E-Commerce

The Department of Transportation fined online travel company Orbitz $60,000 on Oct. 18 for misleading advertisements that failed to mention taxes and fees, and in some cases promoted fares which were no longer available.

The 18th Annual Survey of Third-Party Logistics Providers revealed that logistics companies experienced improved economic conditions in 2010, with 88 percent of companies surveyed in North America meeting or exceeding their revenue projections, as compared with only 50 percent in 2009. 

E-commerce is exploding as more consumers choose to shop online — a trend that's bringing multichannel retailers record earnings. E-commerce accounted for 4.6 percent of total retail sales during the second quarter of 2011, up from 4.2 percent of total sales a year earlier.

YouTube has announced the ability to sell merchandise, tickets and more via the site. Through a feature called the Merch Store, YouTube partners will be able to sell artist merchandise, digital downloads, concert tickets and other experiences to fans and visitors.

Listen in as Tim Ash, CEO of SiteTuners and author of the best-selling book "Landing Page Optimization: The Definitive Guide to Testing and Tuning for Conversions,” gives a sneak preview of some of the landing page optimization best practices he'll be discussing at the upcoming Conversion Conference in New York City Oct. 19-20.

Say hello to LevisVintageClothing.com, the first-ever official website for Levi's vintage clothing. Not only will customers be able to find lists of local stockists, but the site also provides a historical peek behind the scenes at Levi's, which dates back to California Gold Rush times. 

A new study commissioned by VeriSign finds that availability of e-commerce sites could be at risk — even for the largest e-tailers — due to domain name system performance issues. Considering that the busy holiday shopping season is just around the corner, any unavailability during this critical time can be devastating for businesses.

Columbia Sportswear said it's expanded its e-commerce operations by launching Columbia and Sorel branded sites in Canada and eight European countries. The new e-commerce sites in Canada, the United Kingdom, France, Spain, Germany, Italy, Austria, Belgium and The Netherlands — combined with existing sites in the United States, Korea and Japan — give the outdoor apparel and footwear brand 24 localized e-commerce operations in 12 countries.

LUSH Cosmetics has selected the Demandware Commerce platform to power three new e-commerce storefronts in North America. LUSH Cosmetics' handmade products are sold online and in more than 700 retail stores across 45 countries.

Facebook is tapping eBay's commerce platform to create new social shopping experiences for hundreds of millions of consumers. eBay is integrating Facebook's new Open Graph 2.0 functionality into its global commerce systems, which come under the umbrella of a new business unit called X.commerce.