Spotlight Features

On the eve of President Bush's first visit to India, people in both countries are re-examining U.S.-India relations, with special attention being paid to economic relations. One of the most important members of the current national leadership is Mr. P. Chidambaram, who is serving as India's Finance ...

Currently, marketers on the national and global scene who are sophisticated and e-commerce-savvy are positioning their brand names with the year 2010 in mind. However, very few are poised to make decent progress in less than five years, so how will they achieve their goals? If you tackle four critic...

Now that the Earth has metaphorically become a flat, digitally formatted platform for the 'Net- and e-commerce-savvy to skate on, it's time for marketing to get circular. Basically, these are the new rules: All aspects of marketing should be delivered to customers at their destination of choice; the...

Enterprises today have a number of key questions when it comes to setting up and maintaining an online presence. Some of these concerns include critical Web-related security problems; scalability; and being aware of new online challenges expected in 2006. Who better to ask about these issues than Ak...

As the dust settles on this latest season's holiday shopping data, there is yet one more issue to consider before this time next year: conversions. The recent release of the Top 40 Online Retail Satisfaction Index, a study produced by ForeSee Results and FGI Research, revealed that consumer satisfac...

Recent research suggests that satisfaction among customers of 40 top retail Web sites dropped over the holiday season. So says the Top 40 Online Retail Satisfaction Index, a study produced by ForeSee Results and FGI Research. The Index measures the top 40 retailers by revenue and provides a comparis...

The world economic landscape is rapidly changing. Assuming that you regard the European Union as one economic entity, as of this writing, there are two economic superpowers. Those two superpowers are the U.S. and the E.U., which have roughly equivalent gross domestic products. If your definition li...

Corporations are in need of quick and serious shock therapy to prod them out of the complacency of owning a few flashy Web sites. The exuberance that attended these early achievements fueled the false notion in many corporate boardrooms that their firms had become "the master players of global e-com...

What is the most important factor that will influence executive pay and hiring in the technology industry this coming year? Is it globalization? Data management? Business process improvement? No. None of the above. It's Google. Failure of a company to factor in how Google will influence its own bott...

Of all the current monetary units, the U.S. dollar is still the world's dominant currency. But, there are challenges facing the dollar. Economic forces at work today seem to be favoring the consolidation of currencies. With the creation of the Euro, 11 disparate currencies were merged into one monet...

Before the advent of the Internet, telecommuting was considered an abnormality, something done in rare circumstances by select individuals. However, when broadband connectivity became widely available, telecommuting opportunities became more common. Surprisingly, after a few years of healthy growth,...

While credit card companies research and develop new anti-fraud measurements, alternative payment solutions providers are cashing in on the demand for online security and customer choice. Alternative payment solutions are often less expensive for the merchant and can be easier to use than setting up...

'Tis the season to read about e-tailers' dreams of record-breaking profits during the holiday shopping frenzy. Meanwhile, amid anxious promotions and analyst promises, there are plenty of credit card companies with their own holiday hopes. Remember, merchants pay tiny transaction fees that add up to...

The roles of customer relations managers have been made more complex by both globalization and the virtualization of organizations. Clients initially encounter customer relations managers during the sales cycle. In some outsourcing firms, the chief executive officer is also the main client relation...

Seeking to take advantage of the many exciting online bargains this holiday shopping season? Be cautious about those e-mail promotions. Some of them contain more than deep discounts and free shipping offers -- they may contain malware. Security vendors and messaging companies alike report heightened...