E-Commerce

Retailers are using multiple channels to establish more direct connections with consumers, according to the findings of a recent survey from global cloud commerce solutions provider Digital River. Consistent with the shift to multichannel strategies, the survey indicated respondents are increasingly connecting with customers via multiple touchpoints. Nearly 80 percent of respondents said they were currently using transactional websites, followed by social commerce (55 percent), app stores (50 percent), in-product commerce (50 percent), subscription sales (48 percent) and mobile commerce (48 percent).

NetSuite, a provider of cloud-based business management software suites, introduced its "Commerce as a Service" (CaaS) platform during the SuiteWorld 2012 conference in San Francisco on Tuesday.

Canada is a land of dissatisfied online shoppers. From high-end fashion to hardware, Canadians are the poor e-commerce cousins to Americans in just about every way: higher prices for poorer selection; shipping costs are often more expensive; and for items ordered from abroad, duty and customs-related charges can drive up total costs.

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We live in a Google-dominated world; more accurately, we use a Google-dominated internet. The search engine (and purveyor of social media, cloud services and other daily necessities) accounts for over 80 percent of the online query market, making it safe to assume that it set the standard for internet search functions. When choosing to shop online, modern consumers expect no less from the search boxes of the virtual stores they're browsing than they do from King Google.

Visualitee has launched the first website dedicated solely to selling augmented reality (AR)-enabled apparel and merchandise. The new e-commerce site, Visualitee.com, is headed by a seasoned group of augmented reality professionals and will offer the most comprehensive collection of AR-enabled merchandise. In addition to carrying a wide variety of AR merchandise, the site will also facilitate independent artists and labels to venture into the quickly growing AR segment. AR enables inanimate objects such as T-shirts to "come to life" with a simple 1-2-3 process. 

Maxymiser offers retailers five signs to help them know if their online customers are cheating on them, along with tips on how they can use website testing and personalization to win them back.

Online U.S. retail spending reached $44.3 billion in the first quarter of 2012, up 17 percent vs. a year ago, according to comScore’s Q1 2012 Retail survey. It was the 10th consecutive quarter of positive year-over-year growth and sixth consecutive quarter of double-digit growth. In other findings, 38 percent of tablet owners have made a purchase on their device within the past month. Apparel was the most popular category for purchase among tablet shoppers.

Former HSN CEO Mark Bozek and co-founder Russell Nuce announced the launch of the new e-commerce platform EVINE.com. The site will sell exclusive products available only on EVINE, which aims to create a shopping platform that's all about unique, value-driven merchandise in fashion, beauty, accessories, fitness, food and home for women aged 35 and older. The initial site launching today.

A record 36 of the top 100 online retailers achieved the "threshold for excellence" in the annual Top 100 E-Retail Satisfaction Index from customer experience analytics firm ForeSee. Scores of 80 or higher on ForeSee's 100-point scale are considered superior customer satisfaction performances. In 2010 and 2011, 28 websites achieved this distinction, while in 2009 only six websites cleared the mark. E-commerce stalwart Amazon.com continues to set the bar higher, climbing three points to 89, and four points higher than the second highest scoring websites, Apple.com (85) and QVC.com (85).