E-Commerce

In a follow-up to its Shoppers Trend Report released prior to Black Friday, RetailMeNot.com issued updated information showing metrics that measure the online retail industry's performance and consumer purchase behaviors during the start of the 2011 holiday shopping season.

lululemon athletica's focus on e-commerce is paying off for the yoga-inspired apparel retailer. E-commerce now represents 10.4 percent of lululemon's total revenue, which rose 31 percent this quarter to $230.2 million.

For a decade, Target outsourced its website operations to Amazon.com. The retail giant began preparing two years ago to take control of the site when the deal with Amazon expired this August. Three weeks after the switch, the site crashed. It went down again a month later. Then again, and again.

A powerful data mining application helps this 41-store specialty retailer maintain its stock position in a tricky retail environment.

Online retailers should consider how to personalize their sites using Facebook data, as a new study shows 50 percent of visitors to e-commerce sites are logged onto the social network as well.

CBS Consumer Products has partnered with TeamFanShop to launch an online store, ShopTVCity.com, which features products with slogans and imagery from TV shows.

Google is considering a move into online retail, challenging Amazon by providing low-cost goods. According to The Wall Street Journal, Google is in talks with major retailers and shippers about creating a service to let consumers shop for goods online and receive their orders within a day for a low fee.

Compuware announced the top retail web and mobile site performers for Cyber Monday based on the Compuware Performance Index. Compuware's analysis found that despite months of preparation by retailers, performance satisfaction for the top 50 retailers was down more than 12 percent on Cyber Monday from nonholiday baseline levels.

Searching online wish lists, guessing or just directly asking people what they want as gifts is so 20th century, therefore Wal-Mart is launching a new approach for the holidays — its Shopycat app that scours Facebook profiles, updates, comments and likes to come up with gifts for your friends.

In the highly competitive and rapidly changing world of e-commerce, it’s vital for retailers to stay on top of the latest trends so as not to be outdone by competitors. What follows are four tips for merchants to help them increase sales, enhance customer relationships and, ultimately, build a more profitable online business.