E-Commerce

Nearly 70 percent of e-commerce merchants said they've tightened credit card data security in order to protect their brand, not to avoid fines for non-compliance with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard, according to a survey by Visa’s CyberSource unit and Trustwave.

Many retail websites during the 2010 holidays failed to meet the performance demands of consumers who expect web pages to download in two seconds or less — even during peak traffic periods. A recent analysis of web page visits found that end user abandonment rates rise 8 percent with an extra two seconds of wait time, meaning that slow websites can have a negative impact on revenues and profitability, as well as brand and customer loyalty.

Consumers are especially fond of the benefits of daily-deal sites, and why wouldn’t they be? But the reaction among business owners is a mixed bag — some swear by them and others swear at them. 

Jumio has unveiled Netswipe, a technology solution that enables e-commerce site owners and internet retailers to process online and mobile payments by having customers "swipe" their credit cards using virtually any webcam. 

One second is how long Google’s +1 plug-in drags down page load time, and that’s not “just” a second when research shows that 10 percent of site traffic is lost for every extra second a site takes to load. Facebook’s ubiquitous "Like" plug-in stalls page load time by approximately .2 seconds. This means featuring both plug-ins on a page adds c. 1.2 seconds to its load time. That translates to more than a 10 percent loss in visitors, and by extension, in conversion.

Gproxy Design announced the launch of Pilot Pen’s redesigned e-commerce store. The new web store was developed to reinforce Pilot Pen’s spirit of innovation and quality. PilotPen.us online store offers a great user experience while browsing and attractive user interface, created for a recognized brand such as Pilot Pen. 

The Retail Industry Leaders Association may sue the state if officials don’t require Amazon.com to pay sales taxes when it begins using two distribution centers now under construction in Tennessee.

American Apparel, the vertically integrated clothing manufacturer based in downtown Los Angeles, is announcing a multiyear partnership with eBay to create the first full online lifestyle shop on the popular auction site. It's expected to become a multimillion dollar business within the first year.

Frooogal.com will debut in August as a new platform for flash sales of luxury products. As the newest site in a growing cast of flash-sale retailers, Frooogal.com will feature daily deals on deluxe products at up to 70 percent off retail. Membership is free to buyers and vendors pay a nominal percentage of their sales. Approved vendors submit and upload their product images and plan their sales by setting their own prices and choosing the dates of their sales thus ensuring them a higher margin on the sale of their products.

Listen in as David Wertheimer, CEO of Canopy, a business unit of web design and engineering firm Alexander Interactive that focuses on the online retail space, discusses the new programming language HTML5 and what it means for your business.