E-Commerce

Overstock.com is now accepting payments in bitcoin, making it the first major online retailer to embrace the increasingly popular but controversial digital currency. Since December, Overstock's free-thinking CEO and Chairman Patrick Byrne has been telling anyone who would listen that his company would adopt bitcoin sometime in the next six months. But Byrne is an impatient man. Last Tuesday, the company struck a deal to handle bitcoin payments through a service operated by the suddenly hot San Francisco startup Coinbase. 

British apparel brand Burberry is allowing consumers to purchase pieces from its fall menswear collection immediately after the runway show. Consumers were able to "Shop the Runway" following the brand's London Fashion Week show Jan. 8, and the collection will be available through Jan. 22. By shortening the time between collection presentation and commerce, Burberry is able to give consumers a unique experience of owning an item long before it hits store shelves. 

The PayPal unit of eBay has filed a patent application proposing secure tokens that could potentially be used as a virtual currency. The application, which was filed in June 2012 and published on Dec. 19, 2013, would let people buy products without creating a payment provider account. "The recipient can use the token to purchase a product using a checkout though the payment provider; the purchase can be made without requiring the user to create the user's own payment provider account," the filing reads.

Although the retail landscape changed dramatically in 2013, many common themes that were introduced last year will continue to shape the industry and have a greater impact throughout 2014. In particular, three major trends will play a large role in retail e-commerce strategies as we move into 2014: 

Shave and a haircut - two bitcoins? Sure, its value might rise and fall by the day, but some small-business owners in New York City are buying into bitcoin by accepting the buzzed-about currency at their brick-and-mortar locations. They're saying the benefits are many, and the disadvantages are next to none. That's right, the digital currency - infamously linked to the purchase of drugs and guns - isn't just for buying illegal goods anonymously online. It's becoming a preferred method of payment for innovative

One of the biggest questions looming over Bitcoin, the digital currency generating attention in the tech business, is when big mainstream merchants will begin accepting it. Overstock.com, the online discount retailer, has an answer: within the next six months, if all goes as planned. Patrick Byrne, the company's chief executive, said Overstock planned to let online shoppers pay for goods with Bitcoin by June. The retailer is evaluating the services of several third-party firms that facilitate Bitcoin transactions, with the goal of selecting one by mid-January. 

It's been a good season to be an online retailer. Not only did online retailers get a head start on Thanksgiving Weekend sales, they were also able to get a jump on after-Christmas sales, posting some of their biggest discounts of the year in the early hours of Christmas Day. And shoppers (us included) took advantage: Sales on Christmas Day jumped 16.5 percent over last year - an even bigger percentage increase than what online retailers saw over Thanksgiving Weekend, according to IBM.

FedEx introduced a new product called One Rate that offers a flat-rate shipping option. If you sell on eBay, you might have seen the ads for FedEx One Rate as you browse the site. Is FedEx One Rate a good fit for online merchants? Rafael Zimberoff, product manager for ShipRush, a shipping automation tool that integrates with shipping carriers, marketplaces, listing tools, accounting tools and more, put it into perspective for those in the e-commerce space. Zimberoff said FedEx One Rate was a response to USPS Priority Mail flat-rate boxes, which he called "a beautiful product."

In a unique holiday move, Best Buy will host a shoppable Google+ hangout on "Last Minute Deals" tonight. For those who don't know, a Google+ hangout is a video chat done through the Google+ social networking website. It enables up to 10 people to interact and share documents, images and videos with each other, and it can be broadcast for others to view. People who RSVP for Best Buy's hangout will be able to watch a group of tech enthusiasts talk about last-minute gift ideas. And they'll even be able to shop for the products as they're being discussed. 

The honeymoon period for Amazon Webstore is over. Amazon.com announced it's significantly raising the cost of operating a Webstore next year, perhaps a sign that the company is more confident of the offering. The monthly fee will double for all merchants, and those using Amazon Webstore who also sell products through the Sell on Amazon program will pay double the current transaction fee as well, bringing it in line with Webstore-only merchant transaction fees.