eCommerce

When is a bargain not a bargain? When the hidden costs of finding it outweigh the lower price. Costs like shipping, or gas, or your extra time. NetPlenish aims to solve all that for the real best deal, and eliminate the biggest hassle of online shopping, too: the annoying checkout process.

Once ballyhooed as "the Internet's largest marketplace for buying and selling all things automotive," eBay Motors' numbers have been slipping. But eBay's attempt to goose profits at Motors looks more likely to put them in reverse.

What really aggravates people about shopping online? Believe it or not, it's that it isn't easy enough to pay. Nearly 3 out of 5 people surveyed cited the annoyance of having to enter (and re-enter) their personal data as a major nuisance of buying on the web.

Cheap-chic retailer Target will discontinue the sale of Kindle e-readers and Amazon-branded products. It's easy to see why Target isn't keen on enriching the enemy. But it's not business, Amazon.com: It's just personal.

Old economy powerhouse Walmart is looking to pick up a little new economy shine from Google with the addition to its board of one of the dot-com giant's most visible executives, Marissa Mayer.

First, U.S. manufacturing collapsed under the pressure from low-wage labor overseas, leaving the landscape dotted with hollowed-out plants and gutted factories. Now, assailed factors from online shopping to the economic downturn, the retail sector is suffering too, bequeathing us an increasing number of abandoned -- some say dead -- malls.

Retailers are spicing up their brick-and-mortar stores to keep you walking through the door. Their game plan? To design environments that are equal parts high-tech and homespun. But will the changes be enough to keep physical stores from being reduced to showrooms for e-commerce sites?

U.S. shoppers spent 15 percent more in online holiday buying compared to last year, after what may have been the busiest week of the season, said research firm comScore on Sunday. Shoppers have spent $30.9 billion online from Nov. 1 through Dec. 16, up from $26.9 billion at the same point last year, said the Reston, Va., company, which tracks Web use.

Watch out, Cyber Monday: Green Monday is gaining traction with shoppers. Consumers flexed their thumb-shopping muscles on Dec. 12, Green Monday -- the second Monday in December that's become another big day for online holiday shopping.

Google and Amazon.com have to stop meeting like this. The two tech darlings are growing into fierce competitors with every new chapter in their quests for consumer domination. The latest page of this low-key yet high-stakes saga finds Google potentially going after Amazon's Prime loyalty shopping program.