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The days of handmade coupon books for Mother’s Day are dwindling as consumers are using online retailer coupons to spoil mom this year. FTD promoted a floral deal through LivingSocial, and Amazon.com is selling Kindles with a bonus gift card to the site.

From Groupon to Ikea, these companies are changing how we buy. 

Ever since the first e-commerce website appeared, manufacturers have been smitten with the idea of transacting directly with consumers in the digital realm. However, some of their early attempts at online retailing offered poor customer experiences and didn't support their relationships with retailers. These days it's a different story.

Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) is about to propose sweeping legislation that would impose a tax on all online purchases in a move aimed at closing states' budget shortfalls. Durbin's bill, dubbed the Main Street Fairness Act, intends to push online retailers to collect state sales tax on items purchased out of state. For more than a decade internet shoppers have enjoyed a sales tax holiday as a result of sales tax moratoriums established in 1998 to foster growth in the digital sales business. But with e-commerce businesses like Amazon.com no longer fledgling entities, and with states' budget deficits growing, imposing an e-commerce sales tax has become a hot-button issue.

The key to success on Amazon is understanding and abiding by best practices to make sure your product listings aren't only found by shoppers, but also appeal to shoppers. Most importantly, learn how to optimize search terms, product descriptions, details, images and more to position your products to sell on Amazon.

Hawaii lawmakers are looking for creative ways to tax online shopping, either by requiring internet sellers to hand over customer information to the government or by enrolling in a multistate program in which websites voluntarily collect taxes.

The building binge of warehouses and data centers sacrificed Amazon’s short-term profits to lift business over the long term, the company said when it released its first-quarter earnings statement.

Wal-Mart has begun testing an online grocery delivery service in San Jose, Calif., a company spokesman said. The world's biggest retailer had been rumored to be considering dipping its toe into online grocery delivery for the past few years.

Seattle-based e-commerce solution startup Decide.com has raised $6 million in venture capital courtesy of some of the top venture capital firms and angel investors throughout the Seattle and Silicon Valley areas.

Cart abandonment is a sensitive topic for almost every online retailer. Many companies and universities are conducting research on the data behind abandonment to find what ultimately causes consumers to place an item in their cart and then leave a retailer’s website before executing a purchase. Forrester Research finds that roughly 38 percent of all shopping carts are abandoned, while other data sources put that figure as high as 70 percent.