E-Commerce

Shopping continues to shift to the Web. With all the growth in e-commerce, retailers are focusing their efforts on better online merchandising, cross-channel integration and personalization to fine tune their sites for better conversion rates. In addition, many of the best e-commerce retailers are t...

I just gave a speech on the changing opportunities in the wireless and telecom industry. The response was terrific, but I could tell not everyone understood the changes occurring in the industry and the unbridled opportunity that is starting to appear. I updated the group on the growing opportunitie...

Twitter Cofounder Evan Williams has stepped aside as CEO and placed Dick Costolo, the man he hired as chief operating officer, in charge of the company as it works to build its business model. "I am most satisfied while pushing product direction," Williams wrote in a blog post announcing his decisio...

E-commerce security has never been more top-of-mind for retailers. Security breaches like the one that happened at TJX in 2007 reverberate not only through the media, but also -- more importantly -- through consumer confidence, for years. Even with an aggressive clean-up strategy, an attack can crea...

Congress is unlikely to pass legislation regulating the activities of broadband Internet service providers this year. And it's not clear when -- or if -- such rules will be enacted. Democratic California Congressman Henry Waxman, chairman of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, pulled a bill...

AOL went on a buying binge this week. It made headlines with the purchase of the TechCrunch blog network, but on the same day it also bought two promising startups -- Thing Labs and 5min Media. Thing Labs makes Brizzly, a Web-based program that allows people to manage their social networking on Twit...

Mobile operators are facing a revenue dilemma these days. The numbers may vary according to which research you read, but the conclusion is the same: Data revenues are not even close to meeting escalating usage patterns. By way of example, AT&T estimates that mobile data traffic grew 50-fold betw...

Several years ago, I discovered Nirvana: the ability to point and click on a website and have pretty much anything I wanted shipped right to my door, sometimes at a cheaper price than at any store in my city. What bliss! Ah -- in the good ole days of online shopping, we were so happily ignorant. Bac...

Blockbuster, the company that once reigned atop the video rental business, announced Thursday that it has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. This may be its last chance at surviving in an industry in which consumers increasingly are gravitating toward services that enable instant access to ...

Microsoft has launched a program to reward users of its search engine, Bing. The program awards points for searches conducted with the engine. The points can be later traded for products, services or charitable contributions. Microsoft has been experimenting with this kind of offering for several ye...

Netflix said Wednesday that it has launched its video-streaming-only service for Canada, a plan it first publicly revealed last July. At about $7.76 a month for unlimited streaming, the service is more than a dollar cheaper than the most inexpensive U.S. unlimited streaming option, which goes for U...

The Texas Comptroller's Office recently made revisions to its sales tax rules that could ensnare many companies that merely use computer servers located in Texas, requiring them to collect the state's sales tax on sales to customers there. In 1992, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that a state can only ...

IBM has made a $1.7 billion offer to acquire Netezza, a data warehouse specialist that allows users to analyze huge amounts of data very quickly by integrating hardware with analytics applications. Since IBM announced its offer, Netezza's stock price has risen past the $27 per share price it reflec...

Today's consumers are more connected than ever with mobile devices in hand. Mobile solves many problems, with its high reach and in-the-moment communication. A well-designed app can place flashy content in the hands of the consumer. SMS provides the consumer with valuable tidbits of information. SMS...

Consumers will spend $237 billion on online purchases in the United States alone in 2010, Javelin Strategy & Research predicts. That's almost 15 percent more than in 2009. Online retail is also growing globally. MasterCard announced a global agreement with cross-border e-commerce shopping firm B...