Beth Cox

It turns out the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) was right all along — a new report shows that continued use of file-sharing services and CD-burning has cut sharply into online sales of recorded music. In fact, figures from Reston, Va.-based research and measurement company comScore Networks say that 2002 online music sales through […]

Amazon.com, which has a track record of soft launches for some of its retailing initiatives, has opened its “Project Ruby” retail clothing effort to the public, launching an online store that will carry merchandise from more than 400 major clothing brands. Although the company refused to comment on the matter Wednesday, a day later an […]

Homestore is still trying to put its house back in order, and a few more bricks were put in place this week as the troubled online real estate play signed a content deal with Internet Broadcasting Systems that will give it exposure on TV station Web sites in 40 U.S. markets. Westlake Village, Calif.-based Homestore […]

Online retail kingpin Amazon.com, which quietly began beta testing sales from third-party print catalog marketers last May, reportedly is set to launch a new apparel store featuring clothing from name-brand apparel companies. Seattle-based Amazon , which has had a long-term strategy of partner deals with other retailers (Target stores, Toys ‘R’ Us, Circuit City, Office […]

Europe, not North America, is expected to lead the world in online holiday spending this season, albeit not by much, says a new Internet sales forecast. The reason? Better sales channel integration by retailers. A new report from GartnerG2, a research service that is part of Gartner Inc. , forecasts that Europeans will spend an […]

Amazon.com, which reported record third-quarter revenues of $851 million, said its free shipping offers aimed at increasing order size appear to be working and will remain as promotions at least through the holidays. However, the question ultimately will be whether the promotions will drive enough revenue to eventually produce real profits, not the pro forma […]

Moving to capture more of the so-called “Web fare” ticket market, travel giant Sabre Holdings is offering enticements to carriers that sign a multi-year deal covering distribution of all airline content through Sabre’s Global Distribution System (GDS). US Airways , restructuring under bankruptcy protection, is the first carrier to sign up. Southlake, Texas-based Sabre , […]

Patching up a mini-feud, online travel operation Expedia.com and Northwest Airlines said they have reached an agreement that once again lets consumers buy Northwest tickets via the Expedia site. Northwest , a founding partner of the airline-backed Orbitz online ticket sales operation and the fourth-largest U.S. airline, had complained that Expedia was refusing to display […]

If you have a small to medium-size e-commerce business, maybe it’s time to think about circling the wagons. At least one could reasonably draw that conclusion after taking a gander at the latest executive briefing on “Economic & Consumer Insights for Marketing Executives” from BIGresearch. The findings from a survey of about 7,600 consumers polled […]

Online auction leader eBay beat Wall Street’s expectations Thursday, reporting after the bell that its third-quarter earnings were $61 million, or 21 cents a share, on net revenues of $288.8 million. Equally important, the San Jose, Calif.-based company said that for the fourth quarter it expects to see sales of $372 million to $381 million, […]

You’d think that with a name like Mall.com, any e-commerce site could succeed, but apparently not. The eponymous company has taken down its Web site and disappeared into the virtual dust, apparently taking the ad budgets of a number of smaller online companies with it. Austin, Texas-based Mall.com Inc., which had aimed to be a […]

“Dear customer, We want to inform you that because of some technical problems and a great data loss our team scheduled a maintenance session and managed to keep your account and auctions in good state. Please verify if you are still able to log in and if your account is active clicking here: (The actual […]