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Not a day goes by without yet another report of massive high-tech layoffs and lowered financial expectations -- not to mention the economic slowdown, stock prices in steep decline and the ongoing series of dot-com closures. But underneath most radar screens, a group of e-commerce sites are get...

A new report from The Boston Consulting Group said that pure plays that have already achieved significant scale, and niche Internet players that have already built loyal online customer bases, are likely to achieve success in the next stage of e-commerce evolution. However, the report also said ...

Late last week, eBay had to begin pulling the plug on what it determined were bogus "Mir Space Station Remains" postings -- but not before some bids reached amounts in excess of US$20,000. Is it really that easy to fool people through online auctions? "I think it's incredibly easy to fool people...

In another blow for the viability of high-ticket item online auctions, the much hyped live auction bidding of an exclusive set of Marilyn Monroe nude photographs on eBay ended without a sale Thursday evening. "Of course we're disappointed that the featured items did not meet the reserves, but tha...

Five months after unveiling one of the Internet's first home appliances, 3Com said Wednesday that it will discontinue offering its Web-surfing "nerve center for the home," dubbed "Audrey," in an effort to cut costs and reach profitability. IDC consumer devices analyst Bryan Ma told the E-Commerc...

Despite mounting evidence that the global economy is slowing, total worldwide retail e-commerce is expected to reach US$550 billion in 2001, a 92 percent increase from 2000, according to a report released Tuesday by eMarketer. "The Internet is alive and well and very resilient," eMarketer chief ...

Only two weeks after Egghead.com announced it was laying off 77 employees to cut costs, the computer software and hardware e-tailer said its chief financial officer, John Labbett, is leaving to "pursue a new opportunity closer to his home in Los Angeles." On March 7th, two days after the massiv...

Online toy sales are on track to grow from US$793 million in 2000 to $1.2 billion by 2002, according to a report released Wednesday by The NPD Group. When consumers were asked which Web site they would consider buying toys from online in the next six months, Amazon dominated with a 23 percent share...

Amazon jumped ahead of eBay during the month of February to become e-commerce's most visited Web site, according to a study released Tuesday by Jupiter Media Metrix. Amazon rose from the No. 11 position overall in January to No. 10 last month with a marginal increase of 71,000 unique visitors, to 1...

With the deadline for filing U.S. tax returns barely a month away, Intuit and H&R Block have shown no sign of abandoning their dominant status in the online tax preparation and filing sector. However, despite battling to a certain extent for control of the same consumers in a specialized m...

They say that for the one-year anniversary, paper is the appropriate gift. For the one-year anniversary of the Nasdaq Composite Index's all-time high, the almost unavoidable choice is a loss on paper. On March 10, 2000 the Nasdaq hit its all-time high of 5,132.52 -- an 88 percent increase f...

Federal prosecutors issued an indictment on Friday against three eBay users for self-bidding on their own art auctions in an attempt to spike bid prices. The indictment alleges that the three men used 40 different names on eBay to place over 50 false bids on paintings they auctioned online from...

Idealab!, the dot-com incubator behind eToys, CarsDirect and PetsMart.com, said Wednesday that it is moving some of its Silicon Valley functions home to the company's Pasadena, California headquarters. The move will result in a number of job cuts over the next few months. "Wherever possible, Id...

Perhaps the tone for eToys' imminent farewell from e-commerce was set in February, when the online retailer specifically warned investors that its own stock was "worthless." Forget about defiant last words. Forget about "if only" or "should have" disclaimers. Instead of going out with a bang, e...

Southwest Airlines confirmed Monday that it has stopped offering its flights through online travel company Travelocity -- the second jolt to Travelocity's operations in less than a week. On March 1st, Northwest Airlines and KLM Royal Dutch Airlines stopped paying commissions on Internet ticket s...

There's only one directive that seems to hold true across the e-commerce landscape these days: to survive, literally, at all costs. While some e-tailers are desperately seeking new revenue sources and better gross margins to stave off hostile investors, others are completely reinventing them...

As the dot-com shakeout nears the one-year mark, many companies might have a bad case of the E-Commerce Blues. Some analysts say that overspending and over-expansion, at the expense of monitoring cash flow and focusing on profitability, have doomed many e-tailers before they really ever began. Can...

Royal Ahold, the parent company of online grocer Peapod, has infused the struggling e-tailer with an additional US$30 million in financing, Peapod announced Wednesday. The new funding increases Ahold's original $20 million credit facility with Peapod to $50 million, Peapod said, leaving the e-ta...

For the first time in eight months, the dot-com layoff trend appears to be slowing, falling 9 percent in February, according to a report released Tuesday by the job placement firm of Challenger, Gray and Christmas. Over the past three months, nearly 35,000 Internet workers have been let go -- 12 ...

According to published reports, Internet service provider Microsoft Network is considering charging users access fees for select content provided via its UK Web portal within the next year. The plan is yet another signal that portal access fees on sites such as MSN and Yahoo! are just around th...