E-Commerce

The deal-a-day company Groupon has seen better days. It's trying to go public into a stock market that can't quite figure out what it's doing. Its profit loss calculations have been called unreliable.

There's Black Friday, then there's Target Tuesday. In a scene that was reminiscent of the shopping frenzy that typically comes the day after Thanksgiving, Target's website crashed several times throughout the day yesterday. More than a hundred shoppers lined up at many of its stores early in the morning on Sept. 13 for a sale of limited offerings of its Missoni for Target collection of bikes, luggage, clothes and housewares.

Renowned e-commerce entrepreneur Michael G. Rubin announced the launch of his newest endeavor, Kynetic, a company singularly focused on building consumer internet businesses that capitalize on the digital transformation of commerce. Kynetic includes three brands at the forefront of innovation in the online commerce space: Fanatics, Rue La La and ShopRunner.

More than 50 percent of e-commerce shoppers cited shipping as a reason for abandoning their shopping carts online, according to research conducted by Royal Mail, the U.K. equivalent of the U.S. Postal Service.

Charming Shoppes’s plus-size Lane Bryant division announced the launch of Fashion Genius, a new technology that provides personalized product recommendation services. The technology offers one-of-a-kind fit and style solution guides through a simple survey that combines a woman’s curves, fit issues and signature styles to individual merchandise items in just three minutes and with no measurements required.

Groupon has begun offering discounts on products sold over the web in the U.K., thrusting the internet-coupon company into closer competition with the likes of Amazon and eBay.

American Express announced an exclusive partnership with Style.com and NET-A-PORTER.com to launch "NY Street Seen," a new shopping experience allowing fashion lovers everywhere to shop instantly for their favorite looks as worn by the attendees of Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week, and captured by renowned street-style photographer Tommy Ton.

Another holiday season is approaching, meaning another opportunity for retailers to increase sales, boost new customer acquisition and fatten their revenue totals for the year. Based on e-commerce spending trends so far this year, online and multichannel merchants are optimistic, always depending on the slippery road of economic recovery.

As part of its Common Threads Initiative, Patagonia partnered with eBay to launch a new storefront for customers to buy and sell used Patagonia gear. The Common Threads Initiative was created in order to help reduce consumption and be more environmentally friendly.

Best Buy, the electronics retailer whose business has been eroded by smartphone-carrying shoppers and price comparison websites, is fighting back by launching its own rival to online marketplaces such as Amazon’s.