E-Commerce

Sephora is enhancing the shopping experience and broadening its mobile reach with a new Google Catalogs application for tablet devices. Google Catalogs is a free app that lets users browse catalogs from Macy’s, Brooks Brothers, Pottery Barn and others via the iPad. Users can also interact with videos and additional content for a rich user experience.

Online retailers are responding to audience demand for more product videos. The number of videos deployed by these retailers on both their websites and video sharing sites has tremendously increased from last year.

Lowe’s launched Lowes.com en Español, a Spanish language option that enhances Lowe’s ability to meet the needs and expectations of Hispanic consumers.

Elie Tahari, a luxury lifestyle brand with a growing global presence, has launched ElieTahari.com on the Demandware Commerce platform to drive the growth of the brand and deliver the Elie Tahari experience to a broader audience.

Amazon was the most visited retail site in June, according to new data out from comScore. Compared with all other online retailers, Amazon.com grabbed more than 282 million visitors in June, reaching 20.4 percent of the entire internet population around the world.

The recession has encouraged a host of deal-seeking behavior among consumers, including searching out online and mobile coupons as well as taking advantage of daily-deal offers, which have risen in popularity dramatically.

Park & Bond has teamed up with GQ to launch GQ Selects, a monthly collection of handpicked and curated items from the magazine. 

Grover Pro percussion, a retailer of percussion instruments, has launched an e-commerce site with the help of Shopatron, an e-commerce solutions provider.

British retailers will be giving over more of their marketing budgets to mobile this year and luxury retailer Harrods is no exception. In a bid to give the brand a greater global presence, Harrods.com will be launched along with a fully transactional mobile website. Many of the store's rivals, including John Lewis and Debenhams, already have transactional mobile websites and apps.

Laura Ashley, the English lifestyle brand, has opened its e-commerce website to U.S. customers, featuring popular licensed products and coveted U.K. fabrics, wallpapers and accessories.