E-Commerce

Walt Disney apologized to customers after demand for limited editions of its princess dolls crashed the Disney Store website. More than 1,200 Facebook users posted comments when the company acknowledged that the site was “extremely busy” and that it “won’t allow such high volume to check out simultaneously.”

The furor erupted when the company put the last five models in its Disney Princess Designer Doll Collection for sale on its website for $59.50 each. All of the dolls — the characters Tiana, Jasmine, Rapunzel, Sleeping Beauty and Pocahontas — sold out the same day, the company said.

On Oct. 13, Business Insider published a study that showed how Groupon and LivingSocial inflate regular prices to make deals look better. After reading the story, a former sales rep got in touch with some more details. The employee, who started and built a market in a major Southern city for LivingSocial, says some sales reps "absolutely" increase prices.

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.

Today in the online commerce world, return levels are quite high in some industries like fashion and retail. Levels in some countries in Europe are up to 60 percent. This means a lot of double transportation of goods from a warehouse and, depending of how complex the supply chain are for a particular retailer, back to the warehouse for examination and re-pack for a new customer if the goods is ok.

Michaels has launched MiDesign@Michaels, an online-based application that allows customers to create photo books, scrapbook pages, greeting cards and custom invitations.

Plus-size retailer Charming Shoppes said it's expanded its online reach globally, allowing worldwide online access to fashion brands Lane Bryant, Cacique, Catherines, Fashion Bug and Loop 18, as well as the more than 300 brands offered at the company's new plus-size shopping hub, Sonsi.com.

Impulse purchases require people to browse the aisles, but that’s happening less these days because web-savvy consumers often already know what they plan to buy and simply pick it up and leave, said Bill Martin, chief executive officer of ShopperTrak.  

Ikea is teaming up with YouTube to bring us one step closer to never having to participate in reality. By accessing a customer's Facebook account, Ikea U.K.'s YouTube app uses social media information to build "everything you need to be happy in bed."

E-commerce shipping is an increasingly busy two-way street. In addition to its delivery strengths, the U.S. Postal Service is making sure it's the preferred shipper for packages traveling the returns lane as well.

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.