Spotlight Features

Though overshadowed by word of Amazon's first-ever profits, the e-tailer's offer of free shipping on large orders may have an even greater impact on the e-commerce landscape, according to analysts. "Shipping is a very big issue, both with people who don't buy online and those who do," Forrester a...

There is probably no such thing as a bad e-commerce customer. But which ones are the best, the most likely to take an e-tailer into the promised land of perpetual profits? While affluent customers and those who shop regularly are clearly sought after, other factors also help define the perfect cu...

Although hack-fighting weapons constantly are being devised and made available, many sites are still too small to invest the time and money needed to install and maintain the latest security measures. But their lack of diligence could cost them more in the long run, according to experts. "For eve...

If the saying is true that one person's junk is another's gold, then there should be plenty of wealth to go around for e-businesses these days. After all, the junkyard of bad e-commerce ideas has been piling up steadily for several years, including the high-profile failures of Furniture.com, E-St...

Although retail revenues were down overall during the 2001 holiday season and for the year, online retail saw double-digit growth. Does that mean online shopping is recession-proof? Most analysts say no, and point to a number of reasons why e-tail is still growing, although not at the exponential...

The anonymity of the Internet and the potential for higher rewards for criminals has fueled an alarming increase in cybercrime activity in recent years. Many analysts believe that ill-equipped law enforcement officials will remain one step behind online lawbreakers unless they mount a more compre...

Web users do not get loaded down with packages when they go from site to site, but they do lug some baggage in the form of passwords. Commerce and content sites increasingly ask visitors to log in with a password, taxing the memories of those who frequent multiple sites. "One of the biggest hindr...

While there is no single "gold standard" for online design, experts say there are a number of high-quality Web sites that manage to approach that ideal by excelling in the areas of functionality, style and ease of use. Few sites manage to succeed in all three areas, analysts told the E-Commerce T...

E-tailers are now faced not only with the enormous challenge of reaching and sustaining profits, but the even more difficult challenge of achieving profitability in a market that has passed the initial phase of spectacular growth and is a virtual melting pot of different target groups. "It's beco...

Industry analysts say retailers can generate increased revenues from their Web operations without cannibalizing the sales that would have been made in their offline stores and without having to make huge new investments. E-tailers that do a better job of integrating all of their sales channels --...