Archive

Before long, business-to-business (B2B) e-commerce may become a misnomer, because opportunities for online innovation and value creation reside more within multipartner collaboration than in transaction processing, analysts say. The prospect of "automating the entire purchasing process seems dim ...

Visits to online shopping sites remained strong last week, up 45 percent from a year ago and 3 percent higher than the week before, according to a report released by Jupiter Media Metrix. "This week's increase indicates that the momentum hasn't let up," said Jupiter vice president of media resear...

Homestore.com, the dominant online real estate company, said that chief financial officer Joseph Shew is leaving the company for "personal reasons." The resignation occurs as online real estate continues to struggle for stability. Gartner Group research director Mike Bell told the E-Commerce Time...

With global tensions and economic insecurity shadowing what is typically a season of generosity and cheer, the retail industry had reason to fear that this year's holiday shoppers would shy away from offline retailers, online retailers -- or both. However, e-commerce's difficult shift from a pure...

Those of us who discovered the relative ease of booking travel online were primed and ready for the debut of Orbitz this past summer. So far, Orbitz has had a difficult time living up to its original hype, and in response to a recent series of questionable business moves, many of us may choose to...

Pop quiz time. Harris Interactive reported this week that only 3 percent of consumers bother to read online privacy policies when they visit new sites. Why is that? Could it be that the policies are so poorly writtent that no one can understand them? It seems that e-tailers don't want consumers t...

As technology advances and American consumers find more ways to connect to the Internet, e-commerce will shift away from the personal computer and toward a range of devices, with different technologies being used for different purposes, according to a report issued by Gartner. E-tailers and techn...

Amazon.com said it has bought all of the assets of defunct e-tailer Egghead.com through a California bankruptcy court for US$6.1 million. Amazon submitted the winning bid for Egghead last week, Amazon spokesperson Patty Smith said. By late Tuesday, visitors to the Egghead.com Web site, which has ...

When it was the new thing, e-commerce seemed to be all about fun. Then when e-tailers began putting the emphasis on making a sale and surfers on finding value, fun went out the window. Still, not every Web merchant is ready to give up on the idea that they can put online shoppers in a buying mood...

Anyone who's ever been to Norwalk, Connecticut, knows it's a pretty good place to lie low for a while. And even though Norwalk is a quick train ride from New York City and got put on the dot-com map as the home base for Priceline.com, it's never exactly been the center of the Internet universe. A...

Automakers eager to use their no-interest financing deals to attract buyers in the face of a slowing economy helped boost online advertising in recent months, according to a new report released by Nielsen//NetRatings. "Incorporating the Web into their overall advertising strategy has allowed auto...

Online shoppers concerned about credit-card fraud can sign up for added security under a program introduced by Visa USA. The new "Verified by Visa" program works with participating banks to validate cardholder identity through the use of passwords during the online checkout process. Although Visa ...

Despite their concerns about the security of personal information given online, only 3 percent of shoppers thoroughly review Web privacy policies on a regular basis, according to a study released by Harris Interactive. To help bridge the gap, the study recommended that businesses simplify the pro...

MSN has struck a marketing and e-commerce deal with the Volvo division at Ford Motor Company that will include the pre-sale of a number of 2003 model-year vehicles on the portal. The deal includes a 15-month-long promotion campaign that will culminate with the launch of Volvo's first sports utili...

Joe Consumer may never hear of the newest but most successful e-commerce companies, because those companies are no longer marketing themselves for shares of Joe's mind. They're hard at work far below the radar, inserting value behind the scenes and getting paid for it.