Ecommerce News

Online Holiday Shopping Declines 3% (December 31, 2008): comScore is reporting that holiday season retail ecommerce spending for the holiday shopping season, beginning November 1 and ending December 23, shows a 3 percent versus the corresponding shopping days in 2007.

Cyber Monday Sales Up 15% (December 5, 2008): PC Magazine reports that data from ComScore shows a 15% improvement in Cyber Monday sales for 2008 when compared to 2007.

Cyber Monday Disaster For Yahoo (November 27, 2007): On Cyber Monday many of Yahoo's merchants were unable to proces orders when Yahoo's shopping check-out service stopped working.

Amazon Launches Flexible Payment System (August 5, 2007): Amazon has launched its Flexible Payment System (FPS).

Ebay Acquires StumbleUpon in $75 Million Deal (May 31, 2007): eBay has acquired the popular StumbleUpon social bookmarking toolbar.

Increase in Merchants Use of Alternative Payments Expected (August 1, 2006): Internet Retailer has an article about how ecommerce companies are facing rising costs from using credit cards.

Google Launches Online Payments Service Called Google Checkout (July 17, 2006): Google has announced the launch of its new online payments service called Google Checkout that will compete with services like eBay's Pay Pal.

RapLeaf to Offer Third-Party Feedback Service (April 27, 2006): TechCrunch reports on a new service called RapLeaf that will allow people to leave feedback to anyone that they have made a transaction with.

iKarma Offers Third-Party Customer Feedback (March 8, 2006): There are lots of websites launching these days.

Music Download Records Smashed (January 11, 2006): 20 million music downloads were downloaded between Christmas and New Years.

Will Phone Calls Eventually Be Free? (October 26, 2005): Reuters reports that Meg Whitman, the CEO of eBay, said that the cost of phone calls will trend toward zero over the next few years.

AlwaysOn Tackles Multiple Login Annoyance (August 2, 2005): Wired reports that the AlwaysOn Network is planning to launch the GoingOn network this fall which will offer a solution to the annoying multiple login problem.

Cookie Rejection Rates Climbing (May 25, 2005): EcommerceTimes.

Tech Recovery Coming to an End? (April 4, 2005): The tech recovery, underway since 2001, may be slowing, stalling or ending.

Web Search Stocks Downgraded (February 24, 2005): The stocks of the top search engines fell on Thursday aftering receiving downgrades from a RBC Capital Markets analyst.

Amazon Offers Virtual Yellow Pages (January 27, 2005): Amazon has launched a new yellow pages type of feature for their A9 search engine that allows users to virtually walk streets and see photos and video of businesses.

Online Advertising Expected to Soar (July 28, 2004): There is finally some good news for web publishers as online advertising is expected to soar in the next several years.

Sins of Ecommerce Web Design (October 3, 2003): Most ecommerce websites avoid the web errors of the early days like behemoth graphics and ugly color schemes, but there are still mistakes being made.

Unfortunately Spam Can Generate Sales (August 20, 2003): Spam is awful and annoying, but it apparently does generate sales even for the most misleading of spammers.

Online Begging Stops Working (June 10, 2003): People have soured on online begging and donations to online beggers have dried up.