Several Internet stocks are taking some heat this morning following the release yesterday of a Senate report on aggressive sales tactics on the Web–and in particular singling out for scorn a practice known as “post-transaction marketing.”
Depending on whom you ask, U.S. online shopping is either in unprecedented decline–or one of the only bright spots in American retail.
On Thursday, comScore reported that U.S. online spending in the third quarter slipped two percent to $29.6 billion versus last year.
Amazon.com has ended a trial program to sell wine online, the company confirmed.
The wine sales pilot, which the e-commerce giant launched last year, was intended to sell wine from California’s Napa Valley and other U.S. regions.
Akamai is losing deals in an attempt to hold the line on content deliver network pricing, according to Merriman Curhan Ford analyst Richard Fetyko, who late yesterday cut his rating on the stock to Sell from Hold.
Blue Nile Inc. is expected to unveil a major overhaul of its Web site Tuesday as the online jeweler tries to broaden its appeal, especially to women. But like other e-commerce sites retooling to combat slowing growth, it faces the tricky task of trying to make improvements without losing core customers.
Alibaba Group’s restructuring of its China Yahoo business, which strips out a classified listings operation added to the site last year, marks yet another setback for China Yahoo since its high-profile tie-up with the Chinese e-commerce giant four years ago.
Target’s decision today to build out its e-commerce infrastructure won’t likely hurt Amazon.com, writes J.P. Morgan analyst Imran Khan in a note to clients. In fact, it could help.
Target announced today it would construct its own order-fulfillment services for its online sales, which totaled $1.8 billion last year, according to Khan’s estimate, signalling the end of its use of Amazon’s back-office fulfillment services, for which Amazon receives a fee.
Memo to Twitter: If you’re really going to be making money with sponsored direct messages, as a New York Times article hints, please make sure it doesn’t get annoying.
Amazon.com is absolutely on fire. The company posted Q1 results that blew away estimates, with EPS of 41 cents a dime ahead of the Street, as both gross margins and operating margin expanded in the face of the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression.
In the past week, eBay Inc. chief executive John Donahoe has taken steps to divest two businesses, acquire another, and revamp his company’s core e-commerce website.
During a call with investors Thursday morning, Donahoe said he thinks an initial public offering for eBay’s Internet-phone unit Skype will best “maximize value,” but he would be open to an unsolicited offer from another company to buy it outright.
EBay unveiled some long-promised changes to its e-commerce site on Tuesday. Some of the most vocal eBay sellers are giving the changes tepid applause–but still complain eBay isn’t addressing a more fundamental problem for buyers with the fees it charges.
One online retailer to rule them all.
Amazon.com could be responsible for close to a third of all U.S. e-commerce transactions, RBC Capital analyst Stephen Ju asserted in a research note this morning. Ju notes that Amazon’s reported revenues consist of a mix of gross revenues from its own businesses plus net third-party commissions.
Shopping on cellphones–long a dream among e-commerce companies–is not yet a mass-market phenomenon. But some new tools could help change that picture.
An eight-year-old from Asheville, N.C., found that there are limits to where you can sell Girl Scout cookies. Her dream of selling 12,000 boxes to send her entire troop to summer camp has been dashed by a technicality that’s left people scratching their heads.
At a time when most companies aren’t willing to offer guidance on the March quarter, eBay is laying out its vision for 2011.
And what it sees is a big opportunity for PayPal.
In connection with the company’s analyst meeting today, eBay said its growth will be driven by its two core businesses: PayPal and e-commerce. In something of a repositioning, the company says that PayPal “has become a second core business,” with an opportunity to become even bigger than eBay Marketplaces.
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