Articles by Keith Regan

Poor customer service in the business-to-business (B2B) e-commerce sector threatens to undermine trust in the fast-growing industry, according to a study released Wednesday by Jupiter Media Metrix (Nasdaq: JMXI). Much like their consumer counterparts, B2B customers expect rapid response to their e-mail inquiries but few get it, the study found.

The overriding message is certainly true. Leading members of Congress are telling President George W. Bush that truly global e-commerce is necessary for a strong U.S. economy. No arguments there. But the next step is one that should be taken with great care: Bush is being urged to jump into the fray and help pave the way for worldwide e-commerce g...

Three months after being called out of the game, sports e-tail site MVP.com began a comeback bid with its relaunch Tuesday by CBS SportsLine.com (Nasdaq: SPLN). SportsLine said it plans to tightly integrate the MVP.com store into its content-based sports site, with links to items for sale displayed alongside related news and feature stories.

Organizers of the 2002 Olympic Winter Games said Thursday they plan to sell up to US$1 million worth of premium tickets to their events on the Internet auction site eBay (Nasdaq: EBAY). The sale will begin with a batch of 100 tickets set to go on sale later this month.

By all accounts, lots of people are buying lots of items online. And luckily for e-commerce, the menu of products that people will buy, sight unseen, seems to be expanding. So why are so many shoppers reluctant to buy clothes online? The obvious answer, of course, is that e-shoppers can't try e-clothes on. Maybe more so than any other item, every p...

Retailers are not prepared for an imminent onslaught in the number of online returns, according to a report released Thursday by Jupiter Media Metrix (Nasdaq: JMXI). While a study released by Gartner on Wednesday focused on the need for e-tailers to further automate their infrastructure for handling returns, Jupiter emphasized that few retailers h...

Priceline seemed to be back on course, steering delicately toward profitability for the first time. The recent news from the Norwalk, Connecticut-based e-tailer was, for a change, mostly good. The days of the class action suits and massive layoffs and failed expansion ideas were fading in the rearview mirror. So what does the board of directors do...

Apparently, it is an e-tailer's prerogative to change its mind -- or at least be flexible Computer and electronics e-tailer Outpost.com (Nasdaq: COOL) said Tuesday that it will bring back free shipping on some items, a partial reversal of an earlier decision to abandon free delivery and the company's third shipping policy change of the year.

Online grocer Peapod (Nasdaq: PPOD) said Tuesday it will hand over its pack-and-ship service to Netgrocer.com, in order to focus on local markets. Chicago, Illinois-based Peapod said Netgrocer's services will replace "Peapod Packages," which enabled customers to purchase certain non-perishable items that were then delivered by United Parcel Servic...

Leading Internet portal Yahoo! (Nasdaq: YHOO) on Monday rolled out a new version of its instant messaging (IM) service, one that will enable users to place international phone calls through their personal computers. The feature comes amid an upgrade of Yahoo's IM service and is the latest in a series of attempts by the portal to find additional so...

What's in a name? Plenty, when it's an online name. At least that's been the conventional wisdom. But with many of the best-known e-commerce brand names -- from Pets.com to eToys and Furniture.com -- now resting in peace, and without the piles of money needed to fuel the type of name-building efforts that were common two years ago, enthusiasm has ...

What if there's a second Internet bubble and no one wants to get inside? It could happen. In fact, the number of people who wince, shudder or burst into tears when someone mentions the idea of going to work for a pure-play Web company is growing dramatically. I was one of those people who thought that this was truly a New Economy. That it would ch...

News flash: Online car buyers confused. Wait a minute, you say. Is that news? Car buying is for many consumers the most dreaded, anxiety-provoking consumer experience.

DirectGroup Bertelsmann, parent company of CDNow and majority owner of Barnesandnoble.com, said Friday that it will buy e-mail marketing and e-commerce firm Zooba.com. DirectGroup, the corporate division that integrates Bertelsmann's direct-to-customer businesses, said that it plans to transfer half ownership of Zooba to Bookspan, the book club ma...

Prices for consumer collectibles on leading person-to-person auction site eBay (Nasdaq: EBAY) have dropped an average of 25 percent in the past year, while at the same time the number of listings has increased, according to a report released Thursday by AuctionBytes.com. AuctionBytes president David Steiner told the E-Commerce Times that the trend...

IBM (NYSE: IBM) went on a bit of a shopping spree late last month, dropping US$80 million over here for Internet consultant Mainspring and another $1 billion over there for database company Informix. Not to be outdone, Compaq (NYSE: CPQ) laid $266 million on the line for a Web consulting firm of its own, Proxicom. Intel (Nasdaq: INTC) has been buy...

The share of the "addressable" online market that eBay (Nasdaq: EBAY) owns is poised to triple in the next four years, the auction leader's chief financial officer said Tuesday. Speaking at the JPMorgan H&Q Technology Conference in San Francisco, California, eBay CFO Rajiv Dutta reportedly told analysts and institutional investors that the total v...

Eastman Kodak (NYSE: EK) said Monday it will buy Ofoto, an online photography service that has been an Amazon.com partner since last fall. Kodak spokesman Gerard Meuchner told the E-Commerce Times that Ofoto's connection with Amazon would remain intact. Amazon linked with Ofoto in October and later built its photography store around the offering.

The last time Amazon.com linked arms with a brick-and-mortar retailer struggling for an online foothold, the results were impressive. That deal was Amazon's partnership with Toys 'R' Us and its Internet affiliate, Toysrus.com. In addition to boosting sales for both companies, that partnership helped force onetime category leader and thoroughbred e...

Fewer than 40 percent of companies respond to customer service e-mails within six hours and nearly one-fourth never reply at all, according to a report released Monday by Jupiter Media Metrix (Nasdaq: JMXI). The bottom line, Jupiter said, is that customers who make inquiries by e-mail often tire of waiting for a reply and pick up the phone, forcin...