commerce

PayPal announced today it is partnering with 15 more U.S. retailers aiming to get shoppers to use PayPal's offline payment system.

"Consumers are relying on technology now more than ever to simplify their lives when it comes to shopping and paying, and retailers must adapt to this shift or risk becoming irrelevant," PayPal President David Marcus wrote in a blog post. "Innovative retailers everywhere are looking for ways to improve the shopping experience, extend loyalty programs and better engage with their customers."

The new retailers include, Abercrombie & Fitch, Advance Auto Parts, Aeropostale, American … Read more

Amid all of the controversy surrounding General Motors' decision to take its ads off of Facebook, one would think that, at some point, some good news would come the social network's way. If that's happening, it isn't today.

A U.K.-based digital-marketing agency, Greenlight, today released the results of a survey (PDF) it conducted with 500 people related to the value they find in Facebook advertising. According to the firm, 44 percent of respondents said that they "never" click on an advertisement or sponsored listing in the social network. Another 31 percent of respondents … Read more

Pinterest surprised Silicon Valley with the announcement overnight of a $100 million funding round led by Japanese e-commerce company Rakuten.

According to AllThingsDigital, more than $50 million of that sum came from Rakuten.

Why would Rakuten, which generated $4.7 billion in revenue last year, invest so much cash in Pinterest? According to TechCrunch, it may have a lot to do with Rakuten's interest in building its e-commerce business.

Rakuten offers user IDs similar to those from Amazon and Apple. Once people log in to a Rakuten or Rakuten-associated Web site, they can make purchases with the payment information … Read more

Groupon's first quarter results were carried by massive growth outside the United States as international revenue surged. CEO Andrew Mason touted technology innovation, Groupon's mobile progress, governance improvements and the aim to be "the operating system for mobile commerce."

The company reported better-than-expected first quarter results and surprised a few observers. After all, Groupon's post-IPO performance has been sketchy and the company recently had to restate earnings for the fourth quarter amid accounting snafus. As a result, Groupon added board members with accounting and banking experience. Groupon's goal: Shed the tag … Read more

Amazon has reached another settlement over state taxes, this time with Texas.

Reuters reports that the giant e-tailer will start collecting sales tax in Texas come July 1, as part of a settlement that requires Amazon to bring 2,500 jobs and $200 million in capital investment to the state over the next four years.

In exchange for the jobs and money, Texas State Comptroller Susan Combs is dropping the state's demand for $269 million to cover sales taxes from 2005 to 2009, Reuters reports.

Amazon struck a deal with the state of Nevada earlier in the week whereby … Read more

The talk of e-commerce coming to Facebook has been discussed for years. But so far, it hasn't become a hot area. Still, some companies think that will change.

Reuters today published interviews with a host of startups, including BeachMint, Fab.com, and others, that believe Facebook is the next great e-commerce platform. The companies reason that with Facebook's more than 845 million active users -- dwarfing popular e-commerce sites, like Amazon and eBay -- they can take advantage and generate boatloads of cash.

It's something that Facebook's investors seem excited about. Millennium Technology Value Partners, which … Read more

The Kim Kardashian-backed venture called ShoeDazzle gets a makeover today. This online customer-focused shoe boutique for women is debuting a new CEO, changing its payment structure, and venturing into clothing as well as shoes.

"We are taking this business to a whole other level," said ShoeDazzle's new CEO, Bill Strauss, who joined the company after being CEO of Provide Commerce. "We want to increase our 'share of closet.'"

For those who haven't heard of this e-commerce site, it's backed by the powerful Silicon Valley venture firm Andreessen Horowitz, which threw down a $40 … Read more

U.S. apparel retailer J.Crew this morning expanded its international distribution from 29 to 107 countries, spanning an astounding 41 currencies.

That's quite a jump in a single day for the retailer, known for clothing everyone from Michelle Obama to, well, me. Businesses -- even digital ones -- just don't scale that quickly.

But there's a secret to how J.Crew did it: a partnership, and a whole lotta tech.

With a platform provided by New York-based FiftyOne, J.Crew is bringing its modern prep style to Asia, Australia, Europe, Middle East and South America. That … Read more

analysis President Bill Clinton's 1997 electronic embargo against Iran, which curbed its citizens' access to U.S.-based software and Web sites, continues to create legal hassles for American Web companies.

In August 1997, Clinton signed an executive order saying U.S. companies and individuals could not provide "goods, technology, or services to Iran" -- a decree that led to unintended consequences such as Utah-based Bluehost giving the boot to Iranian bloggers and opensource software site SourceForge.net denying access to Iranians.

The U.S. Department of the Treasury's announcement yesterday, which was designed to complement … Read more