Tag: RETAIL

When Microsoft opened its first branded store last year, it was assumed that the company was serious about combating Apple and the retail juggernaut it's become. But, as malls across the country teem with consumers toting the signature white Apple shopping bags, Microsoft appears to be drawing significantly less interest. After the Los Angeles Times monitored both the Apple and Microsoft stores ...

In an effort to capitalize on the all-important holiday shopping season, eBay is rolling out a full slate of new features -- including a social networking-based buying option -- to its online marketplace. As the Wall Street Journal reports, a freshly redesigned eBay home page will soon offer recommendations to users based on their previous searches, as well as a new list of hot items currently ...

If you have Facebook pictures pretty enough to frame and set on the mantle, you can now print photos directly from the site using Kodak kiosks at Target. Just a few weeks after Facebook announced support for higher-resolution photos, Facebook and Kodak have teamed up with Target to cut out the printing middleman (i.e. flash drives) by installing these kiosks in stores. Target is saying that the ...

The still-nascent field of smartphone payment systems may be getting a lot more crowded, since AT&T and Verizon Wireless have become strange bedfellows in testing a new system that allows store customers to pay for products with their smartphones. According to sources close to the deal, the test system would be similar to those already implemented in the U.K., Turkey and Japan, where ...

Techcrunch reports that Yelp has been quietly experimenting by offering local deals to users in a select few cities. In a bit of misplaced hyperbole, the site claims that "Yelp Gears Up to Take on Groupon." But is that the case? No, we don't think so. Yelp reported back to Techcrunch that it had indeed run "a short test in Sacramento" for Papillon Salon. But Yelp also noted that it has "hosted ...

Walmart, America's largest retailer and the world's largest corporation, will be placing radio-frequency identification (RFID) tags on the jeans and underwear sold in its 3,750-plus U.S. stores beginning next month. The removable tags will be used to monitor inventory losses and shelf stock, but some people are less than happy about the prospect of carrying around a tracking device in their ...

No matter their size, everybody has purchased clothing online, and then discovered, upon delivery, that it didn't fit right. But a European company has a solution to this problem -- shape-shifting robots. According to BBC News, an Estonian company has created moving mannequins that allow shoppers to view clothing items on more than 100,000 different bodies' shapes and sizes before they make a ...

If you're like us, you hate the hassle and cost of going to the drugstore for just those few, everyday, household items. That's why Walletpop recently tested the newly launched retail site Soap.com, which features more than 25,000 household items at discounts of up to 25-percent, to see if it really beats a trip to CVS or Walgreens. With about 900 brands spanning 13 categories, its inventory is ...

With more people shopping online, a United States Postal Service (USPS) proposal to stop delivering mail on Saturdays could impact many online retailers. But outlets are split as to what exactly that means. According to The Washington Post, Amazon and Netflix representatives will testify today at a Senate hearing about the potential plan to axe Saturday deliveries, which would force Amazon to ...

In our ongoing look at Tech Art History, we've been examining how technology has revolutionized the ways in which we both create and consume art. And, as we've seen, technology, among other things, has blurred the once impermeable divisions between artist and observer, and between the commercial and the artistic. It's a continuously fluid and evolving paradigm that German researcher Johannes ...

Those online coupons you print out could be sharing more info with retailers than you'd expect. Companies like RevTrax are producing Web coupons that pass along data, such as search terms and your Facebook profile, to retailers, and often without any warning. Companies as diverse as Lord & Taylor, Ruby Tuesday and Filene's Basement are using information-gathering coupon programs not only ...

As far back as 2008, retailers were flirting with the idea of offering customers coupons via cell phones. It never really caught on, but, now, Target hopes to change that. According to a press release, the retailer began a program today that allows customers to receive digital coupons on their cell phones. Using a barcode on the screen, customers can scan and save money at any Target store in the ...

Bargain hunting isn't a new phenomenon by any means. Still, according to a recent study from comScore, coupon-cutting has infiltrated e-commerce like never before -- and online merchants are now catering to it. As the New York Times reports, e-retailers offered more discount deals last holiday season than ever before, and virtually institutionalized free shipping, after realizing that customers ...

Ikea, the can-do-no-wrong Swedish purveyor of cheap designer furniture and meatballs, appears to have finally done something wrong. And it involves fonts. In a decision to change its branding, the company has gone with a new typeface to represent itself, and the move is causing quite a stir on the (to be fair, easily stirred) Internet. The new font is Microsoft's ubiquitous Verdana, which the ...

Amazon is one of the world's largest online retailers for everything from books to electronics. Zappos is another one of the world's largest online retailers, but more specifically for shoes and clothes. If you think the two are a match made in heaven, you're not the only one: According to TechCrunch, Amazon has just purchased Zappos for a cool $920 million in shares and cash. Zappos has built a ...