E-Commerce

Facebook is rolling out its Facebook Offers service, a way for users to get discounts and promotions from local businesses via the social networking site. The offers will be distributed through users' Facebook news feeds. Users can then sign up to receive the offers via email and redeem them at participating businesses. Users are more likely to see offers from businesses that they've "liked" on Facebook.

In the recent Online Shopper Experience Study conducted by Bronto Software, the carting and purchasing processes of 100 online retail brands and their abandoned cart marketing strategies were evaluated. The study points to user experience, indecision, technical issues and product cost/additional fees as the top reasons buyers abandon online purchases.

With site speed playing such an important role in time spent on site, conversion rate and ultimately revenue, online retailers need affordable and reliable CDNs that guarantee significant site performance gains. Taking the time to evaluate CDN technologies and costs helps ensure a great customer experience, whether on a slow traffic weekday or during a product launch that drives iPad announcement traffic levels.

Online sales of apparel and accessories are now growing faster than any other e-commerce product segment, and the category is poised to help U.S. retail e-commerce sales grow 15.4 percent to $224.2 billion in 2012 after stronger-than-expected sales took the market to $194.3 billion last year, according to a new report by eMarketer.

99Dresses Co-Founder Nikki Durkin describes her company as an enabler to one of the world's most powerful drugs: shopping. The company allows women to upload items of clothing to the website, rate the quality and then assign prices.

A woman who had been selling on eBay for 14 years under the name "Animal" was stunned when eBay gave her user ID to a branded retailer in the U.K. to entice it to open a shop and changed her name to the unappealing animal_animal123.

eBay admitted it made a mistake when it took away the user ID of a longtime seller and gave it to a branded retailer in the U.K., but the company has yet to explain how the mistake occurred.

Groupon began testing a subscription-based loyalty program in select markets in February. The program costs $29.99 per year. Last week, subscribers in Baltimore, Kansas City and Philadelphia were the latest to receive an invitation-only email to try out a free three-month membership of Groupon VIP.

Flash-sales online retailer Gilt Groupe recently announced that it would be offering discounts based on users' Klout scores. It's all very sexy, using online media to rank customers and their word-of-mouth reach and influence, then reward them based on that ability. Combine that with Gilt's business model of online flash sales, and you're in the white-hot center of trendy marketing.

E-commerce continues to be the fastest-growing part of DSW's business. The company is investing in inventory visibility as well as physical expansion of its fulfillment center to accommodate its growth.