This week, Google announced that in six months, Google Checkout will officially be dead to merchants. They will no longer be able to accept payments using Google Checkout starting November 20th.

“If you don’t have your own payment processing, you will need to transition to a different solution within six months,” says Google Wallet senior product manager Justin Lawyer. “To make things easier, we’ve partnered with Braintree, Shopify and Freshbooks to offer you discounted migration options.”

“If you are a U.S. merchant that does have payment processing, you can apply for Google Wallet Instant Buy, which offers a fast buying experience to Google Wallet shoppers,” adds Lawyer.

Developers for Google Play the Chrome Web Store and Offers Marketplace will continue to be supported, and will automatically transition to the Google Wallet Merchant Center in the coming weeks. Shoppers will simply be able to use Google Wallet to make purchases on merchant apps and sites, as well as on Google properties.

For example, if you see some cookies that you are interested in trying to bake, you might be able to see the recipe. If someone posts an interesting movie-related pin, you might be able to see a review.

The company has partnered with a bunch of sites, which will provide this information. There are three types of pins, which will take advantage.

There are product pins for things like clothing and furniture, which include pricing, availability, and where to buy the item. This info is updated on a daily basis. The initial partners for this category include: Anthropologie, Asos, BHLDN, eBay, Etsy, Free People, Home Depot, Modcloth, Neiman Marcus, Nordstrom, Overstock, REI, Sephora, Shopify shops, Shop Terrain, Sony, Target, Urban Outfitters, Walmart, Wayfair, and Zulily.

Next are recipe pins, which include cook times, ingredients and servings. Initial partners for these are: 101 Cookbooks, Better Homes and Gardens, Bon Appetit, Chobani, Country Living, Delish, Epicurious, Good Housekeeping, Leite’s Culinaria, Martha Stewart Living, MyRecipes, Naturally Ella, Nestlé Very Best Baking, Real Simple, Simply Recipes, Skinny Taste, The Girl Who Ate Everything, The Kitchn,What’s Gaby Cooking, Whole Foods Market and Woman’s Day.

Finally, there are movie pins, which include content ratings, cast members, etc. Info comes from Flixster, Netflix and Rotten Tomatoes.

The new pins are only available in the new Pinterest design.

If you think your site has something to contribute in the way that all of these sites do, you can learn more about rich pins and making your own site’s Pinterest experience better here.

In addition to the new types of pins, Pinterest has finally made the ‘Pin It’ button available to mobile apps. You can see it in action in apps from Behance, Brit+Co, Etsy, Fotopedia, Jetsetter, Modcloth, Snapguide, TED, The North Face and Zulily.

Now, Google is taking the YouTube ecommerce thing to a whole new level by essentially letting users shop for products right through the business’ YouTube channel.

“Every day, millions of people turn to YouTube for advice, from learning how to do the perfect smokey eye to trying out a new recipe for mashed potatoes,” says Danielle Tomassini from the Google Shopper team. “People are using YouTube not just for entertainment, but to learn a new skill, find more information, and shop for products. This presents a unique opportunity for consumer goods brands to reach shoppers in the moment and provide them with an easy way to go from watching a video to purchasing the product.”

The new offering comes in the form of a new channel gadget, and lets users shop for products from various retailers from the comfort of the YouTube channel they’re already browsing.

“This new channel gadget will enable shoppers to seamlessly move from browsing how-to videos and featured products to finding which retailers carry them, check availability, compare prices and make a purchase, all with fewer clicks than today,” says Tomassini.

Google has launched the gadget with Unilever to highlight hair products from TRESemmé.

“There is a growing interest for ‘hair how to’ videos on YouTube with millions of users going to YouTube to learn about hairstyles and hair care,” says Tomassini. “By providing hair tutorial videos, tips and tricks, and interviews with trendsetters, TRESemmé has already generated more than 2.7 million views on their channel. Through their newly designed channel, TRESemmé can also now connect these consumers with the products they’re watching in the demo videos in a faster more efficient way, shortening the shopping journey.”

