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Canada experienced a spike in e-commerce activity in 2001 and progressed measurably in other e-business disciplines as well, according to a new report, which showed Canada leading North America in Internet connectivity. But Canadian consumers continue to purchase online much less readily than do Am...

Looking to accomplish on its own what it once hoped to do by acquiring HotJobs, Monster.com has launched its first local job site aimed at hourly workers. The non-exempt marketplace "makes up more than 70 percent of the U.S. labor market and has a turnover rate four times higher than that of the ...

Small-business entrepreneurs looking to make a splash on the Web need not drown in massive site construction costs. According to experts, if site builders are willing to start out with a no-frills approach, they can keep costs below US$1,000. "Your best bet is to pick those sites and products tha...

What do Girl Scout cookies, snow blower parts and a US$2 million waterfront home have in common? Recently, all have been the focus of flailing attempts at e-mail-based e-commerce. I was directly involved in one of these e-commerce experiments and, alas, it wasn't the $2 million house. The lesson ...

While Homestore.com tries to move on from its accounting woes, which led to the restatement of millions of dollars worth of income over a two-year period, at least one of its online partners is now sharing the company's pain. L90 Inc., an online marketing firm, was slapped with a lawsuit Thursday...

In its infancy, e-commerce disappointed merchants and investors who staked millions on the notion that it would somehow change the world forever. But e-commerce has grown up, and experts say it is making solid contributions to society. "There was so much negative hype in 2001 about the Net that e...

Yahoo! is reporting that its sales rose 25 percent during a three-day discount promotion last week. But GartnerG2 research director David Schehr told the E-Commerce Times that the true impact of the promotion remains unclear. "It's tough to judge how big a bump it is when all they'll talk about i...

"You can't be serious!" The trademark quip of tennis tantrum artist John McEnroe leapt from my lips upon first hearing of travel Goliath Sabre's plan to buy out Travelocity. What Sabre may not realize is that its imperialistic move could backfire. As a privately run cog in the massive Sabre machi...

Under fire from privacy advocates, EBay has changed a new privacy policy that initially was said to have been the last word on EBay's practices, despite what the company might say on other parts of its site. "EBay's proposed change was tantamount to saying that they couldn't keep their message cons...

Nine months after the launch of controversial, airline-backed travel site Orbitz, the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) is seeking more information in an ongoing probe of the company's practices. "All along we've maintained that carriers were going to provide fares to Orbitz [that] they wer...

Driven by demanding investors and an unforgiving stock market, many e-commerce firms have clawed their way to profitability. In fact, with a growing roster of companies operating in the black, we may be perched on the cusp of an e-commerce "golden age," according to analysts. "I would not be surpr...

After much posturing, Travelocity agreed to be purchased by Sabre Holdings after Sabre upped its buyout offer to US$28 per share, increasing the value of the deal to about $420 million. Sabre also said it will settle all shareholder lawsuits filed in an effort to squelch the deal. "We're still no...

European e-commerce is poised to grow by nearly 50 percent this year, according to a report from GartnerG2, but Gartner warned that some retailers are rushing to implement broad multichannel strategies that may not work in the long run. "For example, digital TV is not always the ideal medium for ...

In general, the items that sell best online can be peddled in large quantities and at low prices, and can be described to consumers with simple precision and accuracy. And with the right strategy and context, analysts said, there is an online market waiting to be exploited for even the most munda...

Small and mid-sized businesses -- particularly those with broadband Internet access -- consider Internet access and e-mail more critical to productivity than voice connections, the Yankee Group has reported. Key Internet tasks for small businesses include conducting competitive analysis and connec...