E-Commerce

How the online shopping experience has changed since the birth of e-commerce was the focus of a lively session at the National Retail Federation's BIG Show in New York City this week.

Helped by stores open at least a year, leading off-price retailer TJX reported a 6 percent gain in December sales, pushing the company to raise its full-year guidance.

The landscape for small- to medium-sized e-commerce merchants is constantly changing. To adapt, merchants must be quite nimble and able to alter their strategies at a moment's notice. Below are some tips for small- to medium-sized merchants to help identify new customers and keep them coming back:

Lands' End is changing the way customers shop via digital catalogs from their iPads and iPhones. The company announced the launch of its next-generation digital catalogs via an app.

Macy’s reported a 4.5 percent improvement in holiday sales that aligned with its expectations, however investors still booed the results, pushing the shares down in morning trade.

comScore reported that retail e-commerce spending for the entire November – December 2010 holiday season reached $32.6 billion, marking a 12 percent increase vs. last year and an all-time record for the season.

Buy.com has launched its new wine store, and is the only online mass merchandiser in the U.S. to offer a comprehensive wine shop that includes hundreds of competitively priced wines from all regions and varietals.

A fast-growing Utah County business became a YouTube sensation with a product that doesn't immediately strike you as sensational. In fact, the inventor couldn't sell it for years.

Limelight Networks surveyed more than 1,600 shoppers recently to find out what they feel the most important customer service features are. The survey provided an in-depth look into what types of customers demand the most online customer service, what customer service features drive brand loyalty and what makes customers more likely to use online self-help rather than calling customer service.

Google unveiled its newest search enhancement, Google Instant Previews (GIP), in November. Denoted by a small magnifying glass to the right of a search listing, GIP allows searchers to look at a mini version (also called a snippet) of a specific web page before they commit to clicking on it. Is this a game changer? Not exactly, but it certainly does make things interesting.