Business

Shopping online is a far different experience than it is offline. With few exceptions, when people shop online they are on their own. How did consumers come to accept such a double standard? Among other factors, a slump in the quality of brick-and-mortar customer service may underlie this apparen...

Despite a lengthy shakeout that has thinned the ranks of e-tailers, consumers still face a dizzying array of choices when deciding where to shop online. But the market is already starting to become better defined. Some categories -- such as online toys, where Toysrus.com has broken out of the pac...

A two-year trend of fewer early-stage companies receiving venture funding continued in the first quarter, with total private investment in startups dropping 24 percent, according to a study by the National Venture Capital Association, PricewaterhouseCoopers and Venture Economics. For the first th...

Hewlett-Packard has received a green light from a Delaware court to pursue its plans to merge with Compaq. The $18 billion deal hung in the balance while the court heard a suit brought by dissident shareholder and former HP director Walter Hewlett. But Delaware Judge William Chandler was not sway...

Credit cards remain the predominant mode of payment in e-commerce, but other online transaction methods have entered the market in recent years. According to experts, mediated payment services are particularly successful when used at online auction sites, and the clear winner in serving this mark...

According to reports, Microsoft is expected to purchase Danish enterprise software company Navision for about $1.2 billion. Navision released a statement that avoided any direct mention of the software titan but did confirm that the board is considering a deal. Such a purchase would follow up Mic...

Internet-related companies fired 824 workers in April, marking just the second time in two years that the sector's monthly job loss total has been below 1,000, according to outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas. The number of job cuts fell 47 percent from March, when 1,549 cuts were ...

A couple of years ago, money was no object when it came to e-commerce. Companies spent lavishly on technology in their rush to establish a Web presence. The economic picture has changed significantly, and companies now are much more careful when it comes to such spending. "The realization has sun...

Instant messaging (IM) can help e-commerce sites capture potential sales, but cost, service and technological hurdles must be cleared before IM can have a major impact, according to analysts. "Web sites have horrible problems with shopping cart abandonment rates. Having instant messaging, in many...

In a move that underscores the growing importance of paid search engine results, Yahoo! said it has extended its partnership with pay-for-performance search engine Overture for three more years. Nielsen//NetRatings director and senior analyst Lisa Strand told the E-Commerce Times that consumers h...

Corporate matches made in heaven are rare occurrences. In many cases, M&A analysts find more fault than forte in company unions. Opponents of the much-hyped HP-Compaq merger, for example, deride the deal as futile. Similarly, some industry watchers puzzle at the viability of Ameritrade's $1.3

Two dozen members of Congress have called on the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) to increase its scrutiny of the business practices of controversial travel company Orbitz. According to the lawmakers, airlines must agree to give "most favored nation status" to the company, funneling exclusive air...

A Senate committee is scheduled to debate a new online privacy bill that would increase consumer privacy on the Web by forcing companies to obtain permission from individuals in order to collect and share information about them. "Companies are already much better at communicating their privacy pr...

With a first-quarter net loss of $54.2 billion, one of the largest ever recorded, AOL Time Warner's earnings news drifted like a black cloud over a week that previously had seemed mostly positive for the technology and Internet industries. The company took a massive hit in advertising and commerc...

It is not an easy time for startup companies. The economy may be starting to recover, but investors are still leery about pouring money into new businesses, especially in the tech sector. In fact, the best advice for would-be entrepreneurs may be to wait until the economic climate takes a more po...