online sales

Dell Unit Hunts For Cost Cuts

Daisuke Wakabayashi, Reporter, The Wall Street Journal in News on April 28, 2010 at 7:47 am PT

The new head of Dell Inc.’s sluggish consumer-products division said he aims to improve profits at the low-margin segment this fiscal year with a shift in focus to cost control from expansion. The performance of the computer maker’s consumer division has hindered a broader turnaround.

Holiday Cheer Spreads for E-Commerce Giants

Ben Worthen, Reporter, The Wall Street Journal in News on December 30, 2009 at 5:00 am PT

Online sales are up from last year through most of the holiday season. But it’s the largest Internet retailers that have been the big winners. One reason: Customers are more satisfied with their experiences with big e-commerce companies than with smaller services.

Amazon: Little Threat From Target, Says JP Morgan

Tiernan Ray, Blogger, Tech Trader Daily, Barron's in News on August 7, 2009 at 2:37 pm PT

Target’s decision today to build out its e-commerce infrastructure won’t likely hurt Amazon.com, writes J.P. Morgan analyst Imran Khan in a note to clients. In fact, it could help. Target announced today it would construct its own order-fulfillment services for its online sales, which totaled $1.8 billion last year, according to Khan’s estimate, signalling the end of its use of Amazon’s back-office fulfillment services, for which Amazon receives a fee.

Consumer Technology Holiday Sales Predictably Lousy

John Paczkowski in News on January 13, 2009 at 11:25 am PT

Though there was no reason to expect otherwise, sales of consumer electronics in the states fell dramatically during the holiday season. While online sales rose 7.1 percent to $1.7 billion for the five weeks that ended Dec. 27, sales at brick-and-mortar stores fell 8.1 percent to $7.5 billion, according to research firm NPD Group. End result: an overall decline of 5.7 percent for what NPD analyst Stephen Baker says was “by far” the worst holiday season the firm has seen.

And the Bragging Rights Go to Internet Retailers

Christopher Lawton, Consumer Technology Reporter, The Wall Street Journal in News on January 2, 2009 at 4:07 pm PT

No retail category had a great Christmas, but e-commerce players have some reason to gloat over their brick-and-mortar counterparts: In certain key holiday categories, online sales outperformed offline retail sales, according to market research firm comScore.

E-Commerce: Evidence Sales Plunged After Christmas

Tiernan Ray, Blogger, Barron's, Tech Trader Daily in News on January 2, 2009 at 3:17 am PT

There are plenty of “roundups” and tallies of shopping to choose from at this point in the new year, but the more you read them, the less appealing the headlines are. Last week came word from research firm comScore, which tracks Web users’ activity, that sales from Nov. 1 through Dec. 21–in other words, through the last weekend before Christmas–had fallen one percent.

Web Shoppers Refuse to Bail Out Economy: Holiday Sales Down One Percent

Peter Kafka in Media on December 22, 2008 at 5:03 am PT

ComScore, the Web analytics company which has been bringing us a weekly installment of grim news about Christmas sales since November, weighs in with its newest update. You may have heard this one before.