E-Commerce

Online sellers Amazon and eBay gained brand value last year at the expense of brick-and-mortar retailers such as Best Buy, according to an Interbrand report. Amazon's brand surged 32 percent in a year, the most in U.S. retailing, while eBay's increased 16 percent, Interbrand said in a statement. 

Last April, Gamestop opened a store on Facebook to generate sales among the 3.5 million-plus customers who’d declared themselves “fans” of the video game retailer. Six months later, the store was quietly shuttered.

Online shoppers went into a frenzy last week as Jason Kottke’s post “You can buy stuff from IKEA on Amazon!” was reblogged by Gizmodo. The convenience of not having to navigate around the maze that is the Ikea floor plan or having to carry everything home lured shoppers to check out the Ikea furniture items featured on Amazon.

From a business perspective, there are plenty of reasons why product videos and other forms of dynamic online content are essential components in any multichannel retail marketing strategy. But like any other marketing investment, product video spend needs to be weighed against expected business outcomes, return on investment and other factors. The key question isn’t whether to implement product videos into a brand strategy, but rather how product video spend can be leveraged to maximize consumers’ intent to purchase.

This year's Valentine's Day flower-ordering rush didn't bring any bouquets for online florists. The second biggest day of the year for sending flowers disappointed U.S. customers who took to Facebook and Twitter in droves to voice their outrage at 1-800-Flowers.com, FTD and ProFlowers.

Consumers and retailers alike may still be recovering after a crazed holiday shopping season — and it's not over yet.

Multichannel retailer Dreams, which focuses on the licensed sports products industry, has partnered with Hibbett Sports to become its exclusive online provider for team merchandise in the licensed sports category.

When Groupon was gearing up for its IPO last year, there was a lot of talk about whether the company would be able to sustain its business on a diet that mainly consisted of daily deals. Today, a little sign of what Groupon might be cooking up for its next course. Groupon has launched a new site in Germany, Groupon Deals, which is an Amazon-like storefront that sells a range of goods, from boots to bodysuits.

Sears is dealing with its marketplace making things perhaps a little too hot for some to handle. The retailer has a marketplace allowing other companies to sell products — be it glasses, lingerie or otherwise. As such, the companies selling their products are able to use their own images within the product ads in the marketplace and, apparently, Sears hasn't been doing a very good job of monitoring those images.

iPerceptions, a provider of online voice-of-customer analytics based on actual visitor feedback, announced the release of its Retail Web Analytics Report for 2011. The report found that the use of more than one web analytics tool nearly doubled in the last year, from 33 percent in 2010 to 62 percent in 2011. The results suggest that retailers recognize the importance of evaluating and addressing the entire website visitor experience.