E-Commerce

The shopping season's biggest online holiday was more popular than ever yesterday as consumers rushed to the web for exclusive Cyber Monday deals. Online traffic was up 43 percent from last year, says content delivery network Akamai, and online sales were up 18 percent over Cyber Monday 2010 as of 9 p.m. ET, says IBM Smarter Commerce, a web performance analytics firm for 500 of the largest retail websites.

Amazon.com and Wal-Mart are prodding more manufacturers to change their packaging to cut waste and alleviate “wrap rage,” the frustration felt when a product is difficult to open. The retailers have been pushing vendors to eliminate excessive and cumbersome packing materials, such as hard plastic clamshell casings that enclose electronics and wire ties used to secure toys to cardboard backings.

Sellers on eBay Motors began receiving checks this month that were their portion of a $30 million settlement in a class-action lawsuit filed in 2009 by two sellers alleging that eBay charged excessive fees for listing items in the "Parts and Accessories" category.

For those keeping score, consumers’ voracious appetites for great deals on Thanksgiving and Black Friday this year helped secure this weekend’s place in the record books. According to a National Retail Federation survey conducted by BIGresearch over the weekend, traffic and spending were up both online and in stores, reaching historic highs.

China’s internet retailing market may overtake the U.S. as the world’s largest with transactions valued at more than $314 billion in 2015, according to Boston Consulting Group Inc. E-commerce sales in China almost quadrupled to 476 billion yuan in 2010 from 128 billion yuan in 2008 as 23 percent of its urban population shopped online last year.

Target has promoted Casey Carl to president of multichannel and senior vice president of merchandising, a move that will now have him oversee the recently relaunched Target.com. The discount store chain said that Carl, who most recently served as senior vice president of hardlines and as a co-lead on Target's multichannel steering committee, takes over the posts effective immediately.

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.

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.

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.