shopping

Black Friday online shopping leaps 26 percent

It appears online retailers will have more to be jolly about this holiday shopping season.

Consumers in the U.S. spent $816 million online on Black Friday, a 26 percent increase over 2010's Black Friday, according to ComScore data released today. The results buttress numbers released Saturday by IBM Coremetrics that showed online sales on Black Friday grew by 24.3 percent compared with the same period last year.

Some 50 million visited online retail sites Friday, a 35 percent increase over last year, ComScore reported. Excluding auction sites such as eBay, the most visited retail site was Amazon, … Read more

How to shop safely online

Savvy online shoppers know they can get great deals on their holiday items without having to brave the Black Friday crowds.

Cyber Monday will be packed with discounted products from many tech companies and shopping sites, giving online customers an opportunity to save big while skipping the Black Friday chaos.

But before you let your keyboard do the shopping this season, peruse these tips for safe online shopping.

Here's the condensed version:

Vet the site you're buying from before you make your purchase Record the details of the item and delivery terms to ensure you get what you … Read more

E-shoppers go mobile on Thanksgiving, Black Friday

Apple's iPhone and iPad helped make mobile devices a key driver of Thanksgiving and Black Friday e-commerce this year, according to a report from IBM Coremetrics.

Online Thanksgiving shopping grew by 39.3 percent year over year, creating momentum that continued into Black Friday, where online sales grew by 24.3 percent compared with the same period last year, said the report (PDF).

And Black Friday witnessed the arrival of the mobile deal seeker, who embraced his or her mobile device as a research tool for in-store and online bargains. Mobile traffic came close to tripling year over year, … Read more

Black Friday alerts: Online scams abound, malls track you via cell

In addition to the usual online scams designed to defraud shoppers during the holiday season, several malls will be tracking people via their cell phones.

Beginning on Black Friday, Promenade Temecula, south of Los Angeles, and Short Pump Town Center in Richmond, Va., will be monitoring signals from shoppers' cell phones, CNN reports.

Mall officials say they want to be able to see traffic patterns in the various stores. No personal data will be collected and the information will remain anonymous, they said. Shoppers are given notice by small signs around the malls.

"We won't be looking at … Read more

iOS shopping apps: bar code scanners

This week's post is a special early edition of my weekly iOS app collection. Black Friday is the biggest shopping day of the year, and though I can't help you beat the lines or navigate through the crowds, I've rounded up a few apps that might make your holiday shopping a tiny bit easier.

These apps are made for price-checking on the go, so you know you're getting the lowest price for the item in front of you. The best apps in this category are the ones that locate the item online and in nearby stores, but even apps that are only strong at scanning will definitely help to organize your holiday shopping and will hopefully result in fewer Black Friday headaches.

This week's iOS app collection is all about tools for holiday shopping. Get quick access to a huge database of products and prices and some helpful shopping tools.… Read more

Flip through the catalog on your iPad

Nordstrom The Catalogs lets you view recent featured items from the store's catalogs. Though you won't get the full Nordstrom inventory, the thrust of this app seems to be giving you the catalog page-flipping experience on your iPad.

Upon launch, you're presented with the most recent issue on the upper half of the screen and previous issues you can scroll through at the bottom. Once a catalog is selected, you can simply swipe to the left or right to turn the pages. Touch a page to get all the listings on that page, and touch a listing … Read more

Shop Sears on your iPad

The Sears app for iPad works well for browsing through items and making purchases from Sears online, but you also can locate nearby stores if you need to see before you buy. The app layout upon launch gives you tons of big button icons and shopping categories to browse through by swiping your screen, but you also can hit the Products button in the upper left to search or drill down through categories. The app also has an Occasions button that lets you flip through event-appropriate gifts for categories such as Baby, College, Fitness, Moving, and Weddings.

Once you choose … Read more

Bring Wal-Mart to your iPad

The Wal-Mart app for iOS does a great job laying out shopping categories for its huge inventory, letting you browse to items quickly. The interface includes categories on the left navigation bar that let you drill down to specifics, and a bigger window on the right to view results.

The Wal-Mart app takes advantage of the iPad's screen real estate well, by keeping navigation and viewing windows all on the same screen. Once you've drilled down to a category, you can get more product viewing area by swiping the navigation bar to the side. Then you can swipe … Read more

Zappos is even great on the iPad

The Zappos app for iOS is a joy to use, featuring an easy-to-navigate interface and lightning-fast search results for your shopping needs. The app features categories running down the left side, a featured section in the upper right (with a rotating carousel of deals), and a few featured items on the bottom.

Zappos originally started out on the Web selling shoes, but since then it has added a few more categories, such as clothing, bags, beauty supplies, and housewares. Touching a category on your iPad brings up icons so you can drill down farther (touching shoes, for example, brings up … Read more