E-Commerce

Pinterest soon will be more than a site for inspiration, with users able to buy certain items through a "buy button," according to a person with knowledge of the situation. The online-scrapbooking company is working on an e-commerce button that advertisers could use to drive purchases of their products from the site, according to the person, who asked not to be identified because the information is private. Technology blog Re/Code earlier reported on the buy button. Advertisers have long pressured Pinterest to introduce the feature. 

Best Buy wants to be that something blue in your wedding. The Richfield, Minn.-based electronics retailer is leaping into the lucrative wedding industry by launching its first gift registry, catching up to couples whose lives at home center around multimedia family rooms instead of dining rooms filled with the traditional bounty of crystal and china. Wedding registry kiosks, in the company's signature blue color, will begin rolling out to stores next month. Best Buy already quietly added a registry page to its website earlier this year and its mobile app will be updated with it next week.

Target revealed plans on Tuesday to shutter its online streaming service Target Ticket, which launched in 2013. Comparable to Amazon.com, Wal-Mart's Vudu and Apple's iTunes, the retail giant's cloud-based video provider offers up everything from television series like AMC's "The Walking Dead" to big-budget movies like Disney's "Big Hero 6." But services will be discontinued for good on March 7. Target announced the development on its website, explaining it intends to focus its "efforts on other entertainment offerings."

Amazon.com announced a new self-service tool yesterday that allows customers to host giveaways on its website. Anyone is eligible to run these sorts of promotions on the platform, though in Amazon's case, the feature will likely attract authors, marketers, brands, bloggers, sellers and others looking to raise awareness about themselves, their products or those who want to engage their audience using promotions. The new system will leverage Amazon's shipping capabilities, as the company says it will handle the distribution of giveaway prizes directly to the winners.

When it comes to migrating all of your current e-commerce site's data to a new platform, "quick and efficient" isn't usually your first thought. Transitioning can be messy, time consuming and incredibly challenging if you haven't done your research. However, with the right plan in place, the process of moving all your store's data can certainly be quick and efficient — and help prepare your business for future growth. To make the transition process quick and easy, here are several tips to consider before you begin your last-minute migration:

Yahoo is casting off its e-commerce business, including Yahoo Stores, later this year when it spins off its Yahoo Small Business (YSB) unit. YSB will move over to a new public company, currently referred to as "SpinCo," along with Yahoo's approximately 384 million shares of Alibaba. Amer Akhtar, head of YSB, announced the news on the unit's blog. "With this new opportunity, we can invest even more in our platform and chart our own course," he said. However, Yahoo had just launched a "next generation" Yahoo Stores platform in August under Akhtar's predecessor, Amit Kumar.

Retailers need to envision what an integrated in-store experience looks like, whether that's creating in-store push notifications, using beacons to drive messaging to shoppers or offering special deals for shoppers on your app. Here are a few ways to create a seamless experience between in-store and mobile shopping:

Gap is dropping its small Piperlime online brand so the apparel maker and retailer can focus on fixing the problems bedeviling its much bigger namesake and Banana Republic brands. Piperlime, which Gap founded in 2006 as a rival to Amazon.com's Zappos.com, sold shoes, clothing and accessories via e-commerce and through a store in New York's SoHo district. But it never caught on with a wide audience beyond its core, dedicated customers, and its revenues never topped $100 million, a drop in the bucket for a company with annual sales exceeding $16 billion.

On Sunday morning, Dec. 7, Michael Jeffries called some of the senior executives at Abercrombie & Fitch to discuss the holiday season. That was typical Jeffries. He was the creator and CEO of the modern-day Abercrombie and had controlled virtually every aspect of the company for the past 22 years. He approved every piece of clothing and for a while every employee, too, including the clone army of beautiful young men who stood shirtless at store entrances. 

Recent weeks have brought some major shake-ups to the e-commerce world as Sophia Amoruso stepped down as CEO of Nasty Gal and Eric Koger stepped down as CEO of ModCloth. While some may wonder if such personnel changes signal the fall of vertically integrated retail, I believe the industry is entering a new phase where successful players will look and behave more like retailers and less like tech startups.