E-Commerce

The nice thing about standards is that there are so many to choose from. They're valuable and are used throughout the web development process. Certainly the web is comprised entirely of standards, from HTTP to HTML, web services, transaction processes, linked data processes and new methods of sharing information across shopping channels like Milo.

Wal-Mart has signed an agreement with the Shanghai government to establish an e-commerce headquarters in the city as part of its online strategy to gain a greater share of the country's burgeoning retail market.

Overstock.com announced the one-year anniversary of its Main Street Revolution Store, a national marketing and distribution platform for U.S.-based small businesses to sell their goods. The Main Street Revolution Store allows O.co customers to "shop local" by searching for Main Street Revolution products produced in a particular state.

With daily-deals applications and mobile sites rapidly increasing, retailers and merchants are continuously looking to target consumers whenever and wherever they are with offers. However, how much is too much?

APARTStyle.com, a retailer that's focused on selling affordable fashion clothing to working women, ran a group coupon promotion through LivingSocial focused on the New York City midtown area. LivingSocial emailed the offer — which was valid for six months — to roughly 500,000 of its subscribers in that region. There were three options on the deal: Pay $100 for $300 worth of products, $150 for $500, and $195 for $600.

We all know that e-books are on the rise. If you had any doubts, Amazon squelched them with its recent announcement that the company's e-books sales surpassed sales of hard copies for the first time. E-books are definitely experiencing impressive gains, but even with that revelation, e-books only make up a small portion of total book industry sales.

A survey commissioned by Tealeaf, a provider of online customer experience management software, and conducted by Econsultancy, reveals that U.S. companies are losing the equivalent of 23 percent of their entire annual online revenue due to poor customer experiences. According to the study, limited understanding of the overall online customer experience, lack of multichannel approach and hard-to-diagnose site usability issues are all contributing factors to the poor consumer experiences that lead to billions of dollars in lost revenue.

Klipsch, the innovative brand that first introduced the world to hi-fidelity sound, has brought its entire line of audio products online with the help of retail integrated e-commerce solution provider Shopatron.

Over the last few years, Home Depot has expanded its retail stores aggressively, adding more than 200 outlets annually. However, the retailer has recently embarked on a $1.1 billion program aimed at improving its web presence while planning to dramatically reduce the number of new store openings to around 10 in 2011.

While bad news around the economy continues to pile up — a plunging stock market, troublesome unemployment, a soft housing market, national debt that's out of control — the e-commerce industry seems unaffected. E-commerce sales are steadily rising and for many cross-channel retailers the channel is a bright spot in an otherwise dark place. This mood was certainly reflected at IRCE, where people were upbeat with where they were at and optimistic about their future.