Amazon.com

Forrester Research Analyst Sucharita Mulpuru was on hand at the Retail Email Exchange symposium in San Diego last month to offer best practices for four current trends in the e-commerce space. Looking to debunk conventional wisdom, Mulpuru advised that things often turn out to be different than they initially appear. With that in mind, here are the four trends that Mulpuru addressed:

If Borders closes all its stores, competing bookstores like Barnes & Noble will probably suffer through some short-term pain. Marketplace's Jeff Tyler takes a look at the repercussions.

In a little over two days Borders will be liquidating its remaining stores and it's still a mystery about what's going to happen to its Borders.com website, its rewards program, its extended warranties for e-readers, etc. The only thing certain for consumers now is that the bookseller will continue to honor its gift cards throughout the liquidation process. But it won't be selling any new cards, Borders spokeswoman Mary Davis said on Tuesday. The company is still reviewing the plan for its Borders Rewards loyalty programs, Davis said. Customers who signed up for Borders Rewards received discounts and free

Amazon filed a petition for a referendum with the California Attorney General's Office, the Associated Press is reporting. The referendum will ask voters to overturn a new California law that forces online retailers to collect sales tax.

Amazon's Quidsi business (Diapers.com, Soap.com, BeautyBar.com and Wag.com) is looking at opening a 1,600 square-foot BeautyBar store in Manhasset, N.Y., according to a Women's Wear Daily report.

A California court denied Apple's motion for a preliminary injunction on Amazon.com's use of the term "Appstore" in a trademark infringement case. Apple hasn't established that its "App Store" mark is famous, in the sense of being "prominent" and "renowned," and there is also evidence that the term "app store" is used by other companies as a descriptive term for a place to obtain software applications for mobile devices, District Judge Phyllis J. Hamilton of the U.S. District Court of the Northern District of California said in an 18-page order.

The fastest-growing company in web history, Groupon's daily-deal site marries cents-off coupons to a Friday-after-Thanksgiving shopping frenzy. The company broke into the black just seven months after inception; globally, more than 500 copycat sites have already sprung up.

The team at Quidsi, which runs Diapers.com, Soap.com and was bought by Amazon this year, is launching Wag.com today. The site is a bubble 2.0 stab at Pets.com, which was a high-flying internet retailer in 1999 and 2000. It sold pet food and other pet supplies online.

The usual suspects top this year's National Retail Federation's list of the 100 biggest retailers. But giants like Wal-Mart, Kroger and Target need to be on the lookout for two nontraditional retailers that could threaten their coveted spots.

After cutting ties with Illinios and Texas, Amazon is now looking to turn its back on California too, after Governor Jerry Brown signed a bill that would enforce the collection of online sales tax.