Content about Electronic commerce

SAN FRANCISCO — Shutl on Tuesday announced the official launch of its North American operation and that service — Shutl enables omnichannel retailers to offer delivery of online orders within a one-hour window of choice — will go live next month in New York, San Francisco and Chicago. 

A Shutl spokesperson declined to identify specific retail partners prior to going live with the service. 

RESTON, Va. — In terms of growth, clicks continued to outpace bricks in 2012 — and how!

That was the key takeaway from comScore’s “2013 U.S. Digital Future in Focus” report: Despite the backdrop of continued economic uncertainty, 2012 was a strong year for retail e-commerce. Throughout the year, growth rates versus the prior year remained in the mid-teens to outpace growth at brick-and-mortar retail by a factor of approximately four times.

PALO ALTO, Calif. — Shopkick, a shopping app, on Wednesday announced that Nielsen ranked Shopkick No. 34 out of approximately 1 million apps in December 2012. While still trailing giants like Facebook, YouTube and Twitter overall, Shopkick dominated the shopping category during the holiday season, with more frequent and prolonged usage than all physical retailers' own apps including Starbucks, Walmart, Walgreens, Kroger and Safeway, the app developer noted. 

RESTON, Va. — ComScore on Monday released the Digital Wallet Road Map 2013, a study which measures consumer awareness, perceptions and intent to use current digital wallet offerings. The study found digital wallets, which store a virtual copy of the contents of a consumer's physical wallet to facilitate online or offline retail transactions, only had awareness among 51% of U.S. consumers for wallets other than PayPal.

BURLINGTON, Mass. — Demandware, a provider of on-demand e-commerce, has announced that Burt’s Bees Baby, a specialty brand featuring natural, organic products for babies and moms, has launched a new e-commerce site, BurtsBeesBaby.com, on the Demandware Commerce platform. The new site represents the company’s first direct-to-consumer channel and will be followed by a mobile site, also powered by Demandware, in the coming months.

SEATTLE — A report published Monday in The Seattle Times queried whether Amazon.com was ready to take its own Internet-driven fresh offering, called AmazonFresh, out of "limited-test" mode to pilot mode or even full-out launch mode this year. 

The report noted that Amazon had initially launched the service in 2007 and now services 80 area codes. 

CHICAGO — Growth in 2013 will be slow-going in the first half of 2013 but will pick up at the end, suggested James Russo, SVP global consumer insights for Nielsen, during a webinar Wednesday afternoon. "The consumer remains in maintenance mode," he said. "Consumers are being pragmatic in their spending. Uncertainty dominates."

If you are like a lot of people, hanging a new calendar has inspired you to embrace new beginnings and experimentation. Every January morning begins with plans to put insights into action.

And if you are like a lot of other people, you’re feeling desperate for different outcomes in 2013, while still doing things the 2012 way.

MINNEAPOLIS — Target Corp. has launched a campaign to price match online retailers, the mass-merchandise retailer said Tuesday.

The Minneapolis-based retailer said it planned to price match online retailers like Amazon.com, Walmart.com, BestBuy.com and Toysrus.com year-round; Target stores would also price match items on the company's own website.

TORONTO — Customer service is the key driver of brand advocacy in retail pharmacy, according to a new study.

NEW YORK — Men’s grooming tools are all the buzz this holiday as men’s grooming appliances purchased for the holidays gained 34%, now representing 12% of dollar sales for the year, according to the NPD Group.

SOLON, Ohio — Overall, promotional trade spend for Black Friday was down 15% for 2012 compared to 2011, according to an ECRM report released last week.