Business

Prices for consumer collectibles on leading person-to-person auction site eBay have dropped an average of 25 percent in the past year, while at the same time the number of listings has increased, according to a report released Thursday by AuctionBytes.com. AuctionBytes President David Steiner to...

Despite speculation that Internet behemoth Amazon will eventually open real world stores as a way to boost profits and make product returns easier, a senior executive with the company said Tuesday that Amazon intends to stay in cyberspace for the time being. "One of the questions we keep heari...

The share of the "addressable" online market that eBay owns is poised to triple in the next four years, the auction leader's chief financial officer said Tuesday. "That's a really ambitious goal," Morningstar.com analyst David Kathman told the E-Commerce Times. "In order to meet it, eBay would ...

Buoyed by a bounce in its current economic climate, Korean business-to-consumer (B2C) e-commerce will remain "robust" in the coming years, according to a report released Wednesday by the Yankee Group. As South Korea continues to rebound from the 1997 economic crisis, the study said a number of fact...

Following in the paths of rivals Travelocity and Expedia, another online travel leader has beaten the street. Priceline announced Tuesday a pro forma net loss for the first quarter 2001 of US$6.2 million, or 3 cents per share, beating analyst estimates of a loss of 5 to 7 cents per share. Pricel...

Although some e-tailers argue that imposing a sales tax on Internet purchases would cause online sales to plummet, a study released Tuesday by Jupiter Media Metrix concluded that most consumers are indifferent to the presence of an online sales tax. Jupiter's survey of consumers who had abandon...

In the days when everyone believed that the future of the economy lay in cyberspace, many dot-coms unwittingly built financial houses of cards by investing substantially in their online brethren. Taking equity stakes in other dot-coms was "the cool thing to do a year ago, when everyone was livin...

Eastman Kodak said Monday it will buy Ofoto, an online photography service that has been an Amazon.com partner since last fall. Kodak spokesman Gerard Meuchner told the E-Commerce Times that Ofoto's connection with Amazon would remain intact. Amazon linked with Ofoto in October and later built...

Flying high on strong sales, online travel site Expedia.com said Monday that it posted its first-ever profitable quarter more than a year ahead of schedule and projected that income for the next fiscal year would beat Wall Street estimates. "I think it's impressive what Travelocity and Expedia ha...

Microsoft announced Monday that it has reached an agreement to purchase privately held e-business software company NCompass Labs, reportedly for US$36 million. NCompass Labs' flagship product is NCompass Resolution, a software package that Microsoft said allows companies to deploy personalized ...

Dot-com companies claimed more executive departures than any other business sector in April, according to a study released Monday by Chicago, Illinois-based outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas (CGC). John Challenger, chief executive officer of CGC, told the E-Commerce Times that s...

The last time Amazon.com linked arms with a brick-and-mortar retailer struggling for an online foothold, the results were impressive. Amazon partnered with Toysrus.com and helped force onetime category thoroughbred eToys to drop out of the race for good. So now that Amazon has agreed to work w...

Fewer than 40 percent of companies respond to customer service e-mails within six hours and nearly one-fourth never reply at all, according to a report released Monday by Jupiter Media Metrix. The bottom line, Jupiter said, is that customers who make inquiries by e-mail often tire of waiting fo...

A channel surf across the e-business landscape reveals mixed signals when it comes to the success of TV network-backed Web sites. "Part of it is they don't sell; that's not what they do," IDC analyst Jonathan Gaw told the E-Commerce Times. "They are content-focused because that's their strong sui...

After reluctantly dipping its toe in the online shopping world with a narrow test market, retailer Home Depot said Thursday that it will expand its Internet presence to 48 states, but only on a limited basis. While customers in three test cities now have the ability to buy all of Home Depot's 5...