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Amazon: Little Threat From Target, Says JP Morgan

Tiernan Ray — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 21:37:30 +0000

By Tiernan Ray, Blogger, Tech Trader Daily, Barron’s

Target’s (TGT) decision today to build out its e-commerce infrastructure won’t likely hurt Amazon.com (AMZN), writes J.P. Morgan (JPM) 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.

“To deliver a customized multi-channel experience for Target’s guests, we believe it is in Target’s best interest going forward to assume full control over the design and management of Target’s e-commerce technology platform, fulfillment and guest services operations,” said Target president Steve Eastman in a prepared statement.

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And the Bragging Rights Go to Internet Retailers

Christopher Lawton — Sat, 03 Jan 2009 00:07:24 +0000

By Christopher Lawton, Consumer Technology Reporter, The Wall Street Journal

No retail category had a great Christmas, but e-commerce players have some reason to gloat over their brick-and-mortar counterparts: In certain key holiday categories, online sales outperformed offline retail sales, according to market research firm comScore (SCOR).

ComScore compared results from its research to data from MasterCard Advisors’ SpendingPulse, which is often used as an indicator of national retail sales. ComScore found that in categories such as apparel and consumer electronics, online sales fared better than offline. Online sales of apparel and related accessories grew four percent for the first 24 days of December versus the corresponding shopping days last year, for instance.

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E-Commerce: Evidence Sales Plunged After Christmas

Tiernan Ray — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 11:17:40 +0000

By Tiernan Ray, Blogger, Barron’s, Tech Trader Daily

You’ve got plenty of “roundups” and tallies of shopping to choose from at this point in the year, but the more you read them, the less appealing the headlines are. Last week came word from research firm comScore (SCOR), which tracks Web users’ activity, that sales from Nov. 1 through Dec. 21–in other words, through the last weekend before Christmas–had fallen one percent. Then came Wednesday’s report from comScore that for Nov. 1 through the day before Christmas eve, Dec. 23, sales fell three percent, and that when extended through Dec. 28, they fell four percent.

Now comes word from privately backed Mercent of Seattle, Wash., that online sales surged 80 percent on the 22nd and 23rd versus 2007, and then fell sharply after Christmas.

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