Sprint’s newest Android is a 3G phone that can be a mobile hotspot and uses a powerful processor. But the best spec is the price: $20 with contract. Slice is a must-have new Android app for digital shoppers, while one app maker is abandoning Android. Read more »
One of the top apps for iOS landed on Android devices today: Slice, a free, online shopping organizer, is now available in the Google Play app store. Slice consolidates online orders, providing one place to look at your purchase history, your spending habits, and real-time package delivery tracking. Read more »
Although some believe the death of brick-and-mortar retail is inevitable, Mark Sigal, CPO of Unicorn Labs, thinks we all have a vested interest in seeing the industry reboot itself for the modern age. He outlines three paths for physical retail stores to avoid extinction here. Read more »
Nielsen released a study that found just about a third of smartphone users turn to their device for shopping-related activities. But the study highlights that while not everyone is using their phone in this way, many more would like to. Read more »
Pricetector, which launched a price adjustment service called Savvy.com in November, is rebranding under the name Eyeona, as it looks to become an even more useful tool to both consumers and retailers. Eyeona’s goal is to help retailers build a stronger relationship with consumers. Read more »
Fancy, a self-expression social site, is launching a new demand-driven commerce model today that will let vendors and retailers sign up to be a seller on any item fancied on the site. They will be able to conduct the transaction right on Fancy. Read more »
Exclusive: Ingk Labs, an IP accelerator in New York City, has purchased payment platform ORCA Inc. and will use it to power a new PayPal competitor called Payz. Ingk Labs is ramping its efforts to rescue and accelerate IP and put it to work in start-ups. Read more »
Amazon is reportedly preparing to dip its toes into the brick-and-mortar retail market with its first boutique test store in the Seattle area. The move, which could face a lot of challenges, makes sense as Amazon extends its buying experience to retail stores. Read more »
This year’s CES was the biggest in the show’s 44-year history. It boasted 15 miles of exhibit hall aisles, 3,100 booths and 153,000 attendees. It is easy to be jaded by the endlessly repetitive products, but the thousands of innovations point toward a future of connectivity. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
The top 20 Internet retailers changed their prices 30 times more often than their peers who had lower sales during the holiday season in 2011, according to BlackLocus, a startup that helps companies set competitive prices online. Its goal is to transform retail pricing with data. Read more »
In just a short time, modern tablets have become potent shopping tools that generate an outsize effect on online commerce. 2011 was the year that the tablet became an online retailer’s best friend as it emerged as the preferred device for many shoppers to make purchases. Read more »
It’s been a long time coming, but the worlds of fashion and technology have finally begun to combine in a serious way. A new crop of companies is using the web to make the process more data-driven and social than ever before. Read more »
Design store Fab.com has seen a surge in mobile use since launching mobile apps in October, with 30 percent of traffic now coming in via mobile. But more impressive is the fact that mobile visitors are generating twice as much revenue than visitors to Fab’s website. Read more »
The outsize growth in online spending this holiday season suggests that e-commerce as a sector of the economy has passed some kind of tipping point and that factors beyond simply convenience and price — both long-standing hallmarks of online shopping — are propelling the e-commerce sector ... Read more at GigaOM Pro »
EBay is continuing its buying spree, snapping up Germany’s BillSafe, a payment-by-invoice provider. The new acquisition will be rolled up into PayPal, which made a minority investment in BillSafe last year and collaborated on a joint online invoice payment solution for e-commerce customers. Read more »
The new breed of e-commerce sites offers consumers ways to socialize and be entertained. But as Rags Gupta of Brightcove points out, these new new commerce sites are taking advantage of old principles. Their innovation comes from introducing them online. Read more »
The effort to figure out the biggest online shopping day of the year is still in flux, with Thanksgiving so far seeing the peak traffic, according to Akamai. Will this year be the one where turkey day beats out Cyber Monday? Stay tuned. Read more »
One of the interesting shopping trends this year the emergence of mobile devices helping front-load more online holiday sales, as shoppers aren’t waiting for those two days to kick off their spending. It’s another way in which mobile is redefining holiday shopping. Read more »
Details of Apple’s Black Friday sales have reportedly been leaked online, and in terms of Apple’s own products, there are few surprises. What might be more exciting are the accessory deals, however, some of the best of which offer heavy discounts for premium gear. Read more »
Apple was the second-most popular online retailer in the U.K., according to data collected by web stats measurement firm Experian Hitwise and IMRG released Monday. Apple rose to second place from eighth the previous quarter, thanks to a five-fold increase in traffic between August and October. Read more »
Slice, the service that organizes online shopping information such as receipts and shipping information, has launched its first iPhone app. There’s no doubt that Slice is solving first-world problems, but it is quite useful: Slice for web has become quite popular since its May launch. Read more »
Fashion sites have become huge, but what if the people who spend hours curating fashion and style products online could make money from the experience as well? Enter StyleOwner, a new e-commerce platform that lets anyone in the United States create and run an online boutique. Read more »
It may seem like Amazon.com has conquered every corner of the e-commerce market, but it has its sights on a new vertical to add to its empire: Groceries. Quidsi, the wholly-owned Amazon subsidiary, has launched a new grocery category within its Soap.com website. Read more »
Despite the threat of online fraud, consumers are increasingly getting comfortable shopping online. ThreatMetrix and the Ponemon Institute did some consumer surveys and found that one-third of people said they plan on spending more online than they do in-store this year. Read more »
QR codes, those tiny 2D codes are big on is hype, with proponents touting them as the bridge between the offline and online world. But that offline to online bridge is structurally flawed and may be keeping many brands from reaching their audience effectively. Read more »
Kids love toys. But the sheer number of toys and games continuously coming out on the market can make toy shopping a big drag for grownups. Amazon.com is launching a new site called YoYo aimed at making the toy shopping experience a bit less overwhelming. Read more »
Apple has made a couple of minor changes to its online store Friday morning, which, though small, should make shopping for products through the web-based portal even more painless. The first is a new iPad-ordering process, and the other is a change in stock level indicators. Read more »
Groupon has shown just how popular daily deals sites can be in the United States — but Latin American daily deals site Peixe Urbano is proving that an appetite for bargains knows no borders. Since its March 2010 launch, Peixe Urbano has attracted 11 million users. Read more »
Interactive fashion website Polyvore has officially entered into inflection point territory. The Mountain View, Calif.-based startup, which is backed with $8.2 million in venture capital, has achieved profitable operations and is currently seeing record web traffic, co-founder Jess Lee told me in an interview this week. Read more »
Digital coupon company Coupons.com has closed on a $200 million funding round. About half of this round will be used to provide liquidity to early investors and employees at the 13-year-old company, and the rest will be put toward meeting growing demand, CEO Steven Boal said. Read more »
Project Slice, which just raised $9.4 million, is introducing an app called All My Purchases for the new Yahoo Mail that organizes a user’s online receipts, shipping notices and daily deals and helps people make sense of it all like a Mint for online purchases. Read more »
The holiday shopping season has shifted into full gear. But while online retailers are sure to see stronger sales than their offline rivals, the desperate discounts happening across the board threaten to erode any profits they may have once hoped for this season. Read more »
During the last recession, eBay not only prospered but flourished — not so this time around. Over the past year, eBay has de-emphasized auctions and put more focus on “buy-it-now,” fixed-price sales. In some ways, the strategy makes sense. But the move away from the freewheeling bazaar and into tighter competition with the likes of Amazon has resulted in a drop in traffic. Read more »
