E-commerce, Retail | featured news

Senate planning vote on Internet sales tax bill

The days of tax-free online shopping could finally be numbered. The Senate is planning to vote on a bill as soon as Monday that would give states the authority to collect sales taxes on all Internet purchases, handing local governments as much as $11 billion per year in added revenue that they are legally owed — but that hasn’t been paid to them for years.

 

Google tests same-day delivery

Google Shopping Express

Google Shopping Express, which launched Thursday, is a local delivery service the company hopes will make it possible for shoppers to get the items they order online a few hours later, and at a low cost. It’s not quite, "click and hear a knock on your door with the products," but that is where Google is going. The kicker is consumers have to live in the San Francisco Bay Area to participate in the program. Google is testing the program there to figure out what same-day delivery entails, and costs, before rolling it out in other markets. For San Francisco shoppers participating in the limited-time program, same-day delivery is free.

 

Wal-Mart tests in-store lockers for online orders

Walmart

Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the world's largest retailer, says it's setting up lockers in about a dozen stores so that shoppers who order on its website can pick up their items without having to wait in line checkout line.

 

Amazon shares set record after strong quarterly profit

Amazon.com Inc shares hit a record on Tuesday after it reported better-than-expected quarterly profit, fueled by the growth of higher-margin businesses during the fiercely competitive holiday quarter.

 

Amazon Has Best Holiday Season Ever, Selling 306 Items Per Second

2012 was a good year for Amazon. Not only has the company announced that the Kindle Fire HD was the #1 best-selling, most gifted, and most wished for product on Amazon, but for the eighth consecutive year, the company ranks #1 in customer satisfaction during the holiday shopping season...

 

Amazon most satisfying website to shop: survey

Amazon

Amazon.com Inc remained the best website for shopping online while JC Penney Co Inc suffered the largest drop in customer satisfaction of any major online retailer this holiday season, according to a survey released on Thursday.

 

Cyber Monday sales up 17% to nearly $2 billion, exceeding forecast

Cyber Monday

Cyber Monday online sales beat forecasts by nearly half a billion dollars. ComScore on Monday predicted that Cyber Monday would generate $1.5 billion in online sales, but according to Adobe, the shopping day ended up raking in $1.98 billion, which was a 17% increase compared to last year.

 

Cyber Monday likely to be busiest online sales day

Black Friday is a distant memory. Small Business Saturday is long gone. Now, it's Cyber Monday's turn. Cyber Monday, coined in 2005 by a shopping trade group that noticed a spike in online sales on the Monday after Thanksgiving when people returned to their work computers, is the next in a line of days that stores are counting on to jumpstart the holiday shopping season.

 

Shunning Amazon, Booksellers Resist a Transformation

The 4-Hour Chef

Amazon prides itself on unraveling the established order. This fall, signs of Amazon-inspired disruption are everywhere. There is the slow-motion crackup of electronics showroom Best Buy. There is Amazon’s rumored entry into the wine business, which is already agitating competitors. And there is the merger of Random House and Penguin, an effort to create a mega-publisher sufficiently hefty to negotiate with the retailer on equal terms.

 

Newly-Minted Billionaire Is Spinning eBay Scraps Into Gold

Michael Rubin is lucky. And he’s also damned good. Lucky, because eBay approached him last year with a $2.4 billion offer to buy his moneylosing GSI Commerce–which provides Web design, customer service and shipping to big-brand retailers–a 51% premium over the share price. Damned, because Rubin has always played so loose and fast that he’s nearly brought on his own ruin–and stoked the wrath of shareholders. Good, because he has an uncanny eye for undervalued assets and a lifelong talent for turning them into gold.

 

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