Beth Cox

Although it’s a law that would seem patently difficult to enforce, a federal appeals court has upheld a New York State law that prohibits the sale of cigarettes online or via mail order. While it’s as easy to circumvent as a plain brown wrapper, New York banned Internet cigarette sales in 2000, saying that such […]

Internet usage as a part of people’s everyday lives is increasingly pervasive around the world, says a new study, and e-commerce is more than ever a part of life online. Almost two-thirds (62 percent) of Internet users have by now purchased a product or service online, according to “The Face of the Web,” an annual […]

Travel site Expedia.com for some time has been focused on offering customers more than just hotels and airline tickets, and thanks to its relationship with Ticketmaster, the company is increasingly able to take a slam-dunk marketing approach. Just today, for example, Bellevue, Wash.-based Expedia rolled out an offering that lets customers buy tickets to NBA […]

Name-your-price travel service Priceline.com, feeling the effects of a decline in airline ticketing revenue, posted a fourth quarter GAAP net loss of $7.4 million, or 3 cents per share. Revenues came in at $197.3 million, substantially down compared to the $235.3 million the company took in for the same period a year ago. Analysts on […]

Overstock.com is taking aim at the King of the Hill in the online book business, looking to undercut Amazon.com on prices – and by 20 percent. Salt Lake City-based OverstockOverstock said it is offering customers 20 percent discounts to Amazon.com prices on more than 100,000 books. And the company said that shoppers will also be […]

Depending on whom you listen to, sales taxes on e-commerce transactions are: Natural and inevitable, and will create a level playing field for all retailers. Likely to put a big crimp in online sales and be devastating to small online businesses. Be so complex as to be unworkable without employing an army of accountants. (What […]

It’s often buried in the fine print on their Web sites, but a number of major e-commerce players, including Wal-Mart and Target, have begun charging their customers sales taxes on almost all online purchases. The move comes as a result of negotiations between the retailers and a consortium of state governments. Target Direct, for example, […]

What if they imposed a sales tax on online purchases, and nothing happened? A new study on the impact of sales taxes on e-commerce says that’s exactly what’s going to happen – nothing. Imposition of a sales tax on e-commerce transactions is indeed likely within three to five years, says the report from New York […]

Sometimes even marriages seemingly made in e-heaven don’t work out, and that’s just what has happened to famed auction house Sotheby’s, which is calling a halt to general auctions on its own eBay-powered Web site and will focus efforts on eBay itself. Just last June, San Jose, Calif.-based online auction giant eBay and upscale auction […]

Online travel operation Expedia.com quadrupled its fourth quarter net income to $21 million, or 33 cents a share, and, in a surprise move, said that founder Richard Barton is resigning as president and CEO effective March 31, for personal reasons. Erik Blachford, currently president of Expedia North America, will succeed Barton as president and CEO […]

The hotel industry as a whole has a ways to go when it comes to making the room-booking process user friendly, says a new study by a U.K.-based travel and hospitality consulting company. In fact, things are so bad designwise that many customers are confused by the prices displayed, and about half the time they […]

An E*Trade Bank subsidiary is acquiring a portfolio of 4,000 additional ATM machines, catapulting the company into the No. 2 position in the United States with a network of 15,000 machines. The parent company, Menlo Park, Calif.-based online banking and brokerage firm E*Trade Group , said that E*Trade Access Inc., a subsidiary of E*Trade Bank, […]