E-Commerce

Retailers are moving quickly to open new markets, enticed by double-digit growth and the global scale of international e-commerce. The appetite for U.S. brands is strong around the world, and the desire to shop online is growing at a tremendous clip.

Q: "I sell merchandise on eBay and via my own site, and have much better sales on eBay. How can I convert those eBay buyers to purchase on my website?"

Football fans around the world are gearing up for the biggest day of the season. On Super Bowl Sunday, a record-breaking 111 million viewers are expected to be glued to their sets to see whether the Broncos or Seahawks carry the day. Which team will they be rooting for? We can answer that question by looking at online search behavior among shoppers seeking NFL logo wear for purchase. During the week following the NFC and AFC championship games, nearly 160,000 searches for the Denver Broncos or Seattle Seahawks were made on e-commerce sites powered by SLI Systems. 

Wal-Mart To Go, the retailer's on-demand shopping service offering home delivery of general merchandise, including in some cases groceries, is expanding its test in the Denver market to also include a local pick-up option. Denver-area customers will be able to order their groceries online, then pick them up at a nearby store — without having to set foot inside the store. Customers will pull up to a designated pick-up spot on the side of the store, as directed. Or, in the case of those stores where a drive-through pharmacy is available, they'll pick up their groceries from the pharmacy window. 

Managing a fully functional e-commerce site as part of your retail operation is a bit like owning a house — you're constantly concerned with what might break next and how to go about fixing it. Much like proper maintenance on your home goes a long way to keeping the handyman at bay, there are several common sense steps you can take to make sure that your omnichannel strategy stays fresh and your online presence relevant. For most retailers, the web is an extremely important — often the most important — channel for profitability.

American Eagle Outfitters and app developer Shopkick have announced plans to launch shopBeacon in 100 top-performing American Eagle Outfitters and Aerie stores across the country. According to the company, Shopkick's shopBeacon is the first Apple iBeacon-based presence signal for retailers. "AEO has always been an early adopter of cutting-edge technology, which is why we're partnering with Shopkick once again in order to provide our customers with the best mobile shopping experience available today," said Joe Megibow, senior vice president of omnichannel e-commerce at American Eagle Outfitters. 

Consumers don't "go" shopping anymore — they're shopping all the time. The barriers between channels are breaking down, and retail is in the midst of reinvention. That's the "relentless reality" that JDA Software CEO Hamish Brewer summarized in his introduction of the afternoon keynote at Retail's BIG Show on Sunday. Brewer suggested that the next 10 years will bring more change than the last 50 combined. How can retailers evolve? Foot Locker CEO Ken Hicks focused on identifying opportunities for forward-thinking retailers to succeed in the years ahead. Here's what retail CEOs like Hicks are thinking about in 2014:

Former Barnes & Noble executive Jamie Iannone was named president and CEO of Samsclub.com in a restructuring that elevates and integrates Sam's Club's online business into Wal-Mart's global e-commerce business unit based in California. Iannone previously served as president of digital products at Barnes & Noble and oversaw the bookseller's Nook Media unit. He also spent seven years at eBay.

Less than 30 minutes after online retailer Overstock.com started accepting payments in bitcoin, Jason Steele used the digital currency to buy a new case for his smartphone. Steele, a 32-year-old computer programmer from Atlanta who has been using bitcoin since March of last year, wanted to see if Overstock's new system actually worked, but he was also interested in, well, fighting the good fight. Overstock is the first major online retailer to accept the digital currency, and Steele was doing his part to help push this new-age technology even further into the mainstream.

Online eyewear retailer Warby Parker isn't known just for innovating eyewear shopping. It's also known for making another typically boring thing super cool — the annual report. Three years ago, it released its first annual review online, a surprisingly transparent look back that included not just the year's highlights, but missteps, as well as a slew of quirky factoids about life spent at the company. It proved so popular and successful marketing-wise that the brand has continued to release the reports each year.