Beth Cox

E-commerce mainstay Amazon.com has occupied the top overall online advertiser spot for eight of the past nine weeks, leading the retail segment, says a new industry research report. In fact, the report from Jupiter Media Metrix ad measurement firm AdRelevance says Amazon.com has run holiday-themed ads totaling over half-a-billion impressions each week since October. Apparently […]

Down but not out, Priceline.com, which just last week slashed its workforce and refocused its business on the basics, launched a new advertising campaign claiming that in three years of operation it has sold six million airline tickets and vowing to “See you in 2001.” And yes, there are pictures of William Shatner, the former […]

Much troubled Priceline.com said it has slashed about 11 percent of its workforce and “re-focused resources on its core businesses.” The company said it will continue with its name-your-own-price service for airline tickets, hotel rooms, rental cars, home finance, long distance and new cars, but will indefinitely postpone the introduction of its business-to-business, term life […]

Online holiday shopping began early this year with home Internet users cruising retail sites in significant numbers during November, according to PC Data Online’s latest Top 100 report. With more than 26 million unique users, Amazon.com was the top Web retail site in November, while walmart.com, bestbuy.com, half.com and CDNow.com all increased significantly from the […]

America Online Inc. and e-finance company Intuit Inc. launched Quicken Bill Manager on AOL and CompuServe, offering users of those services a solution to the recurring chore of paying bills – for a small fee. Financial arrangements between the companies were not disclosed. The service will be available through the Personal Finance Channels on AOL […]

Amazon.com said it has arranged with the United States Postal Service to deliver gifts over the Christmas weekend and even on Christmas Day in the contiguous 48 states. The online retailing giant said that customers can place orders through Dec. 23, and still have them delivered in time for Christmas. The special holiday weekend delivery […]

Discount baby goods e-tailer Babygear.com has shut down operations and filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy, meaning it plans to liquidate its assets. According to court documents (available at http://ecf.nysb.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/DocketSheet.pl?0-15700), Babygear.com owes creditors holding unsecured nonpriority claims just under $11 million. The company’s total assets are listed at $2.8 million. “We regret to inform you that […]

Pets.com Inc. , which is in the process of going out of business, signed a non-binding letter of intent to sell various URLs and related trademarks including the Pets.com domain to PETsMART.com. Effective immediately, typing the pets.com URL into a browser will take users to the PETsMART.com Web site. The purchase price was not disclosed. […]

Moving quickly to capitalize on the upcoming penny hike in the cost of a first-class stamp, Pitney Bowes Inc. said that it is offering a special one-cent discount off the new single-piece postage rate to its ClickStamp Online Internet postage customers. But its chief online postage rival, Stamps.com, downplayed Pitney Bowes’ goodwill play by saying […]

Although online advertising action for this holiday season is nearly four times what it was last year, online advertisers are off to a slower start, says a new industry report. The study by AdRelevance, a Jupiter Media Metrix company, shows that while the number of retailers advertising online this season (2,313) almost quadrupled from 1999 […]

E-commerce solution provider Commerce One Inc. made an unspecified investment in privately held NetVendor, a provider of B2B supplier apps. The companies also said they are forming an alliance designed to help connect supplier companies to B2B e-marketplaces, with a focus on the automotive, electronics, and aerospace business segments. Commerce One also named NetVendor as […]

The number of different people visiting retail sites during the week of Thanksgiving and Black Friday increased by 40.3 percent compared to the same week last year, from 25.1 million to 35.2 million unique visitors, according to figures from Web measurement firm Media Metrix. And rival measurement company NetRatings said that Amazon.com is leading the […]