E-Commerce

One King's Lane is becoming the latest e-commerce site to expand from its flash-sale roots. The furniture and home goods site plans to launch an eBay-like marketplace called Vintage and Market Finds. It will let third-party designers post antique and vintage products on the site, but unlike eBay, all the items will be at fixed prices and will be vetted by a One King's Lane team.

Big changes are coming to Twitter's brand pages. Launched in December, the pages show the brand's Twitter feed and images, but Twitter plans to add experiences, including e-commerce, contests and sweepstakes.

With the launch of the third generation iPad, current owners will be tempted to trade in their old generation iPads for the newer model. eBay announced a promotion in which consumers can lock in top-dollar values for tablet trade-ins, including up to $475 for the iPad 2.

The economics of internet commerce have changed so much that Alex Zhardanovsky is now taking on the once seemingly impossible challenge of selling pet food online. Zhardanovsky co-founded PetFlow.com, a Manhattan startup that's raised $10 million in venture capital and now ships 1 million pounds of pet food a month, in 2010.

Amazon.com is migrating sellers to a new discussion board platform, but something is missing. Sellers noticed right away that the new Amazon Seller Discussion Forums don't include a section from the old boards called Seller Soapbox, an area where sellers could chat about everything from online selling to politics.

eBay is monetizing its loyalty program through a campaign called "Merchant Offers" in which it offers participants rewards for using services from other companies. With the regular eBay Bucks program, participants earn 2 percent on every qualifying item when shopping on eBay, with a cap of $500; eBay Bucks certificates expire if unused.

American Express card holders can use the Twitter online messaging service to get exclusive discounts and other deals from more than a dozen retailers under a partnership announced yesterday.

Costco is moving to a new e-commerce platform that will improve the online visibility of its website. The transition is planned for this summer and "will bring users to costco.com via search engines, which our much older current system does not allow," said Costco CFO Richard Galanti during a recent conference call.

Overstock.com experienced a net loss of $19.4 million in 2011, the company said when it released fourth quarter and full-year earnings for 2011, which was a 240 percent decrease year-over-year. 

The retailer/consumer relationship has changed dramatically in the last decade and it's not only because there are more products and services available than ever before. With social media and smartphones playing an increasingly prominent role in how shoppers form purchasing decisions, today's most competitive merchants are realizing that in order to succeed they need to engage consumers via technology.