Voices

Listen Up, Computers: You Still Can’t Beat the Human Touch

Algorithms are essentially sequences of finely-tuned rules for organizing 1’s and 0’s. Humans, unlike computers, can break these rules.
rhythm380

Kohl’s Joins MCX, the Mobile Wallet and Payments Effort Backed by Big Retailers

Can retailers compete with tech companies to build a mobile wallet that shoppers will love?

eBay Contends That Sales Tax Proposal Will Hurt Small Businesses

EBay is against a bill that would require more online retailers, like Amazon, to pay local taxes.

Amazon’s Love Note to Senate Backs Sales-Tax Proposal

Amazon thanked the U.S. Senate today for a proposal that could put to rest the company’s long-standing sales-tax issues.

“App and Mortar” Is One Way to Describe the Trend in Mobile Commerce

A new report figures out who is benefiting right now from the mobile commerce trend. Surprisingly, it’s physical retailers.

News Byte

Just in Time for the Holidays, Facebook Pushes “Gifts” Hard With More Retail Partnerships

As I reported earlier that it would, Facebook announced a series of new retail partnerships at an event on Thursday evening, adding brands like the Gap, Fab and Dean & DeLuca to the list of choices from which Facebook users can buy one another using the company’s “Gifts” product. The partnership also adds a number of non-physical gifting options to Facebook’s roster, including subscriptions from Hulu, Rdio and Pandora.

Dennis Crowley, Best Buy Spokesguy (Video)

Sort of like Zoolander! But with a Samsung.

Gap, H&M, Sephora and Others Unwrap New Social Gifting Service in the U.S.

More than 25 major retailers, including the Gap, H&M, Sephora, Brooklyn Industries and others, are working with a small Swedish company named Wrapp to roll-out a social gifting service in the U.S.

Another Science Start-Up, Wittlebee, Gets $2.5 Million in Funding for Kids’ Clothes Club

It’s kind of like a never-ending online Gap.

Visa is Coming to Mobile Next Week to be Everywhere You Want to Be

Visa is fulfilling its promise of being “everywhere you want to be,” beginning as soon as next week, when it plans to make an announcement regarding its mobile payments strategy.

Nordstrom and Oprah Take Groupon Down

Will Foursquare 2.0 Fend Off Facebook?

AOL CEO Tim Armstrong Live at D8