Black Friday Sales Overwhelm Some Online Retailers

The shopping carts were full on many online retail sites for black Friday, affecting the performance of several big retailers web sites. According to CNet's Rafe Needleman and his Webware blog. "Every year, we see a handful of Web sites that aren't ready for the holiday rush. The problems are in the shopping cart experience, where you cannot complete a purchase," Shawn White, director of external operations for mobile and Internet testing firm Keynote Systems told Needleman. Friday's traffic reportedly affected HP, Sears, Kohl's and Saks while on the flip side Walmart, Costco, NewEgg, Best Buy, Dell, and Apple all performed well.

High Gas Prices Drive Shoppers Online

Interestingly, and I suppose logically, the high price of filling up at the tank is creating increased sales at online retailers. The New York Times is reporting that retailers including Gap, Victoria’s Secret and J. C. Penney are seeing double-digit sales growth at their retail Web sites while in store traffic is trending down. “With gas being such an issue, we know that mall traffic is down more than off-mall traffic,” said Mike Boylson, chief marketing officer for J. C. Penney who's seen an 8.7 percent increase in Internet sales in the first quarter of '08. Kris Marubio, a spokeswoman for Gap Inc. says this of the company's new Web design “helps time-pressed and gas-price sensitive parents achieve their back-to-school shopping goals in less time and at less cost,”. With incentives like free shipping a lot of online retailers are bucking the trend and making decision making a whole lot easier for the consumer.

Wired has a look under the hood as e-bay tries to regain momentum

Wired has an interesting article about slowing growth at e-bay and the companies attempts to get going again. It's not that e-bay is not making money, it's more about continuing to grow. Over the last few months e-bay has undertaken a number of new initiatives that are aimed at growing business and keeping browsers pointed squarely in their direction. "Other discovery features hop on the social-network bandwagon. Neighborhoods, a forum for like-minded collectors to network, got buzz when it launched in early October, and the still-unpublicized EKG allows users to curate their favorite items and share them with others, a concept similar to craft-commerce site Etsy's Treasury." Come to think of it, I can't remember the last time I visited e-bay?

Strong Canadian dollar choking postal system

Canada Post is swamped by mail flowing across the border as Canadians try to make the best of a strong Canadian dollar while it lasts. According to the Globe and Mail, "Officials say the volume of parcels has choked three main international mail-sorting centres operated by Canada Post and the Canada Border Service agency in Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal." With all of the reported delays and the holiday shopping season just heating up, the post office is advising, that Canadians who intend upon placing Internet orders, buy early and expect delays. It's a great time to be heading south!