Puttin' on the Hits

Auction sellers finally have a way to get some real metrics on visitors to their eBay auction listings.

Reuters, Siebel Pair Off

The new partnership will develop and market CRM apps for the financial services sector integrating financial data with e-business solutions.

BroadVision Fights Back

Staggered by the IT spending slowdown, the business software company hires a marketing guru and launches a new iteration of its enterprise product family.

Borrow Bucks, Get Some Miles

LendingTree lets its loan customers get high in a deal with four national air carriers that links mileage and mortgages.

BroadVision Lowers Guidance

The e-commerce app company also restates some results from last year in an accounting practices correction; the market duly punishes the company's stock.

CFO Exits Salesforce.com

UPDATE: The chief executive of the online CRM company says (hint, hint) that a replacement is being sought who has IPO experience.

Will Great Plains Cause Great Pains?

FEATURE: If you're in the CRM business, you know that Microsoft is eyeing your lunch; the question is, just how hungry is the Redmond giant?

Verizon Gets A Bright(mail) Idea

Verizon Online offers its dial-up and DSL customers a free spam filter from the message management company.

Report: Consumers Spent $53B Online in 2001

comScore Networks says its estimates, based on tracking the spending habits of panelists, show a 20 percent year-over-year gain, excluding the travel category.

E*Trade Launches Advisory Service

The product, launched with help from Ernst & Young, creates a financial product that offers financial forecasting tools and lets customers talk with a personal planner.

Customer Service Still a Struggle

Report says only 30 percent of retailers online, both pure-plays and brick-and-mortar operations, managed to resolve an e-mail inquiry within six hours this holiday season.

E*Trade Beefs Up Customer Service

Online brokerage launches a new interactive channel called Service Now, giving online customers access to chat with service reps and Web collaboration.

We're Spending More, Liking It Better

The latest holiday e-spending figures show online consumers parted with $2.6B the first week in December, and customer satisfaction for Web purchases is up sharply.

For Online Retailers, It's Showtime

Deliverywise, it's put up or shut up, and Internet retail sites are competing in their efforts to assure that holiday gifts will get there on time.

Buy With a Click, Then Hit the Bricks

Amazon.com initiates in-store pickup as part of its partner deal with the Circuit City chain of electronics stores.

Case Study: Customer Service 'Employees' Who Never Need A Break

A company that provides insurance services to corporations and Web portals finds a high-tech, low-cost way to deliver that "human" touch via virtual agents.

An E-Commerce Delivery Score Card

You have to deliver the goods as well as sell them, and a new report from the fulfillment front tells us who's been naughty and who's been nice.

Good News for E-Commerce, but Shoppers Be Wary

Forrester Research says the online demographic will pull the industry through the economic downturn and eBay predicts a ho-ho holiday, but a consumer group warns of rising fraud on the Net.

Brand Awareness Drives Online Shoppers

First of a series of reports on holiday shopping finds that 63 percent of shoppers surveyed relied on brand awareness in making e-commerce purchases.

Siebel Acquires nQuire Software

The e-business app company will integrate nQuire's real-time intelligent Web products into its new Siebel 7 offering.

Flight Resumption Delayed

Travel sites scramble to answer customer calls; new poll finds confidence in airport security has plunged -- could that translate into fewer bookings for online travel sites?

BEA Signs Integration Deals

That's the good news; the bad news is a downgrade from an analyst that also affects PeopleSoft and Mercury Interactive.

More Than a Sporting Proposition

Global Sports ups its financial guidance and signs an e-commerce services deal with Kmart's Bluelight.com that expands beyond sporting goods.

Travelocity to Users: Talk to Me

A speech recognition app for phone users is rolled out at one travel site; meanwhile, Hotwire adds new cities, new partners and new maps.

Taking Travel the Private Label Route

Expedia launches Worldwide Travel Exchange, an ASP hotel and car rental product for travel suppliers; American Airlines signs as first customer.

E-tailers Duel on Shipping Charges

Both Amazon and B&N are offering free shipping on many customer orders of two or more items; Amazon revises some of its prices, both up and down.

Wal-Mart to Online Customers: Say Cheese

In a move that may bring digital pictures to the masses, the discount retailer debuts a throwaway camera that includes an online picture service built in, for all of $6.84.

A Mile-High Marketing Agreement

American Airlines inks deal with FTD.com to let frequent fliers and flower buyers earn mileage points for their e-commerce purchases.

Orbitz Finds a Madding Crowd

The new air travel site gets caught up in one of those classic good-news, bad-news scenarios that seem to dog popular start-up Internet companies.

Is Aviation Poised for an Internet Takeoff?

HP and PricewaterhouseCoopers think so. They are teaming up to develop and market new Web-enabled solutions for airlines and airports.

Checked Your Reverse Logistics Recently?

New research finds that returns of merchandise purchased online may reach 90 million items and nearly $6 billion in 2005.

Genesys to Acquire CallPath from IBM

Employees stay on in North Carolina as the companies plan new, joint solutions for multi-media customer contact centers.

Sun, i2 Team for Next Generation CRM

Joint solutions will be operable on the iPlanet E-Commerce Solutions platform and will be key to the Sun ONE architecture.

Got E-Mail from Customers? You'd Better Handle It, and Fast

A new report reveals that e-mail customer service is getting worse -- 53 percent of retail companies respond to e-mail customer inquiries within six hours.

A Chat with a Virtual Customer Service Rep

How far are we from bots that are absolutely indistinguishable from human sales clerks?

Consumer Confidence -- Fragile, Handle With Care

I was once again reminded how fragile this consumer confidence thing is after making a couple of recent e-commerce type purchases.

Confidence Is Very Profitable, Don't You Think?

A recent report says the success of Web commerce sites is directly linked to the confidence customers feel about their privacy and security.

E-C, Phone Home

Today's No. 1 e-commerce peeve: why are there so very few telephone numbers on Web sites?

CRM? First You Need To Have A Customer to Manage

Putting the cart before the horse in CRM.