E-Commerce

comScore today reported holiday season retail e-commerce spending for the first 20 days of the November and December 2011 holiday season. To date, $9.7 billion has been spent online, marking a 14 percent increase compared to the corresponding days last year.

A British baker was caught short after placing an overly generous discount deal on Groupon. Rachel Brown, who has been in the baking business for 25 years, decided to use the popular site to drum up extra business for her company, Need a Cake, before Christmas.

The Golf Warehouse announced that it's partnered with Austad’s Golf, forming a powerful collaboration between two leaders in the golf industry. The Golf Warehouse and Austad’s Golf are two of the most well-known golf retailers who have built solid business models by focusing on excellent product selection, affordable pricing and outstanding customer service.

As online shopping continues to reach unprecedented levels, retailers plan to emphasize value and savings to shoppers all holiday season long. According to Shop.org’s eHoliday Survey, conducted by BIGresearch, half (51 percent) of online retailers surveyed will offer promotions specifically on Thanksgiving Day and eight in 10 (78.4 percent) will have special promotions on Cyber Monday.

A number of retailers offer coupons and special offers online, but few actually know how effective the coupons are at driving business in their stores. Tracking clickthrough or redemption rates for coupons offered on websites other than those owned by the retailer can be difficult.

In case you haven’t noticed the changes taking place in retail stores across the country, I'm here to report that orange is out and red and green are in. That’s right, the holiday season has officially begun. From tinsel to snowflakes, stores are already decked out in their holiday finest hoping to entice shoppers to open their wallets and spread some cheer.

The promise of convenience and cost savings online will bring more consumers than ever to shop on the web for the holidays, spending a greater share of their gift budget there than they have in previous years, according to a new forecast by eMarketer.

CafePress has launched the official online merchandise shop for the latest installment in the Twilight franchise, "Breaking Dawn — Part 1," which opened Nov. 18. The e-store, called The Twilight Saga, features exclusive products from the latest film as well as favorite designs from the previous movies.

eBay announced plans to open its first physical store in London next month. The shop will feature display models of the shopping site’s 200 most popular items, all embedded with QR codes to allow shoppers to instantly find the item online.

It appears that J.C. Penney is a leading yuletide marketing warrior based on the Promoted Tweets it's purchased with terms involving competitor Target with Black Friday only four days away.