Spotlight Features

Many companies are beginning to throw in the towel when it comes to getting adolescents to make a purchase online. However, it might be too soon for e-tailers to surrender to the teen e-commerce problem. What follows is an exploration of the attempts companies can make to cap the generation gap a...

It's one of the oldest forms of communication, but word-of-mouth remains a potent marketing force in the digital age. E-commerce experts say that pass-it-along marketing -- also known as viral marketing -- is a highly effective way to create online buzz for new products and services. Analysts tol...

Want to write a plan for an e-business that will impress post-shakeout investors? Start with a business that makes money, experts say, and then explore how the Web can help your business succeed. "Treat your e-business like any business startup," Al Napier, a professor of e-business and entrepre...

Hard times have come to the e-commerce software industry -- and they've come with a vengeance. "Everyone's suffering right now," Aberdeen Group analyst David Alschuler told the E-Commerce Times. "It's affecting every vendor. But really the ones with smaller market shares and less liquidity are go...

It's no secret that mis-targeted, misspent brand advertising dollars have gotten e-tailers into plenty of financial hot water over the past few years. However, there is at least one target audience for whom a large, consistent dose of brand marketing makes perfect sense. In fact, when it comes to...

Whatever the future holds for online prescription drug sales, Drugstore.com is standing by its predictions of profitability by the year 2004, even after another quarter of reported losses. In fact, president and chief executive officer Kal Raman told the E-Commerce Times this week that his compan...

Catalogs have proven to be a catalyst for online retail success. According to industry analysts, retailers that already had catalog operations in place have effectively adapted their offerings -- including known brands, sheer size and developed distribution networks -- to consistent success onlin...

Consumers are a demanding bunch. And as technology gets exponentially better and cheaper over time, online shoppers are wanting better and cheaper access to what they are looking for. Forrester Research senior analyst Paul Sonderegger told the E-Commerce Times that users "are downright hostile to...

In the glory days of e-tailing, many Internet pure plays spent lavishly on customer acquisition and loyalty programs, but corporate naivete and consumer greed proved a crippling combination for those online businesses. As a result, e-tailers were forced to rethink their promotion strategies, esp...

Career planning in e-commerce is not for the weak-spirited. A struggling technology sector and an economy teetering on recession have severely limited the opportunities for middle- and upper-level managers. "With the way the market changes so quickly these days, it is very difficult to speculate ...