Shopping
Making Web shopping more annoying
Shopping on the Internet can be very convenient but some sites may soon be engaging in practices that might make the shopping experience less satisfying. Today’s New York Times has an article, Just Browsing? A Web Store May Follow You Out the Door. It begins:
IF you try on a sweater in a department store [...]
Internet coupon clipping
In these hard economic times, saving money on grocery shopping is welcome. The Internet contains a number of sites where discount coupons are available. (For previous posts on the subject, search this site for “coupons”.) Sometimes the available discounts can add up very nicely. However, these sites cost the owners money and are not purely [...]
More taxes on Web downloads
As previously noted, the states and others are looking for ways to tax sales made on the Internet. Mississippi has already passed a law taxing downloads. CNET reports:
Because of quirks in many state laws, sales taxes may be levied on CDs sold in storefronts but not on iTunes and other digital downloads. It’s a situation [...]
Tax-free Internet shopping in danger
The specter of the end of tax-free shopping on the Internet has been visible for a while now. All that commerce is just too tempting a target for tax-hungry legislators. CNET reports on the latest development:
If a little-known but influential alliance of state politicians, large retailers, and tax collectors have their way, the days of [...]
Amazon lives up to name- grows really big
Amazon’s share of online commerce has grown to almost one-third. Barron’s Tech Trader reports:
Amazon.com (AMZN) could be responsible for close to a third of all U.S. e-commerce transactions, RBC Capital analyst Stephen Ju asserted in a research note this morning. Ju notes that Amazon’s reported revenues consist of a mix of gross revenues from its [...]
States going to tax Amazon sales?
Ever since New York state targeted Amazon as a new source of sales tax revenue, I have been wondering when the other states would follow suit. According to TechFlash, that may be soon:
A growing number of states, facing revenue shortfalls, are looking at forcing Amazon.com and other e-commerce companies to collect sales tax on web [...]
Tools for watching prices
Prices of items offered on the Web often change. Sometimes a site may have a one-day special with loss-leaders at a low price or with rebates. If you are interested in an item but don’t want to pay the going price, there are software programs that will keep an eye on the pricing of the [...]
New site for deals and coupons
Search Engine Land reports:
In light of the current economy, Vertive, Inc., is banking on now being the right time to launch a new search engine for coupons and deals. It’s called Offers.com, and it enters an already crowded space of coupons/deals sites.
Offers.com provides coupons and deals from more than 1,000 merchants, and classifies them by [...]
Using middlemen on eBay
Selling things on eBay is a great way to get rid of things that you don’t want but that have value for someone else. However, there’s a certain amount of effort and expertise involved and not everybody wants the hassle of handling a sale themselves. A number of services exist that will handle all the [...]
Product reviews
I often mention sites where you can do price comparisons or get product reviews before you buy (see the topic called “Shopping”). Here’s another listing of sites for obtaining product reviews. This one is from MakeUseOf. It says:
One of the best advantages of shopping online is that you don’t have to drive from store to [...]
It’s getting harder to try out a PC
In her blog at ZDNet, Mary Jo Foley makes a good point. As the big box computer stores keep disappearing, where can you go for a hands-on tryout of PCs? With the demise of CompUSA and now Circuit City, the choices are getting narrower. BestBuy, Staples, Office Depot, etc. have only so much shelf space [...]