Some retailers using Ajax design technology to enhance customer experience have reaped higher conversion and lower page-error rates.

Transactional e-mails can build relationships and increase sales with well-designed promotional messages, Silverpop Systems Inc. research says.

New web-based workforce management tools enable retailers to coordinate activities with worker productivity.

Retailers achieve merchandising success online via an assortment of technologies and tactics.

Finding the right vendor for a foreign market takes a lot of research and due diligence—and patience.

A $40 late fee begets an idea by Netflix CEO Reed Hastings worth $682.2 million.

Nordstrom undertakes a huge, years-long I.T. infrastructure project to help create a seamless shopping experience across three channels.

Borders Group Inc. is big on promoting interactivity on the web, where shoppers can click through a playful gift finder on BordersGifts.com to get gift recommendations based on someone’s personal characteristics. Now it’s extending interactivity into social networking.

What many multi-channel retailers may not realize is how much they may have to share cross-channel sales with competitors. Despite spending more and purchasing with greater frequency, multi-channel shoppers tend to be less loyal than their single-channel counterparts, research and advisory firm Gartner Inc. says. The two primary reasons are that multi-channel shoppers are more price-sensitive because they use the online sales channel to conduct more price comparisons, and they have higher expectations for customer service.

No longer the slowpokes on the information superhighway, car dealers are upgrading their web sites to better interact with vehicle shoppers as well as with manufacturers.

Is how an Internet user approaches time management a key factor in how to successfully market to that person? Yes—a potentially significant one, a new study suggests.

AT&T, to get government approval of its acquisition of BellSouth Corp., last month promised not to impose a tiered system of wired broadband Internet access for the next two years, increasing hope among retail industry groups for federal legislation designed to keep the Internet a level playing field for e-commerce companies.

Top retail product and retailer name searches for November 2006

Sears Holdings Corp., in partnership with IBM Corp., last month moved further into the virtual world when it opened a prototype 3-D showroom called the “Sears Virtual Home” on Second Life. Second Life is a multi-player virtual world where people interact, play, do business and communicate online.

One of the traits that keeps market leaders Amazon.com Inc. and eBay Inc. ahead is their ability and their drive to evolve with e-commerce—and now, m-commerce, or e-retailing through mobile devices like cell phones and other personal digital assistants.

Trying to open the curtains on a dramatic comeback after several years of losing market share in the DVD rental market to its online competition, Blockbuster Inc. last month launched a 30-second TV commercial that takes direct aim at its biggest rival, Netflix Inc.

It’s time to look beyond this year’s Christmas trees to see just how far this e-commerce forest extends.

With much fanfare, Apple Inc. CEO Steve Jobs unveiled Apple’s long awaited iPhone in January–a device that might spur the widespread use of mobile commerce. But before the use of the iPhone and mobile _commerce become more mainstream, analysts say, there will be many intervening steps.

E-retailers step up their customer service programs with more staff, better interactive tools and faster response times.

Site search and merchandising technology incorporating more analytics and help from product reviews and content is refining merchandising.