You can see the feature in action at the TRESemmé YouTube channel.

As you can see, this includes not only a “Buy Now” button, but product reviews and a “Learn More” button, which enables the business to share details about the product, to hopefully help convince customers to buy it:

When the user clicks “Buy Now,” they’re presented with the option to select the products they want to purchase. While TRESemmé only has a single product highlighted here, one can only assume that businesses can include more. It’s unclear what the limit on this might be.

From there, users can comparison shop from stores that have the product available, and see if it is in stock. When they click on one of the stores, they’re taken to the product page on that store’s site.

It’s interesting that Google isn’t tying this into Google Shopping (otherwise, you wouldn’t be seeing Amazon there). That doesn’t mean they won’t in the future.

Google is actually offering the gadget as a premium offering for its consumer goods clients, produced through GloTo.

So far, Google isn’t making it incredibly easy to just go and set one of these channels up. Right now, you have to speak with a Google representative to determine “if the shopper channels is the right solution for your brand”.

The feature could play a major role in turning YouTube into a major driver of ecommerce. However, there are some things greatly holding it back. One is the aforementioned lack of Google Shopping integration, but another major factor is that it requires users to actually be on a channel page. How much YouTube viewing do you do from the channel page? If your’e like me, probably not a whole lot.

People consumer videos from their YouTube homepage stream, when they’re shared via social media, and when they’re embedded on other web pages. None of these scenarios will cater to sales through this new feature (unless ads pointing to to the channel as the landing page are placed within the videos).

But this could just be a starting point, and could grow into something much bigger.

1. Checkout Button
2. Sign in or Guest
3. Billing name
4. Credit Card Type
5. Cred Card Number
6. Expiration – MM
7. Expiration – YY
8. Credit Card CSC
9. Billing Address
10. Billing City
11. Billing State
12. Billing Zip
13. Billing Country
14. Shipping Address
15. Shipping City
16. Shipping State
17. Shipping Zip
18. Shipping Country
19. Shipping telephone
20. Contact Email
21. Submit

So yeah, it’s easy to see where Google’s model could be a bit more helpful.

The Verge, liveblogging the event, says, “BIg play from Google to take its payment service to mobile in a subtle way.”

Update: Google has put a blog post out shedding more light on this announcement, which is an invitation to developers in the U.S. to sign up for the Google Wallet Instant Buy Android API.

Google’s Prakash Hariramani explains, “The Instant Buy API is designed for merchants and developers selling physical goods and services, who already have a payment processor and are looking to simplify the checkout experience for their customers. Developers selling digital goods within their apps will continue to use Google Play In-app Billing, which offers full payment processing capability, including support for carrier billing and gift cards.”

More at the blog.

“Our goal is to help our clients unify their business across all channels so that however their customers may shop – they have a single cohesive, seamless and delightful experience,” Bill Kiss, Vice President, Chief Digital Marketing Officer, Sears and Kmart Formats, tells WebProNews. “The solutions provided by Sears are designed to be flexible, allowing merchants of any size, shape or form to leverage Sears’ expertise, scale and technologies. Merchants can choose which solutions they need and implementation of the solutions are quick, easy and cost efficient.”

Fulfilled by Sears is competitive with other fulfillment solutions available in the market.

“It offers merchants with an enterprise-level fulfillment solution as a viable option for their business at an affordable price that is transaction based,” Kiss explains.

“Fulfilled by Sears offers a very simple and transparent pricing model without hidden fees,” he says. “For example, we do not have a separate, oversized rate card nor do we have multiple fee structures based on product types. Rather we have one simple rate card based on weight and dimension of the item regardless of the product type.”

“In addition, Fulfilled By Sears merchants can market and sell to ‘SHOP YOUR WAY REWARDS’ Members who buy and spend more, and who recently exceeded 60 percent of Sears transactions and sales,” Kiss says.

