Articles by Mark W. Vigoroso

Corporate matches made in heaven are rare occurrences.In many cases, merger and acquisition analysts find more fault than forte in company unions Opponents of the much-hyped merger between Hewlett-Packard and Compaq, for example, deride the deal as an exercise in futility.Similarly, some industry watchers puzzle at theviability of Ameritrade's US$1...

Contrary to what Microsoft's .NET spindoctors would have users believe, the software powerhouseis not likely to dominate e-commerce the way it now rulesthe desktop. ".NET will not radically change Microsoft's positionwithin e-commerce," Giga Information Group analyst Andrew Bartels told the E-Commerce Times. "It will not be a breakthrough."

In most cases, small e-tailers and other e-businessesmust climb big mountains to reach their goals For example, the increasingly cluttered Internet sales channeldemands unique and aptly delivered products andservices from its sellers, according to analysts....

Recent history has shown that there are no sure thingsin e-tailing. And with eyes looking to the future,analysts are hesitant to hail even today's strongestcompanies as sure long-term victors Indeed, in some of the most heated e-commercerivalries, clear winners still have not emerged....

I shudder to think of a world without Yahoo. But thecompany's recent spate of new revenue tacticsreeks of desperation As I pen my last column for this publication, I findmyself entertaining the previously unthinkable notionthat the grandfather of the Internet is mortal andcould pass away....

Online auctioneer eBay (Nasdaq: EBAY) suffered a series of Web site outages on Sunday, including a glitch in the clothing and jewelry categories lasting more than nine hours Site visitors could not view or bid on items in theclothing and accessories category and the jewelry,gems and watches category between 10:55 a.m. and 8:07 p.m. PDT....

Why does there always have to be a catch? E*Trade's (NYSE: ET) recently announced agreement to deliverstreaming financial data and trading access throughYahoo's (Nasdaq: YHOO) instant messaging (IM)technology shows refreshing promise and optimism....

E-tailers may be the only businesses not betting theirlivelihoods on an imminent economic recovery Online consumer spending is predicted to increase this yearregardless of economic conditions, according to analysts....

By year's end, more than 600 million people worldwidewill have Internet access and collectively will spend more thanUS$1 trillion online, according to research firm IDC But according to experts, regional e-commerce penetration seems to correlate closely with affluence and education....

E-commerce service provider Digital River(Nasdaq: DRIV) said Monday that it has completed itsacquisition of assets and customer contractsrelated to Beyond.com's eStoresbusiness Beyond.com (Nasdaq: BYND) will offload those assets inexchange for approximately US$2.9 million in DigitalRiver common stock....

Even as online shoppers multiply and increasingly mirrormainstream consumer profiles, considerable pockets ofe-commerce abstainers remain. These neophytes, hampered by security orfulfillment concerns or inadequate Internetconnections, still rely on the Web only for productresearch To reach this untapped revenue source, e-tailers mustwork to simplif...

Canada experienced a spike in e-commerce activity in2001 and progressed measurably in other e-businessdisciplines as well, according to a report released Monday bythe CanadianE-Business Opportunities Roundtable The consortium's final report -- "Fast Forward 3.0:Maintaining the Momentum" -- showed Canada leadingNorth America in Internet connectivity...

"You can't be serious!" The trademark quip of tennistantrum artist John McEnroe leapt from my lips uponfirst hearing of travel Goliath Sabre's (NYSE: TSG) plan to buy outTravelocity (Nasdaq: TVLY) Already a 70 percent stakeholder in the 5-year-oldtravel site, Sabre launched its official offer ofUS$23 per remaining share on March 5th.

Driven by demanding investors and an unforgivingstock market, many e-commerce firms have clawed their way toprofitability In fact, with a growing roster of companies operatingin the black, we may be perched on the cusp of ane-commerce "golden age," according to analysts....

Small and mid-sized businesses (SMBs) --particularly those with broadband Internet access --consider Internet access and e-mail more critical toproductivity than voice connections, the Yankee Groupreported Monday Fully 70 percent of small businesses (that have 20 to 99employees) with broadband asserted that Internetaccess is "very important to the ...

Serving up stale product hurts e-tailers andcommercial Web sites at least as much as it doesrestaurateurs. Outdated product specifications, merchandisingmessages or other online content are surefirerecipes for customer alienation. But many Internetcompanies cannot afford the resources needed to constantlypurge their sites of past-due elements....

Many e-commerce firms were doomed to fail the moment their founders hatched their shaky business models.But hindsight redeems the collapses of some others In fact, a few promising online business modelsundeservedly sank with the receding technology tide orwere otherwise hampered by poor execution....

Yahoo! (Nasdaq: YHOO) on Wednesday unveiled a three-dayfire sale called The Biggest Sale inInternet History, consisting of nearly 1,000 salesand promotional offers Through March 15th, online shoppers will have accessto discounted merchandise from Yahoo! merchantpartners, including Sears (NYSE: S),Travelocity (Nasdaq: TVLY) and Hewlett-Packard(NYSE:...

Online retailer Buy.com on Tuesday introduced expanded global shipping capabilities, including atransaction service that informs internationalshoppers of total shipping costs in their localcurrency To cater to its burgeoning international customerbase, the Aliso Viejo, California-based e-tailer now also discloses additional fees that might be tacke...

Albertsons.com, the online arm of grocery giantAlbertson's (NYSE: ABS), has announced that it will expand its Web-based grocery shopping service into the San Francisco area on March 20th The addition of 180 ZIP codes in five Bay Areacounties will give Albertsons.com the largestgeographic reach of any online grocery provider, withmore than 700 ZIP c...