online retail

I am told that buying an engagement ring is even more stressful than mustering the gumption to propose.

Choosing the right ring is an expression of who you are and what you feel. It can leave you a wreck, feeling like you should check into a halfway house for spiritual guidance.

An enterprising online jewelry brand called Ocappi would like to give you a chance of survival, an opportunity to finally impress your lover beyond standing next to her at a party and grinning like a stuffed fish.

Ocappi will send six rings of your choice to your home, so … Read more

A decent shrink costs at least $100 an hour.

A decent pair of shoes can cost you the same and they last a lot longer. They understand you better too.

Surely, therefore, we shouldn't be surprised that more than half of all Americans admit that if they want to feel better, shopping is their chosen Xanax.

With just a click or two, you can be clicking your heels and forgetting the awful lover who told you that this was surely forever before becoming surly last night.

I have on my screen the results of a survey performed by TNS … Read more

Reviewers have fawned over surround-sound speakers from Energy, a unit of the Klipsch Group.

Two years ago, CNET's Matt Moskovciak dubbed the Energy Take Classic 5.1 system "the best budget speaker system we've reviewed." The sound from the speakers is incredible, he wrote, and the $399 price tag unbeatable.

It was, anyway. A few months ago, upstart online retailer Monoprice debuted its 5.1 Hi-Fi Home Theater Satellite Speakers & Subwoofer system at $249. The speakers aren't just similar to the Energy system, and they don't just have the same dimensions and sound … Read more

A group of Republicans and Democrats yesterday reintroduced a federal bill that could cost online retailers and customers more money.

The Marketplace Fairness Act would allow states to require online vendors to collect sales and use tax on certain out-of-state purchases. Only businesses with less than $1 million dollars in annual U.S. sales would be exempt.

The bill was debated by the Senate last year but went nowhere. Now a group of 35 House members and 18 senators are trying again. And they're optimistic the bill will pass this time, according to The Hill.

The bill's top … Read more

Here is today's Super Bowl prediction: Craigslist is not StubHub.

Whenever there is a big game, nefarious beings will creep around the Web trying to find the passionate and the gullible, from whose emotions they can steal a little money.

Some people's desperation to secure tickets will exceed their ability to turn on their skepticism controls.

The Osgood family, from Hayward, Calif., were so keen to fly to New Orleans for Sunday's Super Bowl that they found an ad on Craigslist that offered tickets.

Cheap, they were not. But the four tickets were advertised at $5,900, … Read more

Amazon continues to reign as the most popular online store for customer satisfaction, according to a report out today from ForeSee.

Measuring the top online retailers for the holiday shopping season, ForeSee awarded Amazon a score of 88 out of 100, matching the company's top grade from last year. Amazon has scooped up the highest scores in the index for eight straight years, in large part because of the appeal and variety of its products, ForeSee said.

"At this point, Amazon has been dominant for so long and has such a history of focusing on the customer, its … Read more

Online retailers will have good reason to make merry this holiday season.

People shopping via the Internet will spend to the tune of $43.4 billion during November and December, according to a report out today from ComScore.

That figure is a 17 percent gain over last year's online holiday spending, which itself rose 15 percent over 2010's number. It's also way ahead of the retail industry's expectation of just a 4.1 percent rise in overall consumer spending this season.

"The strength leading up to and during the holiday season-to-date, in addition to a … Read more

It's a well-known hidden secret that online shopping is made more fluid by a glass of evening pinot noir.

Somehow, inhibitions subside and emotional -- that would be material -- needs are given full rein.

How clever, then, of Amazon to assist you in your online shopping comfort by offering you wine shipments to go with the books, movies, and 55-gallon tubs of personal lubricant it currently offers.

The Wall Street Journal reports today that Amazon will be launching a wine marketplace in the next few weeks, one that will surely lift the spirits.

It seems that company executives … Read more

Amazon's Marketplace has been a boon for third-party merchants looking to sell their products online. But according to a new report, it's not always fun working with the online retail giant.

The Wall Street Journal is reporting today that some retailers in Amazon's Marketplace have witnessed the online company examining which products they sell that are popular, and then offering them itself to the detriment of those merchants.

The Journal spoke with one retailer, Jeff Peterson of Collectible Supplies, who sold as many as 100 Pillow Pets a day. After continued success, he claims Amazon started selling … Read more