E-Commerce

Google wanted to buy Groupon last fall for $5.3 billion. Spurned, Google is launching a Groupon clone called Google Offers. While not a surprise that Google was working on a local-deals service, it's now official — Google Retail tweeted a link to the Google Offers sign-up page.

The recent Study of Online Shopping Habits commissioned by RetailMeNot.com found that coupon usage among online shoppers in the U.S. remained strong in the first quarter of 2011 despite signs of an economic recovery and that businesses providing regular discounts are likely to see increased customer loyalty.

Americans accumulate approximately $48 billion in rewards points and miles annually, according to the results of a first-ever study on the perceived dollar value of loyalty programs that illustrates the real economic power of these programs for consumers, issuers, merchants and manufacturers.

Columbia Sportswear said it would launch new e-commerce sites for its primary Columbia brand and the fast-growing Sorel boot brand to allow customers in Canada, the United Kingdom, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium, Austria and Spain to buy products online.

Best Buy has set a goal of doubling its $2 billion in annual online revenues within the next three years to five years as it reduces its total brick-and-mortar store square footage by 10 percent. Best Buy executives say these decisions, announced at its recent 2011 Investor and Analyst Day, are based on overall traffic growth, driven primarily by the company's web properties.

LivingSocial, one of the world’s largest daily-deal e-commerce sites, pulled in $400 million in financing almost two weeks ago, with nearly half of the money already deposited into the company piggy bank. The influx of cash will expand the company’s deal offerings.

About a month after offering its first discounted deals, Groupon's China site is attracting big user numbers, but still falls behind the local competition in sales.

Retail industry lobbyists in Indiana are trying to get state lawmakers to pass an online sales tax provision that they claim would result in hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue. The Indiana Retail Council and the Alliance for Main Street Fairness held a press conference in the Indiana Statehouse to ask for legislators’ support in requiring sites such as Amazon.com to pay sales tax.

Luxury lifestyle brand Tory Burch has officially relaunched toryburch.com on the Demandware Commerce platform. Combining e-commerce with its editorial content and social media, the new site reflects the style and personality of its CEO and founder, Tory Burch, while enhancing its customers’ online shopping experience.

eBay announced that it's agreed to acquire additional shares in GittiGidiyor, the leading online marketplace in Turkey. The deal follows eBay’s acquisition of a minority stake in the company in 2007. Upon closing of the transaction, eBay will own approximately 93 percent of the outstanding shares of GittiGidiyor.