Mobile commerce increased more than 13% in the first quarter of 2012, according to IBM's first retail economic indicator, a cloud-based analytics report, which examines the state of the online retail sector.

First quarter sales at Amazon.com surged 34% to $13.2 billion during the first quarter ended March 31, but profits declined 35% to $130 million due to rising expenses related to growth initiatives.

Walmart has launched a “Pay with Cash” service that offers cash payment options for online orders at Walmart.com in the United States.

Target and other retailers have fought unsuccessfully for years to level the e-commerce playing field in the United States by requiring Amazon.com and other online-only merchants to collect sales tax. Doing so would eliminate the Internet-pure-play retailers’ most significant competitive advantage, and for a glimpse of just how significant look no further than Canada.

The way we pay and with what has and will continue to change. “Retailers may soon find themselves trying to figure out the most efficient way to convert such things as Facebook credits into cash and back again,” according to Eddie Myers, president of the Electronic Transactions Association. “They’ll no doubt encounter customers wanting to pay with PayPal and probably other things they’ve not yet heard of, like Dwolla, Obopay or Mocapay, just to name a few.” Myers shares his views on the future here.

Recreational Equipment Inc. has promoted Bill Baumann and Brad Brown to SVP information technology, and e-commerce and direct sales respectively.

Why has Google arguably become the most popular advertising platform on the planet, attracting a whopping $36.5 billion in ad spending in 2011? And why has Facebook, with an expected IPO valuation of around $100 billion, become such a juggernaut in digital marketing?

It's a common dilemma for retail stores; customers come in to check out the latest merchandise only to then buy it at a competitor's website.

Because social media began as the purview of college kids and hipsters, it’s taken some time to register in the business community as a serious path to connection with customers.

Seamless customer experience, empowered consumers, mobile commerce and social shopping were among the buzzwords at the National Retail Federation’s Annual Convention & Expo in New York City.

NCR announced Monday the introduction of a point-of-sale system that will allow independent retailers to manage transactions, track sales and inventory, process credit cards and market to customers on both touch-screen terminals and Apple mobile devices.

An e-commerce solution for branded manufacturers has released a new forecast on how retail shopping will be influenced by the Internet, in addition to mobile and social networking.