E-Commerce

As e-commerce momentum continues to build, many retailers find themselves enjoying success beyond their expectations. With success comes growth, and with growth comes stress on a retailer's information technology underpinnings. Where small and medium-sized retailers enjoy a rich array of commercial ...

With all the press rogue Internet pharmacies have received in recent months for selling prescription drugs illegally, it's tempting to assume that there must be similar sites -- or maybe even the same ones -- trafficking in illicit drugs as well. After all, with all the anonymity the Internet provid...

China has agreed to work more closely with the U.S. to curb the flow of pirated goods, W. Ralph Basham, commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection, announced Friday. The agreement calls for China to more aggressively pursue within its own borders alleged producers of counterfeit goods that a...

In 1998, Napster took college campuses by storm and quickly ushered in an era where anyone could download any song they wanted without paying for it. The record labels were caught off guard and spent years debating the best way to respond. A flurry of lawsuits directed against consumers generated pl...

A UK-based phone maker announced a flat-rate music download service for mobile phones in key European markets Thursday, getting it into stores two weeks ahead of Apple's hotly anticipated iPhone. Omnifone launched MusicStation -- which comes with subscription music access provided by multiple major ...

Auction giant eBay has stopped buying Google AdWords in apparent retaliation for a now-canceled event meant to build support among eBay sellers for Google Checkout -- a sign of the increasing tensions between the Internet competitors. The spat reportedly began when Google last week announced it woul...

More than 12 million small and medium-sized businesses operate in the U.S., and unlike larger enterprises, few of them have the cash to pay a marketing firm to launch an online advertising campaign. In world where the Internet has become perhaps the most powerful tool that companies can use to attra...

Blockbuster is offering lower-priced plans for its Web rental service to steal business from online video rental star Netflix. The Dallas-based Blockbuster has cut prices $1 a month for customers ordering movies only online just a month after the company's CEO suggested raising prices. Industry insi...

Shareholders upset about Yahoo's lagging performance forced CEO Terry Semel to defend the company's market strategy, even as he and other company-backed officers were re-elected to the portal's board of directors. Yahoo shareholders defeated a proposal to change the way executive pay is determined, ...

In today's competitive marketplace, securing online market share and mindshare are paramount to any business. Online market share is becoming increasingly important, with more and more consumers using the Internet. In January, 747 million people worldwide -- ages 15 and over -- used the Internet, a ...

Another day, another charge that Microsoft has violated its consent decree -- or so it must seem to the software titan, which has been battling such accusations ever since the mega antitrust case against it ended in 2002. In the latest controversy, though, the company lodging the complaint is none o...

Electronics maker Toshiba lowered its sales target for high-definition DVD players and recorders based on slumping sales figures in the United States. The Tokyo-based company now expects to sell 1 million of its optical disc players in the country by the end of this year, down 44 percent from its pr...

A memo apparently written by a key antitrust enforcement official in the U.S. Justice Department is raising suspicions that the Bush Administration unduly favored Microsoft's positions. Issued by Assistant Attorney General Thomas O. Barnett, a former antitrust partner at Covington & Burlington, ...

In the last a few years, the Internet has turned commerce on its head. Suddenly, once sound retail practices, like the mass-merchandising of a handful of popular products, no longer guarantee a big financial payoff in today's retail environment. The marketplace has become so segmented by niche consu...

It may be against the law for U.S. consumers to import prescription drugs into the United States, but that isn't stopping the growth in rogue Internet pharmacies. In fact, the number of such sites is skyrocketing: The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University found a to...