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E-commerce mergers and acquisitions may not grab as much attention as such high-tech pairings as Hewlett Packard and Compaq, but experts say the business-to-business (B2B) sector of e-commerce could see its share of consolidation in the coming months ...

Experts have a message for undecided shoppers who think a single comparison Web site will give them all the information they need to choose from among a dizzying array of options: Keep looking ...

In the realm of e-commerce, credit cards rule. But the distant relationship between buyer and merchant, combined with the anonymity enjoyed by potential wrongdoers, makes the processing job tougher than it would be for a brick-and-mortar purchase ...

Microsoft and Oracle find themselves butting heads in a number ofhigh-tech arenas, but the software giants have both managed to carve outa sizable presence in the e-commerce sector ...

In the world of e-commerce security companies, experts find it impossible to agree on which provider is king. But they agree emphatically that nobody does it all ...

Size matters a lot in the world of brick-and-mortar commerce, where the biggest retailers make the largest impact in marketing and pricing. But online commerce in many ways is a great equalizer, and experts say small players can stay in the game -- and score some niche victories -- by using the same tools and strategies available to entrenched combatants...

Despite numerous legislative, consumer and technological efforts to weed it out, experts say spam e-mail continues to proliferate, sparking increasing user irritation in the process ...

Small-business entrepreneurs looking to make a splash on the Web need not drown in massive site construction costs. According to experts, there are many ways to keep the tab low. And if site builders are willing to start out with a no-frills approach, they can keep costs below US$1,000 ...

In its infancy, e-commerce disappointed merchants and investors who staked millions on the notion that it would somehow change the world forever. But e-commerce has grown up, and experts say it is making solid contributions to society even if the hype has faded ...

Many lessons can be learned from the merchants that hawk the best-selling products in e-commerce. Among other things, experts said, top sellers offer goods with few surprises that are easy to ship; they successfully separate the product from the buying process; and they offer extensive resources that allow comparison shopping across multiple channels...

As e-commerce companies continue to hone methods for reaching the masses, they are continuing to focus on personal service. After all, their business hinges on keeping customers happy and loyal. Toward this goal, companies are employing "page pushing," live chat and other interactive methods to give their sites a human touch ...

As brick-and-mortar retail chains and long-established catalog players grab a growing share of e-commerce sales, operators of smaller online stores are finding themselves hard-pressed to stake and hold their claim to shoppers' dollars ...

Search engine sites are continually on a quest to find the right formula for generating revenue. Since experience has shown that such companies cannot live by banner ads alone, they must employ a variety of techniques to make money and stand apart from competitors, according to experts ...

E-commerce has notched some notable successes when it comes to selling books(Amazon), auctioning items (EBay) and helping customers make travel plans (Travelocity and others). But numerous dot-com implosions also shone a spotlighton e-commerce ideas that did not go over quite as well ...

At one time, e-commerce retailers found it crucial to join one of the major online malls -- such as Yahoo! Shopping, Lycos or Excite -- if they wanted to have any chance of success. But times are changing as portal sites de-emphasize shopping and consumers find other ways to access their favorite stores on the Web ...

Despite frequent server upgrades, e-commerce sites remain as open to hacking as ever -- as witnessed by the continuous stream of headline-making viruses hitting the Internet. Online merchants often use marketing strategies to ease consumer fears, but it is ultimately technology that beats security threats ...

Web users do not get loaded down with packages when they go from site to site, but they do lug some baggage in the form of passwords. Commerce and content sites increasingly ask visitors to log in with a password, taxing the memories of those who frequent multiple sites ...

While there is no single "gold standard" for online design, experts say there are a number of high-quality Web sites that manage to approach that ideal by excelling in the areas of functionality, style and ease of use ...

Industry analysts say retailers can generate increased revenues from their Web operations without cannibalizing sales that would have been made in their offline stores and without having to make huge new investments. ...

Speaking strictly hypothetically -- it is, after all, one of the few consistently profitable pure e-commerce companies around -- if EBay (Nasdaq: EBAY)were to disappear tomorrow, there would be plenty of competitors to grab up the online auction giant's customers ...