Sears promises merchants the instant ability to handle dramatic increases in order volume.

“Sellers can take advantage of Sears’ status as one of the country’s largest online mass merchants, with a sophisticated network of warehouses, technology, distribution centers and online order fulfillment processes,” Kiss says. “The process that handles Fulfilled by Sears orders uses the same fulfillment centers, technology, and workforce that are used for Sears.com orders – so sellers can feel comfortable knowing that spikes in volume are common and our fulfillment services and processes are designed with that in mind.”

They also claim to be able to reduce operating expenses for businesses (always a welcome feature).

“Fulfilled By Sears is a game-changer for sellers of any size seeking a way to grow income and sales without increasing overhead costs like storage, shipping and personnel,” Kiss says. “With Fulfilled by Sears you can cut out the high cost of storing and managing your own inventory and take advantage of Sears’ scale and expertise to grow your business, while avoiding increasing expenses. Plus, Fulfilled By Sears seller fee structure issimple, transparent and easy to understand.”

Merchants aren’t the only ones who will reap the benefits of Fulfilled By Sears, according to the company. Merchants’ customers will also feel some.

“Fulfillment and customer service is backed by Sears – a trusted brand with the distribution system in place to get customers their products quickly and safely,” Kiss says. “Sears Marketplace is an innovative community that allows sellers to sell products on Sears.com. Sellers work with Sears to provide our SHOP YOUR WAY REWARDS Members and customers with millions of additional items and endless aisles of unique products.”

Fulfilled By Sears comes in a pay-as-you-go model. It doesn’t charge order handling fees for items sold on sears.com, and without long-term commitments, sellers are free to leave whenever they want.

As of the time of this writing, they’re running a special promotion, where sellers can get zero pick/pack fees for items sold on sears.com and fulfilled by sears, as well as zero storage fees for the month of May, and a 50% rebate on inbound shipping costs if they sign up and ship Sears their inventory by the end of May.

Merchants using Fulfilled By Sears can earn a ” SHOP YOUR WAY Guarantee” badge.

ORIGINAL ARTICLE: Let’s say you left a negative review on eBay. Maybe the seller wasn’t prompt in delivery, or maybe they weren’t completely honest about the product. Whatever. At what point would you feel like you needed to remove or edit that feedback? What if the buyer corrected their mistake – or made it up to you in some way. What then? Would you reconsider if the buyer sued you for damages?

An eBay seller is suing a buyer after she left a negative review on the site and refused to rescind it – and the buyer isn’t backing down. The negative feedback was over an unexpected $1.44 postage charge.

According to the complaint, Amy Nicholls purchased a microscope part from Med Express in February. As a result of that purchase, Nicholls incurred shipping costs ($12 on top of the $175 purchasing price).

Med Express took her payment via PayPal, and shipped out the device. When it arrived to Nicholls, there was an extra $1.44 postage due.

Who’s in the right? Is there any reason for a seller (or business) to sue over a negative review? Should a buyer ever be instructed to remove a review? Is it all about what can be proven libelous? Where do you draw the line? Let us know in the comments.

Nicholls, operating under the eBay moniker chimera_studios, posted on February 26th that the “Order arrived with postage due with no communication from seller beforehand. It was logged as a negative feedback on eBay.

Med Express quickly responded, saying that “Sorry – no idea there was postage due. This has happened alot (sp) from USPS lately.”

Over the past year, Med Express has 298 ratings, only 2 of which are considered negative. Their positive feedback percentage stands at 99.3%.

“When notified of the problem, Med Express immediately offered to reimburse Nicholls for the postage due amount. Despite this offer, and before giving Med Express a chance to reimburse her, Nicholls on February 26, 2013, apparently as a result of the $1.44 postage due, posted negative feedback and comments for the transaction on eBay’s website and gave Med Express low ratings in the Detailed Seller Ratings section of eBay’s Feedback Forum, resulting in an unfavorable feedback profile for Med Express. In so doing, Nicholls falsely and deliberately slandered the good name and reputation of Med Express.”

