Articles by Chet Dembeck

According to a new report by Forrester Research, European e-commerce will grow at triple-digit rates over the next five years to a total of more than $1 trillion (US$) While this increased demand will quickly jump-start Northern Europe into e-commerce hyper-growth, the study found that Southern Europe will still lag behind, thereby preventing the r...

Yesterday, when e-tail giant Amazon.com announced that it will lose money despite record fourth quarter sales of $650 million (US$), its stock price plummeted as much as 16 percent Still, Amazon.com tried to explain away the latest loss -- which analysts estimate will be as much as 55 cents a share -- by blaming it on larger-than-expected inventory...

According to a new study by Forrester Research, the Internet healthcare industry is poised to explode in the U.S. and become a $370 billion (US$) business by 2004 To get to that point, the report says, firms will organize around a healthcare e-business network that will serve consumers, providers, distribution chains and payers.

When it was reported yesterday that online shoppers have been forsaking pure-play e-tailers in favor of brick-and-click sites, it surely sent a shudder across the dot-com landscape In the report, Media Metrix showed that nearly half of the 50 most visited Web sites during the holiday shopping season had a strong brick-and-mortar presence, while few...

A new report by investment banker Schroders shows that increased e-commerce competition and efficient Internet business models will push UK consumer prices down by 0.2 percent a year for the next three years The report adds that while the "Internet effect" will be felt unevenly across the different sectors that comprise Britain's retail price index...

Despite massive advertising campaigns undertaken by pure-play e-tailers during the holiday season, online shoppers gravitated toward brick-and-click sites, according to the latest figures from Media Metrix Nearly half of the 50 most visited Web sites have a strong brick-and-mortar presence, according to the report, while few of the pure-play Web si...

Just weeks after forming an alliance with America Online, retail behemoth Wal-Mart Stores unveiled its revamped Web site on the first day of the new year Wal-Mart and AOL announced a wide-ranging strategic alliance on December 16th, which included a new co-branded online service and numerous cross-marketing initiatives between the two companies.

Now that 2000 has arrived -- and we are all still in one piece -- I would like to suggest several New Year's resolutions for all startup and established e-commerce companies: Dispense with the fluff, jargon and cliches If these companies adopt my proposal, it would get their messages to the public efficiently and clearly, and make it easier for peo...

Earlier this week, I wrote a column about the boycott of Amazon.com that has been called for by Richard Stallman, an early developer of the Linux operating system My opinion was that Amazon should not be boycotted, which touched off a flurry of debate and commentary. Now, after having examined some of the letters and e-mails, I would like to revisi...

According to a new report by Forrester Research, Linux hysteria will give way to pragmatism in the new year Despite the fact that Linux-related companies such as VA Linux Systems and Red Hat have recently taken Wall Street by storm, Forrester says it sees no sign of CIOs abandoning existing platforms for Linux any time soon. However, the firm does ...

According to a recent survey of 9,800 online shoppers by BizRate.com, almost 90 percent of respondents consider an e-tailer's return policy to be the determining factor in whether or not they will continue to do business with the merchant Customers are expected to return five percent of the 36 million orders placed via the Internet this holiday sea...

The week before Christmas, U.S. talk radio shows and newspapers were buzzing with horror stories about dot-coms that were not going to be able to fulfill orders in time for the Christmas holiday The ripest target of these reports was Toysrus.com, the online branch of the brick-and-mortar superstore. After a string of e-commerce failures in 1999, th...

Despite the horror stories of canceled orders and late deliveries, most online merchants have every right to feel proud about how they performed this holiday season However, if there is one lesson to be gleaned from the online shopping frenzy of the last couple of months, it is that customer service is much more than making sure that the right cred...

Last week, as the Amazon.com holiday season symphony neared its crescendo, someone sounded a sour note Richard Stallman, an early developer of the Linux operating system, called for a boycott of Amazon in an article posted on the Linux Today Web site.

RealNetworks, a leading maker of software for playing video and audio online, is suing startup Streambox for an alleged violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act This clash is the latest in an ongoing e-commerce battle over which format will ultimately dominate the lucrative music and video Internet downloading market. Additionally, it unde...

According to published reports, priceline.com is planning to apply its "name-your-own-price" Web model to the tried-and-true traditional yard sale The new site, to be known as Perfect YardSale, will begin testing in January and will attempt to match buyers and sellers in much the same way that giant online auctioneers eBay, Yahoo!, and Amazon.com d...

The German unit of eBay has reportedly decided to sell companies online after a recent machinery auction led to the sale of a small construction company eBay Germany has been promoting its business-to-business area since November with the launch of eBayPro.de, a section of the auction site that offers commercial goods and services ranging from prin...

1999 has been a tough year for Toys "R" Us. Still, despite major problems, it has proved itself a worthy e-commerce player In August, when Toys "R" Us chief executive officer Robert Nakasone stepped down, many analysts believed that the resignation was a direct result of the company's inability to formulate an effective online marketing strategy.

According to a new report from Jupiter Communications, European e-tailers will rack up online sales of about 790 million Euros ($797 million US$) this season, despite the fact that their Web sites are woefully lacking in customer service Jupiter's survey discovered that a dismal 65 percent of European sites did not respond to e-mail queries within ...

This election season's flock of presidential hopefuls could learn a lot by watching how CEOs of high-tech companies spin bad news into sunshine The latest virtuoso performance came earlier this week, when Red Hat president and CEO Matthew Szulik commented on his company's unexpectedly wide loss of $3.5 million (US$) in its third quarter.