commerce

Southeast Asia e-tailer Lazada raises $100M in funding

Lazada, an online retail sales business focusing on Southeast Asia, says it has raised another $100 million from investors apparently confident of the region's growth potential.

The e-commerce site, which bills itself as the "Amazon of Southeast Asia," was launched in early 2012 by Germany's Rocket Internet, which specializes in launching e-commerce sites, mostly in emerging markets. Like Amazon, Lazada offers consumer electronics, household goods, toys, and sports equipment.

While online shopping is popular in other regions of the world, the company estimates that Southeast Asians still do 99 percent of their shopping offline. Lazada CEO … Read more

NBA star turns to Twitter to sells his bulldog

There's a certain imaginative depth in the relationship between the wealthy and the Web.

Zach Braff, David Fincher, and Kristen Bell are merely three of the star-kissed who have learned how to take back and tried to get money from their fans on Kickstarter.

Kendrick Perkins, meanwhile, also decided that the personal touch might help him out of a tiny bind.

The center for the NBA's Oklahoma City Thunder wanted to sell his bulldog. But not for him stooping to eBay or Craigslist. Those would be a long, long distance for Perkins to stoop.

Instead, as the terriers of Deadspin report, … Read more

Amazon supersizing its food delivery business?

Never mind the books, movies, music, computer gear, and whatever else you might buy from Amazon. How about a nice banana?

The e-tail giant is seriously considering a big move into the grocery-delivery business, according to a report.

The company is set to expand its Seattle-only AmazonFresh service to Los Angeles as early as this week and to the San Francisco Bay Area later this year -- with launches in 20 other urban areas in the U.S. and abroad contingent on the success of the LA and SF businesses -- Reuters reports, citing two unnamed sources.

It's true … Read more

Walmart exec: Mobile can revive personal touch for shoppers

LAS VEGAS -- Walmart believes smartphones can deliver the same kind of personalized service that founder Sam Walton embraced with his first store.

Where e-commerce brought the store to the Web, smartphones are bringing the Web to physical stores, with each consumer able to access data from their phones, according to Gibu Thomas, head of mobile for Walmart.

"The future of retail is the history of retailing," he said during a keynote address at the CTIA Wireless trade show on Wednesday. "It's about a personalized experience for each shopper delivered through the smartphone."

Critics fear … Read more

Fab redesigns site, acquires German furniture maker

Fab says it's changing direction again and this time it's to fully cement itself as a design-focused online retailer with new Fab-exclusive products and the acquisition of a German startup that sells custom-made furniture.

"This time, we would do it gradually -- over 16 months it turns out, and with 600 amazing teammates alongside us -- but methodically, from our start as this interesting flash sales website for design to The World's #1 Design Store," CEO Jason Goldberg wrote in a blog post Tuesday. "We planned this pivot and mapped out how to do … Read more

eBay sets ambitious goal for 2015: $300B in transactions

E-commerce site eBay looks to be moving into high gear.

CEO John Donahoe announced today that by 2015, he expects the company to be handling $300 billion in transactions per year, according to The Wall Street Journal, nearly twice what it did in 2012. That means, for 2015, between $21.5 billion and $23.5 billion in revenue from both eBay and its payments processing unit PayPal. In 2012, the company earned $14 billion in revenue.

According to the Journal, the company also plans to double the number of active users on its site over the next two years -- … Read more

Google tiptoes into same-day local delivery service

Google is going to start dabbling in same-day deliveries, and wants you online shoppers to help out.

Well, if you're doing your online shopping in the San Francisco Bay Area, that is. The company is calling its Google Shopping Express service, unveiled today, a "new experiment" that's in an "incredibly early days" phase, and the company is starting small to try to work out the kinks and avoid headlong overcommitment. (Consider the similar approach it's taking with Google Fiber in the Kansas City area.)

Google has enlisted a number of national and local … Read more

Google to split mapping, commerce ops, WSJ reports

It appears that Google's "spring cleaning" is even broader than thought.

The online search giant is splitting its mapping and commerce unit into two separate businesses, The Wall Street Journal reported today, citing its sources.

Jeff Huber, who led the mapping and commerce business, is stepping aside from his role and will be moving to the Google X unit, the Journal said. That business is run by Google co-founder Sergey Brin and works on projects such as self-driving cars and Google Glass.

Google confirmed to CNET that Huber is shifting roles.

"Jeff is an extraordinary executive,&… Read more

Google's rival to Amazon Prime eyes Target as partner -- report

Google's rumored Amazon Prime competitor, Google Shopping Express, has at least a couple of major retail partners, according to a report published yesterday.

In an e-mail reportedly sent to employees, Google said that its Shopping Express platform works at several retailers, including Target and Babies R Us, according to TechCrunch, which obtained a copy of the message. Google employees who are currently testing out the service and have opted to become members are allowed free shipping. Those who are simply testing it out but won't become members pay $4.99 per delivery, according to the e-mail.

TechCrunch last … Read more