Content about Electronic commerce

Employee morale
The following is a response to the article, “Unhappy employees are staying put.”

“[Unhappy employees are] soon to be going, or at least when the economy improves — that’s when they will leave in droves because of extreme low pay and lack of respect from employers. Why wouldn’t they? No one likes being used or abused. Do you?”
— Rick Heath

The National Retail Federation is responding to a report from the Federal Reserve, which revealed that debit card swipe fees collected by the nation's largest banks have significantly dropped since reform regulations took effect last fall. 

The PayPal pilot at Home Depot stores is rapidly expanding, going from 51 test locations in the San Francisco Bay Area this week to all 2,000 Home Depot stores by the end of March, according to Bloomberg News.

PayPal director of communications Anuj Nayar told Bloomberg the digital commerce company will extend the trial to 20 additional retail partners by the end of 2012.

John Donahoe, president and CEO of eBay, during a Jan. 18 earnings call expanded on the test of PayPal with retailer Home Depot. 

A division of EBay, PayPal is experimenting with extending its on-line payment system to point-of-sale retail locations. In the fourth quarter of 2011, it chose Home Depot as its first national retailer for a limited test at five stores. PayPal plans to widen the pilot to 51 stores in the Bay Area by the end of the month, Donahoe said.

He explained to investors how the payment process worked by relating his own experience.

Multichannel retailing has been a buzzword since long before Jeff Bezos first reported a profit at Amazon.com (that was back in January 2002). Today, the biggest home improvement retailers are still at it, walking shoulder-to-shoulder into the multichannel future. Well, at least, they sound a lot alike.

Consider the following clicks-and-bricks-related comments:

The third annual Mobile Audit, released Thursday by e-commerce and digital marketing company Acquity Group, found that mobile adoption is on the rise. In fact, the percentage of retailers with a mobile site reached 37% in 2011, up from 12% in 2010 and only 4% in 2009 -- a 210% increase over the past year alone.

The National Retail Federation Wednesday said that legislation introduced in the House to repeal debit card swipe fee reform would cost consumers more than $6 billion a year in savings that merchants plan to pass along to their customers. 

Sometimes it’s the little things that make the biggest differences. Then again, sometimes it’s the big things.


The Fort Wayne, Ind.-based Do it Best Corp., fresh from its October Market in Indianapolis, is advancing a slate of initiatives both large and small. Projects range from reprinting its field staff’s business cards to building what it calls a digital World Class Commerce Center. And as CEO Bob Taylor sees it, they are all in service of one overarching goal: serving the members. 


Let’s start with the big plans first. 


A customer satisfaction survey by J.D. Powers and Associates found that sales, delivery and installation service are slightly more important than facilities, product assortment and price when it comes to buying major appliances. 

The Los Angeles Times reported that Amazon.com will continue to fight against a California law passed July 1, which requires the company to collect a 7.25% sales tax. Amazon said that the law is unconstitutional, and has now announced that it will make the case against the sales tax to voters, in hopes that they will vote to overturn it.

Are banks and credit card companies charging too much for debit transactions? Here's what we heard:

Power Equipment Direct, an Internet-only retailer with nine e-commerce sites, has opened its first bricks-and-mortar store -- right down the street from Home Dept, Lowe’s and Sears. According to an article in Internet Retailer, the Bolingbrook, Ill., location, a suburb of Chicago, is adjacent to one of the company’s warehouses, allowing immediate fulfillment of most orders.