Med Express goes on to say that Nicholls caused them irreparable harm and caused them to lose customers and income.

They seek not only an injunction to remove the negative feedback, but also damages (both punitive and reparative).

The facts of the case do not seem to be in dispute. And in a letter to Med Express, Paul Levy of the Public Citizen Litigation Group (on behalf of Nicholls) makes it clear that the feedback about them is true, and that Med Express admitted to that in communications with him. That, and the lawsuit itself is the definition of frivolous.

“In a sense, what you and your client seem to be contending is that your client’s offer to pay the $1.40 is a sufficient display of contrition that Nicholls ought to be forgiving. But the point that she made in her message to you was that the problem wasn’t the money but the hassle. she indicated that she would have been willing to pay $1.40 more in shipping up front, but that she was posting feedback because a company that ships products ought to be able to do a better job.

That opinion might be right, or it might be wrong, but harboring it and expressing it is not a tort. And it is certainly no reason to seek damages, attorney fees, and an injunction. Consumers might well take this sort of bullying into account when they are thinking about whether to do business with Med Express,” says Levy.

“Moreover, the relief you are seeking would be injurious to consumers. Your other potential buys have an interest in knowing the history – that, for a period of time, you were repeatedly using a shipper knowing of problems that could result in user having to pay postage due.”

Remember the response Med Express had for Nicholls? “This has happened alot (sp) from USPS lately?”

Of course, Levy argues that’s not really the most important part. Summarily, Ohio law and the First Amendment prevents Med Express from suing over this type of negative review.

eBay isn’t the only place online where reviews have been an issue for the courts. A few months ago, a judge ruled that a women must edit part of her review of a contractor on Yelp and Angie’s List, after she accused the company of stealing jewelry from her home. A later decision overturned that one, ruling that her postings were free speech until proven defamatory.

There are a lot of far-reaching implications in cases like this, and the aforementioned eBay case. On one hand, courts can’t universally protect anything a reviewer ever says under the umbrella of free speech. That would open the doors to false reviews and flat-out lies directed at businesses in the attempt to smear. We know that this isn’t legal.

On the other hand, it’s dangerous to set a precedent that says businesses can successfully win suits like this. At that point, it’s a slippery slope to open season on internet users and their legitimate complaints. Do we really want the courts clogged up with lawsuits over a one-sentence blip of text like “God, worst burgers ever”?

What do you think? Where’s the line? Do you think that the eBay case we’ve discussed is pretty cut and dry? Can you foresee circumstances where this sort of thing gets more complicated, and the right decision becomes harder to discern? Let us know in the comments.

[via Ars Technica]

Med Express offered to correct the mistake, reimbursing Nicholls for the undue charges. But Nicholls had already posted the “negative” feedback on eBay. Med Express claimed that that feedback (which knocked their favorability rating down to 99.3%) caused them irreparable harm. They sued for an injunction to get the feedback removed and for damages from the resulting loss of business.

Nicholls, with the help of Public Citizen’s Paul Levy, lawyered up and fought back – saying that her feedback was accurate and that expressing it is not a tort, and especially no reason to seek damages. To Levy, the lawsuit was the epitome of a frivolous mess. The case saw widespread coverage across tech sites. You can read our longer breakdown of the initial lawsuit here.

Now, we have a couple of new wrinkles in the case. Med Express President Richard Radey took to Public Citizen’s site to issue an “apology” for the lawsuit in the comments.

“I hope all of you will accept this as an open letter of apology from Med Express,” he said.

He went on to explain that the lawsuit was never meant to be targeted at Nicholls, and that he had instructed his lawyer to seek $1 in damages.

