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."

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 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 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.

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.

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.

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 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:

Amazon, one of the biggest names in online retail, is preparing for a big holiday season. The company announced today that it is adding a new shipping option for customers, called "Local Express Delivery." What this equates to is same-day delivery.

Nielsen has shared some findings from research involving how American consumers intend to spend their money during the upcoming holiday season. About 42% expect to spend less.

Google has split Google Base into two separate entities – Google Base and the new Google Merchant Center. The Merchant Center will replace Google Base for users who submit product-type items to Google.

Knowing what online shoppers expect when visiting an ecommerce site is just one part of the puzzle. Online retailers need to offer consumers a variety of useful features to build loyalty and get conversions.

eBay competitor Bonanzle recently told us the company was approaching several milestones, one of these being welcoming its 100,000th registered user. The company announced today that they have surpassed that one. In fact, they did it earlier this week on September 14, just barely a year after the site launched.

Bonanzle has been around for a year now (out of beta). We’ve been watching it grow for the better part of this year at least. 

Google has made a change to its content restrictions for Google Checkout. Google Checkout now allows the sale of real estate rentals, timeshares, and day sight-seeing tours.

Ebates, a site that many big-name brands offer rebates and coupons through, released its online retail report for August, finding that online sales through the site grew 57% during the month, compared to the same time period a year ago.

The categories that showed the biggest growth were: department stores, baby % kids, books & magazines, apparel & shoes, and health & beauty. In fact, only one category covered by Ebates showed decline – home décor.

Google has launched a feature in Google Product Search for users to find merchants who have store locations. This means that people searching with Google Product Search will be able to get more information about the nearest store locations for a particular merchant.

You would almost think blogging was dead, the way headlines are dominated by Twitter, Facebook, and social media in general. I’ve always considered blogging to be a part of social media anyway, as the commenting factor lends to engagement between author and user.

The majority of online shoppers who use coupons are missing out on savings by using invalid or expired coupons, according to a new report commissioned by Coupon Craze and conducted by Harris Interactive.

The majority (94%) of online shoppers have had an expired or invalid coupon code but more than half (57%) have continued with their purchase despite not being able to use the coupon.

According to comScore, over 63 million people in the US use the mobile Internet, with 35% of those people accessing it on a daily basis. eMarketer says that over 70 million US mobile phone users will access the Internet from their device in 2009.

eMarketer also says that mobile e-commerce is still in its infancy though. While some retailers are ahead of the game, many are still "watching from the sidelines," and planning their mobile commerce strategies.

Google has introduced some new policies for marketplaces and aggregators on Google Product Search. They have also introduced multi-client accounts to help aggregators and marketplaces manage feeds for multiple sellers under a single account.