E-Commerce

eBay has officially launched its "My Gadgets" service, which allows eBay users to quickly and easily determine the value of items in their gadget cache. The company made the announcement in a Thursday press release. One thing that's interesting is that eBay tracks your purchases. When you log in to the site at the "My Gadgets" link, any past eBay purchases will be noted as part of your inventory. That is, of course, whether you want them to be there or not. 

Amazon.com Inc. today announced the launch of Amazon Art (amazon.com/art), a marketplace that gives customers direct access to more than 40,000 works of fine art from more than 150 galleries and dealers. At launch, Amazon Art will showcase artworks from more than 4,500 artists. According to a news release, the store is one of the largest online collections of original and limited edition artwork for purchase directly from galleries and dealers.

While many of us are slogging through the midweek slump, three companies are sailing over consumers' pain points with innovative solutions to shop online. CafeMom launched The Prowl today adding to their portfolio of online destinations such as TheStir.com and MamásLatinas.com. The Prowl aims to tap the company's dedicated following of over 20 million users per month for a social shopping experience.

Target added another brick to its virtual store. The big-box retailer on Tuesday agreed to buy the online beauty products portal DermStore.com for an undisclosed amount. It's the second acquisition Target's made this year to build up its e-commerce presence. In March, Target said it was buying Chefs Catalog, as well as some Cooking.com assets, to bolster its housewares business. And like those cooking purchases, DermStore won't move the needle regarding Target's 2013 results. Frankly, it isn't clear when they might will considering

Food52, a crowdsourced cooking website co-founded by former New York Times food editor Amanda Hesser and Merrill Stubbs, is today making the move into e-commerce with the launch of an online shop called Provisions. Here, Food52 visitors will be able to browse through and purchase a variety of products, organized into themed collections, like "Rooftop Party," or "Freshly Picked: Plums," for example.

It looks like mobile will be the biggest Christmas present retailers will get this holiday season, according to recently relased survey findings from personalized customer experience solutions provider Baynote and e-commerce consulting firm the e-tailing group. One in three retailers forecast that mobile will drive more than 10 percent of their total holiday revenue this year.

Low-price retailer T.J. Maxx plans to open an online store this year, as does rival Saks Inc's Off Fifth outlets, making 2013 the year technology may have caught up with the speed of fashion. For such chains, which feature clearance items, last-year's fashions and overruns, their fast-moving and often unpredictable inventory has made selling goods over the web complex. "Retail is chaotic. Off-price retail is even more chaotic," said Fiona Dias, a leading e-commerce expert and chief strategy officer at ShopRunner.

H&M, to you finally started taking online orders in the U.S. this morning on its HM.com website, more than 2½ years after first promising to open an American Web store and almost two years behind a digital-shopping option from rival Zara. Fast retailing's Uniqlo, the world's No. 4 retailer, also beat sluggish H&M to the punch by opening an e-commerce platform in U.S. ahead of the 2012 holidays.

Sephora is one of the few brands whose retail prowess is equally matched by its digital savvy. Since LVMH acquired the company in 1997, it's grown to become the biggest beauty retailer in the world, now even gaining on hallowed luxury ground within its own company. LVMH has named Sephora its primary growth vehicle, with some analysts estimating that LVMH's Selective Retailing division (which includes Sephora) will overtake LVMH's luxury goods as its most lucrative business by 2018. That means it will outperform Marc Jacobs, Givenchy, Louis Vuitton, Celine, Fendi and Kenzo's sales combined.

In the second and final part of this interview with Beth Guastella, the recently named president and COO of giggle, a specialty retaile