Business

Web users do not get loaded down with packages when they go from site to site, but they do lug some baggage in the form of passwords. Commerce and content sites increasingly ask visitors to log in with a password, taxing the memories of those who frequent multiple sites. "One of the biggest hindr...

Looking to drum up new sources of online advertising revenue, powerhouse portal Yahoo! announced Monday that it has stuck a deal with Arnold MPG to develop new Internet marketing campaigns for the media buying and planning agency's clients. As part of the deal, Arnold MPG has agreed to purchase m...

A California bankrutpcy court has cleared the way for online grocer Webvan to liquidate its remaining assets, a process that should bring closure to the high-profile dot-com failure. As expected, however, holders of Webvan stock will receive no compensation under the liquidation plan. "The compan...

While there is no single "gold standard" for online design, experts say there are a number of high-quality Web sites that manage to approach that ideal by excelling in the areas of functionality, style and ease of use. Few sites manage to succeed in all three areas, analysts told the E-Commerce T...

E-tailers are now faced not only with the enormous challenge of reaching and sustaining profits, but the even more difficult challenge of achieving profitability in a market that has passed the initial phase of spectacular growth and is a virtual melting pot of different target groups. "It's beco...

In yet another sign that the dot-com shakeout is not over, venerable tech research firm Forrester Research said it is cutting more than 20 percent of its workforce. "Last year was a challenging one for most companies, and Forrester was no exception," Forrester chairman and CEO George F. Colony sa...

Industry analysts say retailers can generate increased revenues from their Web operations without cannibalizing the sales that would have been made in their offline stores and without having to make huge new investments. E-tailers that do a better job of integrating all of their sales channels --...

Further expanding its reach, this time into the employee benefits field, Yahoo! said it would develop personalized Web portals for the 16 million customers of health care and retirement benefits giant Cigna. Yahoo's business services unit, known as Yahoo! Enterprise Solutions, will develop a cust...

Upping the e-commerce stakes in the competitive fast-food business, pizza chain Papa John's said that it is making online ordering available at all its free-standing restaurants across the United States. Papa John's said it is the first pizza chain in the U.S. to offer online ordering throughout ...

We may have seen the worst of e-tailing attrition in the last two years, but we have not seen the last of it. Surviving online retailers still have substantial work to do in order to reach the end of 2002 without closing up shop. "The shakeout is not over," Gartner Group research director Geri Sp...

AOL Time Warner lowered its earnings forecast for the quarter just ended and issued a bleak outlook for the current year. Results will include a first-quarter charge of up to US$60 billion to cover the declining value of Internet stocks since the media giant was formed last year. AOL said the one...

Amid all the bumps in the road for e-commerce in 2001, few sectors were shaken as hard as companies in the online grocery market. Even so, analysts see Internet grocers staging a comeback for a number of reasons. "Online grocery sales will grow much faster than brick-and-mortar stores' sales, eve...

Online shopping traffic during the 2001 holiday season rose 50 percent over 2000 levels, with more than 50 million unique visitors each week, according to a report by Jupiter Media Metrix. "We've been waiting for the inevitable dominance of the traditional retailers over their pure-play counterpa...

Travelocity has lowered its outlook for fourth-quarter revenue, saying airline ticket sales in December were slower than expected. The company said quarterly revenue will total about US$68 million, about 9 percent below previous guidance -- but pro forma earnings will remain within the previously...

E-commerce sites that promote a sense of community among visitors by soliciting feedback and other content have a better chance at success, according to a new report by McKinsey & Co. The study, which McKinsey prepared along with Jupiter Media Metrix, found that such features as chat rooms, b...