Google, Inc.

When it comes to e-commerce, consumers aren’t afraid to do a little homework.

According to the 2015 Digital Consumer Preferences Survey from digital commerce solution provider BrandShop, 96% of consumers feel research is a crucial step in making an e-commerce purchase.

Almost six in 10 (58%) respondents start their product search on Google, and 22% go directly a brand’s website. Third-party retailers such as Amazon came in third with 14% usage.

Target Corp. is going high-tech with efforts to improve employee fitness. All 335,000 U.S. employees of Target will be offered free or subsidized wearable digital activity trackers from Fitbit Inc.

As part of the program, management will have a dashboard that can track individual employees by activities such as how many steps they take in a day. The basic FitBit Zip device will be provided free, or Target will help employees pay for a costlier FitBit wristband device.

The newly launched Android Pay mobile payment service from Google is gaining a supporter in the crucial area of processing.

As Google continues its roll out of Android Pay, Atlanta-based e-commerce technology provider First Data Corp. is supporting the new service for in-store transactions.

The latest posting from the McMillanDoolittle blog:

Target announced a partnership with Instacart in Target’s hometown of Minneapolis. This is Target’s first experiment with same-day delivery of products, and it coincides with the expansion of their grocery and fresh business.

Target is entering the grocery delivery fray by offering its customers same-day delivery of groceries and other items through Instacart as a way to challenge Amazon and other retailers.

Target announced Tuesday it would begin testing an on-demand grocery delivery service via Instacart that initially will only be available in parts of Minneapolis, where Target is headquartered. But the retailer noted in a release on its blog A Bullseye View that the two companies are already exploring plans to expand the service into additional areas and markets in the future.

Silicon Valley’s Winchester House confounds visitors from around the world. An eccentric heiress spent decades adding endless rooms and hallways, doors that lead to nowhere, and random structural additions — turning a home into an inscrutable, imposing and meandering oddity.

Apple Pay has a new rival, and it’s a formidable one.  

GameStop, which has long been known as an innovative company, has become one of the first major retailers to accept Google's new mobile payment system.

GameStop has announced that customers can start using Android Pay, which was rolled out by Google only on Thursday, immediately to pay for purchases in its more than 4,200 U.S. video game stores. GameStop has already completed a nationwide rollout of Android Pay, which uses the NFC feature on mobile devices to allow users to transform mobile payments with an easy and secure way to pay.