Business

MSN has struck a marketing and e-commerce deal with the Volvo division at Ford Motor Company that will include the pre-sale of a number of 2003 model-year vehicles on the portal. The deal includes a 15-month-long promotion campaign that will culminate with the launch of Volvo's first sports utili...

Few segments of e-commerce have been more over-hyped, and more disappointing, than mobile commerce. Yankee Group mobile analyst Adam Zawel told the E-Commerce Times that companies have failed to convince consumers of the worth of m-commerce. "There needs to be a reason to make a purchase using yo...

More than 50 million Americans took to the Web to shop during Thanksgiving week, with brick-and-click retailers continuing to gain market share, research firm Jupiter Media Metrix said in a new report. The 50.2 million online shoppers represented a 43 percent increase over the same week last year...

According to published reports, President George W. Bush on Wednesday signed into law a bill that renews the ban on key taxes related to the Internet and e-commerce. Bush reportedly said that the legislation would promote growth of the Internet, and that "holiday shoppers will not be burdened by ...

Shares of Internet marketplace firm FreeMarkets rose nearly 30 percent in early trading Thursday after the company, a pioneer in online reverse auctions, said that fourth-quarter business is proving stronger than expected and that results will be better than previously thought.

U.S. e-commerce spending rose in the third quarter compared to the same period last year -- much more so when online travel was factored in -- according to two new reports. The U.S Department of Commerce said Q3 spending was US$7.5 billion, up 8 percent from the same period in 2000, while Nielsen...

Efforts to develop viable alternative electronic payment systems resemble Wright Brothers-era attempts to build a functioning airplane. Somehow, someway, e-commerce is determined to get a new electronic payment system off the ground. So despite infrequent success, the new ideas keep coming. And p...

While Internet use in Central and Eastern Europe is growing fast, the required technology remains too expensive for most consumers, posing "formidable barriers" to e-commerce, according to a report released by the Yankee Group. Yankee associate consultant Graham Finnie told the E-Commerce Times t...

The next phase of e-commerce may cast the World Wide Web in a backup role. Often mistakenly equated to the Internet, the Web's shortcomings as a commerce medium have analysts forecasting a new era of Internet commerce. "[The Web] will be augmented and changed, not obsolete," Jupiter Media Metrix ...

Shaking off fears of continued economic malaise, roughly 37 percent of online consumers are expressing confidence that the holiday shopping season will be a strong one and plan to spend more as a result, according to a study released by the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) and Harris Interactive. "W...

Before new car buyers go out to kick the tires at their local car dealer, nearly two-thirds of them first research auto makes, models and prices on the Internet, according to a report by J.D. Power & Associates. "The Internet provides automotive shoppers with information of real value that no...

When Furniture.com folded one year ago, many saw the end of online retailing for furniture. And six months earlier, when Boo.com became the first truly high-profile example of the e-commerce shakeout, serious questions were raised about whether consumers would ever buy clothes online in significa...

After much speculation over how the economy and the terrorist attacks might affect e-commerce, hopes were raised for a robust online holiday when Web shoppers started buying in volume from the dominant Web sites. Both Yahoo! and Amazon.com reported that online sales over the Thanksgiving weekend ...

Online shopping traffic surged more than 20 percent the day after Thanksgiving, but fell short of last year's busiest shopping day, according to a report from Nielsen//NetRatings. "For e-tailers, the Thanksgiving holiday week is critical to getting holiday shopping on track," said Sean Kaldor, vi...

As Web merchants head into the holiday season, e-tail marketers are looking at a whole bunch of skittish and penny-pinching consumers -- and trying to figure out how to get them to purchase gifts online. "To combat sluggish consumer spending, online retailers will be forced to come up with innova...