Microsoft Corp.

Facebook and Twitter both broke records last month with the highest number of visitors seen by both sites, according to data released by comScore. For the month, Facebook was the fourth most visited website in the U.S., behind Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft.

Leading footwear brand and retailer, Aerosoles, selects Maple Lake Ltd.’sQuickAssortment software to centralize the retailers’ merchandise, store and assortment planning activities. Phase one of the implementation process has already been completed. “Operating a true multi-channel business with concept stores, outlet stores, e-commerce as well as a catalog and direct sales businesses requires some significant coordination; relying on spreadsheets is no longer an option for us,” says Tupper Kinder, CIO at Aerosoles. “We needed a tool that was flexible enough to cater to our unique ways of working, robust enough to support our volumes and growth plans, but that was

Microsoft is working on a social/design project called Tulalip, according to details from a splash page that was accidentally published to Socl.com. The splash page describes the Tulalip service as a way for users to “find what you need and share what you know easier than ever.”

Microsoft is continuing full speed ahead with its plan to open more brick-and-mortar retail stores. The company will be opening 75 Microsoft stores in the next two years to three years, Chief Operating Officer Kevin Turner told attendees of the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference.

A former Microsoft product manager who once worked for Michael Dell’s hedge fund aims to do for restaurants what Expedia does for airplanes: fill empty seats during off-peak hours.

An internal battle is raging at Microsoft over whether and how fast the company should open more retail stores. According to sources close to the company, CEO Steve Ballmer and COO Kevin Turner are both hot on the idea of matching — or even surpassing—  Apple's retail presence of over 300 stores. The stores are a big reason for Apple's success in the last decade, as they give customers opportunities to play with products like the iPad and iPhone.

Microsoft is aiming to capitalize on the same local deals fever driving the popularity of Groupon and similar websites, with a new Bing “Deals” tab that lets mobile users access daily discounts in their particular area. Desktop Bing users have also been given the means to scan for local deals.

Brands want to sell, shoppers want to buy. It may seem like a simple 1+1= 2 formula, but the digital shopping market is becoming more and more saturated with new forms of technology — e.g., social media, iPads, mobile phone apps. That, in turn, makes it even tougher for brands to convince shoppers to click and buy their products.

With the traditional video game industry in decline, the world's largest video game retailer GameStop figured it would have a lot to lose. Rather than become a dinosaur in a fading industry, however, the Grapevine, Texas-based cross-channel retailer took a series of steps to adjust its business model to remain relevant in an evolving and dynamic marketplace. Chief among those steps was a shift to providing consumers with more digital content.

In an effort to give consumers more information when they're shopping in-store, Canon U.S.A. has launched a mobile marketing program that centers around the mobile web and 2-D barcode technology.