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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:

Online Retailers To Have Better Holiday Season

Overall retail sales are expected to show no gain this holiday shopping season, while online retail sales in the U.S. will reach $44.7 billion during the holiday season, an eight percent increase over last year, according to a new report by Forrester Research. The growth rate represents an increase from 2008, when, on the heels of the global financial crisis, online holiday retail sales in the U.S. grew just five percent. Forrester defines the holiday shopping season as months of November and December.

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.

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.

Online Retailers To Focus On Facebook And Twitter During Holidays

Due to the popularity of Facebook and Twitter and because they are more cost effective than traditional advertising, 47.1 percent of online retailers will be increasing their use of social media this holiday season, according to a new study by Shop.org, conducted by BiGresearch.

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:

Amazon Launches Same-Day Delivery Option

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.

Twitter as the New Ouija Board

Online retailer FancyDress.com is hosting what it claims is "the world's first interactive Twitter Séance or "Twéance" on October 30th - the day before Halloween. The Twéance allows participants to nominate the names of their favorite "departed stars" along with a question they would like them to be asked by "renowned psychic medium Jayne Wallace." Participants are asked to simply tweet this to @tweance.

Amazon Introduces Mobile Payment Service

Amazon.com has launched Amazon Mobile Payments Service (MPS) which provides developers, merchants and distributors of mobile applications a way to process payments from mobile devices. Amazon MPS allows customers to use their current payment and shipping information from their accounts to make purchases from their mobile device.