Amazon.com

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.

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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.

Office Depot admits it hasn't been taking care of business when it comes to its retail store customers. The big-box retail concept offering thousands of office supply products was no longer working. "Our model was broken," said Kevin Peters, head of the retail division for Boca Raton, Fla.-based Office Depot.

Best Buy said it will boost its web presence, shrink some larger stores and open more of its smaller U.S. stores to try to win back market share from the likes of Amazon and Wal-Mart.

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.