WebProNews

Google Launches Commerce Search to Boost Your Conversion Rates

Google has launched a new product that online retailers may find incredibly useful for improving the product search on their site, and potentially increasing sales and reducing bounce rates. It's called simply Google Commerce Search. Think Google Site Search, specifically tailored to e-commerce and product sites. Google couldn't have timed such a release any better with the holiday shopping season arriving. 

Walmart.com Offering Top 10 Pre-Order DVDs For $10

Walmart.com said Thursday it will start offering its Top 10 pre-order DVD movie titles at just $10 each as well as "free home delivery" on its entire catalog of DVD and Blu-ray titles (excluding box sets).

PayPal to Take Over Mobile and Social Apps

PayPal has opened its global payments platform called PayPal X, providing new APIs, a new developer portal, and some introductory services pricing to help developers take advantage of PayPal X to build businesses. "The whole world is going digital, and the future of how we communicate, how we get information, and even how we transact, is in the hands of developers," said PayPal President Scott Thompson. "The network is the platform on which the potential of digital money will be fully realized."

Amazon Completes Acquisition of Zappos

Update: Amazon announced the completion of its acquisition of Zappos.com today. The Zappos management team will remain intact, and Zappos will operate independently with its headquarters in Las Vegas. Original Article: Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh sent an email to Zappos employees today informing them that Amazon is becoming the only shareholder of Zappos stock. The following video from Jeff Bezos was also posted on the Zappos Blog:

Google Checkout Gets a New Promotions Feature

Google has launched a new feature for Google Checkout, which allows merchants based in the US to create and run their own Checkout promotions at any time. Users simply need to sign in to their Checkout merchant account, go to the "Tools" tab, and click the "Promotions" link to create a promotion. Google says the process takes less than a minute. Users can specify the date and time they'd like the promotion to run, and choose from different dollar-off discounts to offer their buyers.

Amazon and Walmart Engage in Price War Over Holiday Book Shoppers

Amazon and Walmart have been engaged in an online price war over holiday sales of bargain books. The whole thing began when Walmart announced that it would let customers preorder 10 of the most highly anticipated upcoming books for as little as $10 each. In a matter of hours, Amazon matched the price for all of the same books. Walmart then dropped the price to $9. Then Amazon did the same.

Consumer Online Spending To Grow 24%

Online retailers can expect to see an increase in consumer spending compared to the previous quarter, according to a new survey by Javelin Strategy & Research and released by eBillme. Online shoppers predict they will spend an average of $281 online during Q4 2009, a 24 percent increase over last quarter. This is the first increase in spending since last year, but an 18 percent decrease in the overall spending rate compared to Q4 2008.

Promote the Right Landing Page to Maximize Holiday Sales

With the holiday season on the way, online retailers are obviously going to be looking for big sales. A lot of retailers are turning to Facebook and Twitter to help in that department, but if you sell goods online, there's no better place to start than on the site itself.

Consumers Can Now Get Billed Later for eBay Purchases

eBay and PayPal announced today that they are now offering Bill Me Later as a payment option during checkout. This means that "qualified" customers in the U.S. can now buy items and pay for them over time without using a credit card. The option will be available for Buy It Now and approved auction purchases on eBay. It is also available at "tens of thousands" of online stores that accept PayPal Express Checkout.

Some eBay Sellers Disgruntled Over Top Rated Sellers Program

Some eBay sellers have been taking issue with the fact that they are not being considered "Top Rated Sellers" in eBay's program of that name. As far as they can tell, they meet the requirements, but are having no luck being included in this group. Ina Steiner at AuctionBytes was able to get a response from eBay on the matter with the following points: