength of sales in emerging markets is due to their large populations coming online and buying there for the first time. Asia-Pacific will claim more than 46% of digital buyers worldwide in 2014, though these users will only account for 16.9% of the region’s population. Penetration will also be low in Central and Eastern Europe, Latin America, and the Middle East and Africa. For now, North America and Western Europe are the only regions where a majority of residents will make purchases via digital channels."

According to this , an online retail marketplace HighKart.com will be the first e-commerce website in India to accept 'Bitcoin payment' for products.

"Their objective is to make purchasing easy and secure for anybody who has internet access. Today, they are present across various categories including mobiles, cameras, and computers with a lot more to come"

"The concept originated from high level of customer service and high discount Pricing using pathbreaking cryptocurrency Bitcoin. (...) With Bitcoin the number of benefits associated are many, including very low / nil transaction fees, no chargebacks and no delays for starting to accept with an unprecedented security factor. (...) There is no need to look it at as a barrier as with technology up-gradation, advancement and acceptability it will have a much larger user base than usual payment systems. We are working very hard and with great community support looking forward to make the cryptocurrency as mainstream currency and not just virtual currency. (...) We do not store Bitcoin with us and with great support from our payment processor we are able to encash it on same day, which reduces any kind of risk involved due to volatility of Bitcoin."

The Paypers published an article about contactless transactions in Poland.

"The number of contactless transactions with Visa cards reached nearly 840 million in 2013 in Poland."

"The figure makes Poland the number one country for Visa contactless payments in Europe, with the monthly number of contactless payments reaching 20 million."

"The growth in contactless payments, which stood at 11.3 %, was almost twice as large as the increase in the number of payments in general (including cash withdrawals from ATMs), which grew by 6.8 %."