Archive

Brick-and-click sellers dominated the online holiday season in the UK, according to a new study released this week by Nielsen//NetRatings. "Clicks-and-mortar retailers were able to start their holiday preparations and marketing earlier and with higher visibility than their pure play competitors. T...

Film fans are finding that buying their movie tickets via the Internet is an increasingly attractive option, especially when the movie is as red-hot as box office hit "Hannibal." "We sold three times as many movie tickets online [during] Hannibal's opening weekend than we had the week before," ...

Fewer customers? That's actually a good thing. Court injunctions? We see that as a confirmation of our business model. Slower growth? Really a blessing in disguise. Welcome to the world of e-commerce public relations spin. A special branch in the time-honored art of counter-intelligence, one t...

Amazon.com (Nasdaq: AMZN) was at US$14.25, down 19 cents, after Prudential Securities downgraded the stock to sell and slashed its price target to $9 from $20. Prudential analyst Mark Rowen said that "anemic growth" in the e-tailer's book/music/video segment -- the company's only profitable div...

Online shoppers in the United States spent US$28 billion in the year 2000, according to a report released Thursday by the U.S. Census Bureau. The report, prepared by research firm Jupiter Media Metrix, estimated that online purchases jumped about 62 percent over the $17.3 billion spent in 1999 a...

Alltel (NYSE: AT) was up US$1.59 at $54.70 early Thursday after the communications company announced a reorganization that includes 1,000 job cuts. The company said it will reduce its operations to three geographical regions from five, with regional bases in Cleveland, Ohio; Charlotte, North Caro...

Webvan Group will continue its fight for survival in the unforgiving online grocery business without its original driver. The company announced Wednesday that Webvan founder Louis Borders had resigned from the company's board of directors for personal reasons. Webvan, like its e-tail brethren, h...

Spurred on by the ease of Internet shopping, the online market for Valentine's Day goods and services in 2001 will have increased by more than 16 million users in North America compared to a year ago, according to a study released Tuesday by Gartner Group. Overall, Gartner said that North Ameri...

U.S. lawmakers are considering the launch of a federally funded e-commerce pilot program designed to help small and mid-sized manufacturers take their businesses online. The Electronic Commerce Enhancement Act, if passed, will require the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) to ...

Amazon.com remained the top online retailer in January with roughly 2.3 million projected buyers -- more than three times that of nearest competitor Barnesandnoble.com -- according to a report released Wednesday by market research firm PC Data. While Amazon also managed to double the number of shop...

Overstock.com, which has already carved a niche in cyberspace for its dealings in the assets of dead dot-coms, threw its hat into the online travel market Tuesday. The company said it has more than 6 million bargain airline tickets, for sale to destinations worldwide, that it obtained from an un...

GoTo.com (Nasdaq: GOTO) rose to US$11 in morning trading Wednesday, up 44 cents, after the Internet search service reported a 60 percent revenue increase for the fourth quarter ended December 31st. GoTo said it had $55 million in cash and liquid investments at the end of the quarter, and less t...

Paving a new way to trade stocks via the Internet, OnStar, a division of General Motors, said Tuesday that it will offer drivers voice-enabled online trading with Fidelity Investments starting this summer. Under the agreement, the owners of about 800,000 cars equipped with the OnStar navigatio...

Engage (Nasdaq: ENGA) was trading at US$1.47 early Wednesday, down 48 cents, even after the online advertising and marketing company said results for the second quarter ended in January will be better than previously thought. The company said it expects a loss before extraordinary items "no grea...

Free delivery. Free samples. Buy one, get one free. Free ISPs. Free prizes. Such no-charge perks of online shopping have become staples of the Internet economy, even though we all know there's no such thing as a free lunch. What made us believe we could change that axiom with a few keystrokes? ...