“Her feedback was also never an issue. We fully support her right and all of our customers right to leave any feedback they desire – true or otherwise!” he said.

Apparently, the issue involved eBay’s “Detailed Seller Ratings.” He said the low rating caused Med Express to love their coveted “Top Rated Seller Plus” standings. He then linked this to a possible loss of tens of thousands of dollars in the future.

Also, he claims to have not read the suit:

The only way DSR’s are removed is by court order, and I was told that such court orders were not uncommon. I do deeply regret the wording of the lawsuit. I had not read it and only learned of the wording on the blogs. I too would have been outraged and for that I also sincerely apologize. It is the addendum attached ordering Ebay to remove the DSR’s that was our only goal.

The only person to blame here is me. You have spoken and I have listened. A terrible wrong needs to be righted. I am instructing our attorneys to drop the lawsuit. I want to assure everyone that you may feel free to leave any feedback on our company without fear of reprisal. I have learned my lesson.

Public Citizen’s Levy has now published a response, basically saying “I don’t believe you.”

“When I criticize somebody on this blog, I generally send a courtesy notice with an invitation to respond omnt he blog. When the target of criticism owns up to a mistake, it is also my practice to be gracious. Ordinarily, then, a profuse apology like Radey’s would be cause for admiration. Problem is, I don’t believe a word of what he says…” Levy writes.

Expect that he does believe Radey is sorry about the criticism Med Express has received through all the media coverage of the suit. But the rest, he says, is a smoke screen.

In fact, he claims that the lawsuit against Nicholls is simply one of many, and it’s not even the most ridiculous. He points to a long list of past and pending claims against eBay and eBay buyers.

“From my review of many of the cases, Med Express typically files a complaint based on extremely vague assertions of falsity, against defendants who may be too far from Medina too respond effectively, seeks a temporary restraining order without giving any notice, and hopes to get relief before the defendant knows what hit him, her or it,” says Levy.

Levy also claims that Radey’s assertion that it’s the lawyer’s fault, and that he hadn’t seen the lawsuits before they were filed is nonsense. Levy says that Radey signed a verification for the suit and signed an affidavit complaining about the negative feedback.

“Even if I were inclined to believe Radey’s assertion that all he really wanted was an injunction taking down the criticism, I would not be assuaged; in some ways, such injunctions, and the procedures for getting them, are even more of an affront to the public interest,” says Levy.

“[T]he public at large is injured by these fixes, because consumers have an interest in learning what the criticism was, and what the response. Not all rating systems are perfect; maybe there are reasons to doubt the accuracy of the “DSRs.” But they are one data point that eBay consumers can use to decide where to buy goods online. We should not forgive Radey and Med Express even if it were true that distorting his own DSR’s was the only objective of this frivolous litigation.”

Nicholls’ lawyers have filed a counterclaim, one that seeks sanctions and punitive damages from Radey and his attorneys. This will move forward, according to Levy.

The company said in an announcement:

Consumers’ shopping habits have drastically changed since 1997, when Shopping.com first launched. Originally, buyers had fewer online options to research and ultimately buy their products. Today, consumers can access many more options, with the average shopper visiting 10.4 websites during their purchasing process.

To keep pace with the changing nature of buying and shopping, the eBay Commerce Network has evolved into an active commerce ad network capable of connecting retailers with buyers at any stage of the shopping experience – from awareness to purchase.

Kristy Troup, GM of the U.S. Business at the newly branded eBay Commerce Network, says, “We are committed to enhancing and scaling our network so that we can deliver new customers and drive meaningful sales by offering our merchants the broadest reach across the web at the right ROI. As an eBay company, we are focused on connecting buyers and sellers through relevant digital advertising.”

There are already 4,000 merchants working with the eBay Commerce Network. Merchants who partner with the network get placements on eBay, Bing and CNET, according to the announcement.

So far, the shopping.com homepage doesn’t have much in the way of new branding.

