Articles by Paul A. Greenberg

If we chronicle the evolution of electronic commerce via the headlines, the conventional wisdom is that online privacy is Job One If online privacy really is a top priority of legislators, company owners and watchdog organizations, that's a good thing. However, the more ink privacy consumes in legislative committee meetings, in press releases and i...

Of everything e-commerce participants have learned so far, one rather retro lesson has taken on new meaning: There is no such thing as a free lunch....

It appears there is a whole lot of window surfing going on at e-tail Web sites and not enough buying That is the conclusion to be drawn from a recent study by the NPD Group, which indicates that 84 percent of those who have purchased something online in the past six months say that while they often look at products online, they usually buy offline....

Some saw it as the greatest test of middle America's potential to shift its collective buying behavior online when Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT) and Kmart (NYSE: KM) debuted splashy Web sites. Whatever the cause, Walmart.com and BlueLight.com have not lived up to expectations. Not so unexpectedly, Kmart announced it would buy all shares of BlueLight.com th...

This could well go down in history as the summer the U.S. government finally woke up and recognized electronic commerce as something more than a passing fad As the headlines harp on with the theme of dot-com mayhem and new economy crisis, the government is quietly increasing its role in the development and promotion of online selling....

For those wondering why chief executive officer Jeff Bezos of Amazon (Nasdaq: AMZN) still has a smile on his face, this week's answer can be summed up three letters: AOL On Monday -- the same day the company announced second-quarter results bordering on dismal -- Amazon and America Online (NYSE: AOL) revealed a new agreement in which the giant Inte...

Will we ever understand the Web shopper? Or is it possible that e-tailers, pundits and analysts have over-complicated the elusive online buyer? I say elusive because so far, the majority of Americans -- indeed the majority of computer users -- have not jumped on the e-commerce bandwagon....

In the world of electronic commerce I may have the best job possible After all, while company owners walk the tenuous New Economy tightrope, with their employees never sure about tomorrow, what I do is far less stressful. My job is to keep my eyes and ears open and try to put some perspective on Web merchandising and online transactions. (You'll no...

Reports of security glitches and inadvertent revelations of user identities on Web sites no longer carry the shock value they once did That's because they have materialized time after time, causing consumers to become a bit more numb with each incident. By now it is almost de rigeur to hear of hundreds of innocent computer users having their person...

In most parts of the country, it was a news item that was easy to miss, but it was front page news in New Orleans, Louisiana when Lawrence E. Williams became the first person tried under the 1998 federal identity fraud statute. In all, Williams, 22, was charged with 14 counts of identity fraud. When it became clear that he was destined for federal...

Even when a dot-com's departure is less than momentous in the eyes of the general public, the exit can signal a change in direction for electronic commerce Take, for example, the case of Bank One, which announced last week that it is going to integrate its pure-play Internet bank Wingspan into its other Internet initiatives. When the decision was a...

Europe quietly took a giant step forward last week, moving a bit closer to the goal of letting consumers shop online without borders. In a reversal of its previous stance, the European Commission announced that it is softening its position on who has the legal authority to govern international e-commerce disputes The move has to do with pre-legisla...

If the first era of e-commerce was all about survival of the fittest, with all participants operating independently and competing for market share, the new era of online selling may have more to do with collaboration For a number of reasons, it is time for e-tailers, click-and-mortar entities and related professional associations to join forces to ...

E-commerce industry insiders and pundits are acting out their own version of the reality TV show "Survivor," wondering aloud which dot-com is going to be the next player kicked off the Net. Some companies are obvious candidates for banishment, while others, such as those in the online pharmacy industry, stand poised at the edge of the cliff, ready...

If it feels as if the summer is already racing by, consider how the legislators on Capitol Hill feel. October is just around the corner, and that means somebody has to do something about Internet taxes October is the month the current moratorium on Internet taxation expires. Unlike so many other issues our legislators contemplate, the debate over N...

We all knew the century had officially turned in my town when the local race track started accepting bets via the Internet In New Orleans, Louisiana, betting on the ponies is as much a part of some people's days as going to work. So the idea of getting lucky with a mouse click makes our heads swim.

Undaunted by consistent reports of hackers, consumer data being compromised online, and technological loopholes, my credit-card numbers are all over the Internet I shop regularly at the Web sites of a number of small merchants, as well as those of mega-stores. Clothes, books, luxury gifts -- I've bought them all, and with various credit cards.

Recently I saw the inside of my local bank for the first time in years. The first thing I noticed was a long counter with individual booths containing PCs. A sign overhead beseeched me to "Try Online Banking First."

This year, for the first time, doomsayers are not predicting that the holiday season will be make-or-break time for the entire e-commerce industry Still, reaching that plateau does not come without some unsolved problems. The two major hurdles that have yet to be overcome -- shipping and returns -- could spell trouble.

Somewhere in the zone between idea and execution, e-commerce suffers from a case of diminished returns Take online bill payment, for example....