Articles by Paul A. Greenberg

Of all the e-commerce pioneers that have tried to appeal to the public, perhaps none has had such an arduous climb as luxury e-tailers After all, how much do we expect a customer who has made shopping at Saks Fifth Avenue in New York City a part of his or her regular routine to transfer the experience online? Much of the joy of luxury shopping has ...

Of all the e-commerce pioneers that have tried to appeal to the public, perhaps none has had such an arduous climb as luxury e-tailers After all, how much do we expect a customer who has made shopping at Saks Fifth Avenue in New York City a part of his or her regular routine to transfer the experience online? Much of the joy of luxury shopping has ...

Of all the e-commerce pioneers that have tried to appeal to the public, perhaps none has had such an arduous climb as luxury e-tailers After all, how much do we expect a customer who has made shopping at Saks Fifth Avenue in New York City a part of his or her regular routine to transfer the experience online? Much of the joy of luxury shopping has ...

Okay, the ornaments are put away, the champagne inventories are depleted, and it's time to get on with it. E-commerce, hung over from a rough year-end, must pick itself up and move forward. But how? Can we get it right this time, brothers and sisters? Can we generate some profits, some goodwill and some trust in the online shopping process?...

Of all the issues surrounding e-commerce, privacy is perhaps the most hotly debated. Everyone wants to protect privacy, but no one can agree on how Resolution of the issue is going to take some work. Until people in the e-commerce world begin to grasp the concept of privacy as a social value, and understand that it involves more than merely protec...

With the grim outlook for the online sales landscape, with companies shifting strategies to accommodate the downturn, e-tailers should be doing everything possible to court... well, me Unfortunately, even though we're in a new economy, complete with new media, American men are being treated as if they're all Fred Flintstone. Many Web sites for men...

When asked recently if he knows what women want, matinee idol Mel Gibson, star of the new motion picture "What Women Want," said simply, "I don't have a clue." If only the e-commerce powers that be were so self aware.Somehow, over the past couple of years, there evolved an assumption that women wanted exclusivity at Web sites -- portals designed on...

Weren't we all supposed to be paying our bills with a simple point and click by now? Weren't the bricks and mortar of the traditional banking world supposed to fade away, like the rotary phone and the television knob?What happened to all those optimistic techno-prognosticators who told us that an inordinate number of Americans would be banking online by 2001?...

On my father's 80th birthday, he announced that he felt he had outlived himself "I don't know a dot-com from an intercom," he said. "The whole computer thing has just left me in the dust."

Less than two weeks after shelving an intended expansion into Japan, Priceline.com (Nasdaq: PCLN) said Monday it has canceled plans to launch its name-your-price e-tail service through a subsidiary in Australia and New Zealand. Myprice Pty. Ltd., an Australia-based company set up by Priceline in March, had hoped to begin its airline and hotel room...

As America prepares once again to celebrate a new year, all the usual national rituals are getting ready to make the rounds. Those with ever-expanding waistlines will go on diets, sinners will make resolutions to behave, and oh yes... e-commerce stalwarts of all ideologies will renew the fight on whether online sales should be taxed The Internet Ta...

The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) confirmed Wednesday that it is investigating a case involving the alleged online exposure of up to 55,000 credit card numbers as a result of hacking into the Web site of Los Angeles-based merchant processing firm Creditcards.com "The FBI is looking into the matter, but it's considered an ongoing invest...

State investigators in New Jersey have subpoenaed records from Toysrus.com as part of an ongoing investigation into the online toy store's privacy practices, the Associated Pressreported Monday. The Paramus, New Jersey-based brick-and-click toy retailer confirmed that investigators from the New Jersey Division of Consumer Affairs have sought compa...

Despite widespread concerns over potential price-fixing and other antitrust issues, controversial travel Web site Orbitz.com received its first U.S. goverment endorsement Thursday from a Department of Transportation (DOT) official While speaking at the U.S. Senate Commerce Committee's hearing on Internet issues in the aviation industry, DOT Inspect...

Just four months after former General Motors executive Roy Roberts unveiled M-Xchange.com, a business-to-business (B2B) trade exchange focusing on minority businesses, the venture has shut down The exchange was heralded as the first major electronic commerce initiative of its kind, and publicly supported by the Reverend Jesse Jackson, who said that...

After meeting in Brussels with European Commission officials on Wednesday, U.S. Undersecretary of Commerce Robert LaRussa said that e-commerce issues related to Internet taxation and data protection should be the subject of ongoing international dialogue LaRussa also suggested that the "digital divide" issues in Europe and the U.S. are common enoug...

Novelist Stephen King, already a trailblazer in electronic publishing, will begin a revolutionary online experiment Monday when he sells the first installment of his new novel using the "honor system." Consumers who download the beginning of "The Plant" on King's Web site will be asked to send a check or money order for one dollar (US$). The second...

America Online and Citigroup Inc. have announced a new multi-year alliance that will enable AOL's 23 million subscribers to pay their bills online The Dulles, Virginia-based AOL will make Citigroup's payment services available through all of its channels, including AOL.com, CompuServe, Digital City, Netscape Netcenter and AOLTV. Users will be able ...

Undaunted by the criticism and controversy surrounding Napster, the Internet music-sharing company they founded, Bill Bales and Adrian Scott have announced the impending launch of AppleSoup, a venture that will bring Hollywood into the age of file-swapping While necessarily tight-lipped about the exact nature of the content to be offered through th...

Online advertising campaigns result in significantly more traffic to e-tail Web sites and attract attentive visitors who are likely to linger, according to new research by Media Metrix (Nasdaq: MMXI) division AdRelevance The five-month study, conducted from January to May, is likely to be good news for e-commerce companies looking for the appropria...