E-Commerce Express : amazon

Amazon Remains King of E-Commerce

'Net Features : wm-ecommerce — Thu, 27 Dec 2012 18:25:00 GMT

Consumers once again crowned Amazon the king of e-commerce, according to a recent holiday survey from analytics firm ForeSee. In fact, ForeSee ’s eighth annual Holiday E-Retail Satisfaction Index, which is based on more than 24,000 customer surveys...(read more)

Quick Hit: The Future of Gifting with Amazon & Facebook

'Net Features : wm-ecommerce — Mon, 17 Dec 2012 17:37:00 GMT

Amazon and Facebook have joined forces to offer a new feature in Friends & Family Gifting. Amazon has offered the ability for users to create and share item wish lists for quite some time, but if the wish list creators’ information (their Amazon...(read more)

Amazon Gives Businesses "Page" Up on the Competition

'Net Features : wm-ecommerce — Wed, 21 Nov 2012 20:00:00 GMT

Brands or agencies looking for an inexpensive and social-media savvy way to deliver its message and sell products worldwide – without having to build an entire solution or license, install and operate third-party software – may not have to...(read more)

Is Walmart's Semantic Search an Amazon Killer?

'Net Features : wm-ecommerce — Tue, 04 Sep 2012 21:23:00 GMT

Amazon may be far, far ahead in the race towards all-time e-commerce glory, but Walmart is leveraging some powerful technology to cut into its lead - namely on-site search. Walmart's Labs project/division unveiled a new search engine for Walmart.com...(read more)

Are Tablets Taking Over E-Commerce?

Website Magazine : ecommerce — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 20:05:00 GMT

When the iPad was originally announced, the critics were harsh, and most people didn't seem to see the purpose of yet another handheld device that didn't have the same computing power as a laptop, nor the portability (or ability to make calls...(read more)

Local Products Startup Milo Purchased by eBay

Linc Wonham — Fri, 03 Dec 2010 01:05:00 GMT

E-commerce giant eBay struck a significant deal Thursday, purchasing startup local product inventory search engine Milo.com for a reported $75 million.

There has been a lot of recent attention given to the growing importance of local commerce – with rumors swirling about a possible deal between Google and Groupon, as well as Amazon potentially investing in LivingSocial – and Thursday’s acquisition affirms that eBay has been doing more than just listening.

Milo lists product inventory for more than 50,000 stores across the U.S., including major retailers such as Macy’s, Best Buy and Target. Overall, the site features more than 3 million products for which users can search and determine in real-time whether a local store is carrying that product and at what price.

The site is an indispensable tool for local merchants to attract online customers to their brick-and-mortar stores. With Forrester projecting the research-online, shop-offline market to reach $1 trillion in 2011, Milo’s mission was to take ownership of that bridge between online browsing and in-store buying.

The purchase by eBay will give Milo a larger platform to do exactly that, but there are some potential obstacles. Google recently rolled out a local product inventory feature of its own in anticipation of the 2010 holidays, and Amazon is not likely to let neither Google nor eBay get too comfortable in the local products space without making a move.

And Google’s aforementioned interest in local deals provider Groupon, paired with Amazon’s interest in Groupon competitor LivingSocial, hints that the entire local commerce space is not only heating up but could also become fiercely competitive in 2011.