Spotlight Features

With consumer confidence beginning to ebb, brick-and-mortar stores are implementing new strategies designed to lure consumers across their thresholds. But retailers trying to balance an actual store with an online presence must employ an array of tactics to prevent cannibalization. Fortunately, s...

As consumers seek relief from bleak news about war and the economy, experts say entertainment could spawn the next wave of lucrative niche opportunities on the Web. For example, Yankee Group program manager Paul Ritter told the E-Commerce Times that Hollywood could prove to be an online blockbust...

Just as a museum helps visitors learn lessons from the past, a monument dedicated to bad e-commerce ideas might offer a similar education to those who sell on the Web. Such a memorial might impart a key truth: While users will flock to sites that make their lives easier, they will not change thei...

As e-commerce goes mainstream and stands on its own two feet, experts say the industry can no longer count on receiving the kid-glove treatment from the U.S. government. Nevertheless, as long as the economy remains fragile, it is also unlikely that the government will lift the current tax morator...

Amazon.com has finally turned the corner on the road to profitability, eBay set earnings records in the second quarter, and brick-and-mortar chains are buying into the e-commerce channel in droves. Does this mean that the e-tail shakeout is finally over? That depends on whom you ask. Analysts hav...

Numerous venture capitalists are nursing wounds sustained when companies collapsed and stopped going public at a record clip. But most of the VC firms that can trace their roots back to the pre-boom era are still hanging on, if not thriving. "Those who came late to the party and tried to grab all...

In its infancy, e-commerce was all about building a Web site, attracting "eyeballs" and capturing orders. But within a few years, with millions invested and no profitability in sight, many e-tailers were forced to close their virtual doors. Now that e-commerce has moved beyond the shakeout stage,...

As e-commerce server providers go head-to-head, touting their wares as the latest and greatest, meaningful hardware comparisons sometimes get lost in the shuffle. But what makes the ultimate e-commerce server? The answer to that question must be based on the particular e-commerce venture and its ...

Analysts agree that Dell's build-to-order model for selling PCs and servers not only works well for current market conditions but also is likely to keep rivals chasing the company for the foreseeable future. Still, the company must overcome some potential long-term hurdles.

Microsoft has generated so much hype about .NET that many are wondering whether the software giant's technology for connecting information, people, systems and devices can live up to its billing. Customers have given the technology a lukewarm, if not downright cold, reception, leading many to que...