E-commerce, Retailer | featured news

Rumor of this buyout has been zipping over the web all weekend, but Amazon has finally confirmed: It's acquired Quidsi, the parent company of online retail sites Diapers.com, Soap.com, and BeautyBar.com. The deal is remarkably similar to the one it did last year with Zappos, purveyors of footwear to the Internet-minded.

The numbers are in. And they look good.

Experian Hitwise just released its Cyber Monday stats, with Amazon reportedly topping the list as the most visited retail website yesterday, seeing a 44% increase in visits compared to 2008. Amazon received 15.53% of the visits among the top 500 online retail sites.

Hitwise reports that among the top 500 retail websites, the percentage of U.S.

Retail Web sites kept amping up the deals Monday, the first day after Thanksgiving weekend's strong online sales, to try to maintain the momentum.

Online retailers hope the convenience of the Web, plus discounts and deals, spur still-nervous shoppers to spend more online this holiday season - even as traditional retailers brace for mediocre sales....

For now, it’s a battle of discounts, but Wal-Mart’s long-term goal appears to be stopping Amazon from taking away its business.

Amazon lowered its prices on hot upcoming book releases to $9, once again matching Walmart.com in an escalating price war.

Amazon.com is shutting distribution centers in three states, and will lay off or transfer to other nearby facilities about 210 employees.

Amazon.com Inc., the world’s largest online retailer, topped sales and profit estimates yesterday after its biggest holiday season ever, outpacing EBay Inc. and its e-commerce rivals.