Is it smart for businesses to charge customers for browsing without buying? Let us know what you think in the comments.

This isn’t necessarily a new topic, but it’s drawn a lot of attention this week, thanks to one store’s policy and one person’s contribution to reddit.

Celiac Supplies, a Brisbane, Australia area-based gluten free shop, has become a viral phenomenon, but not in a good way. As previously reported, reddit user BarrettFox posted an image of a sign the store posted on its front door, and it quickly became the subject of a great deal of mockery on and off the social news site.

The sign reads:

Dear Customers,

This policy is in line with many other clothing, shoe and electronic stores who are also facing the same issue.

BarrettFox’s image came under the title, “When they open tomorrow I’m going to see how many times I can walk in and out without paying the toll.”

Comments from redditors include:

“This store seems desperate to go out of business.”

“The thing that confuses me is: How is this allowable? Someone walks in, looks around, decides not to buy anything and starts to leave. They berate them until they pay? What if they hadn’t noticed the $5 fee sign and don’t have any money on them? If it was me, I’d say “Screw you.” and not give them a dime, walk out and refuse them any future business. They are asking to go out of business.”

“I don’t have my glasses. Does it say ‘Going Out of Business Sale’?”

“‘Introducing the new loyalty program! Every $100 you spend you get 20% off your next purchase’ Fixed that. I’m a small retailer, I have to compete with the internet, but many of my customers come to me because I make my store a positive and enjoyable experience. Most of them don’t even want a discount.”

Some, on the other hand, see where the store is coming from. One user commented:

“Eh, I’ve been to a store before and then gone to Amazon to see their price. Amazon had a higher price but it was only by a buck or two, certainly more even after tax was applied. But I was already home, and it’d be delivered to my door, so I just ordered through Amazon.
Now I have a smartphone and just check the price in the store. Also, now Amazon charges tax.”

The store’s owner assumes people are leaving without buying anything and going to buy products at a supermarket chain or online. AdelaideNow reports:

Owner of the gluten free produce store, Georgina, says she resorted to putting up the sign after spending hours each week giving advice to people who leave empty-handed.

About 60 people a week would go into the store, ask questions and then buy the same or similar product at a supermarket chain or online.

“I’ve had a gut full of working and not getting paid,” Georgina, who didn’t want her surname published, told AAP.

“I’m not here to dispense a charity service for Coles and Woolworths to make more money.

She has reportedly turned some people away, but has had some willing to pay the toll.

Perhaps one alternative for the store would be to sell products online (they have a site, just apparently not one that sells products), and advertise that site on a sign on the door.

By the way, this story comes from reddit’s WTF section.

A recent Google study found that 51% of shoppers would esearch online and then visit a store to purchase, while 17% would visit a store first and then purchase online. Another 32% would research online, visit a store to view a product, then return online to purchase it.

“In short, the shopper’s journey looks less like a funnel and more like a flight map, and the lines between online and offline shopping experiences are blurring,” said Google Retail Industry Director Todd Pollak.

Do you think it’s a good idea to charge potential customers for browsing without buying? Let us know what you think in the comments.

The company, formerly Bonanzle, says it has seen steady growth in membership, traffic and revenue since launching in 2008. It attributes this mainly to its fee structure.

“We’re happy to let Amazon and eBay argue over whose pricing scheme is ‘best for sellers,’” said CEO Bill Harding. “Meanwhile, our fees average 70% lower than theirs. We aim to make selling online simple enough for my grandma to do it, and yes,
that ‘one million’ number includes Grandma Harding.”

eBay announced last week that it is launching free listings for all sellers.

In 2010, Bonanzle acquired artisan merchandise site 1000 Markets and changed its name to Bonanza. The combined company would take aim more at Etsy than eBay, specializing in “unique and non-mass-produced items”.

Etsy had 1,025,124 new members join in February alone. The site saw 1.49 billion page views during the month.