Rakuten

Research Triangle Park, N.C. – ChannelAdvisor Corp., a provider of cloud-based e-commerce solutions, has launched its 2014 Autumn Release, with new features and advancements added to the company’s platform. The 2014 Autumn Release offers enhanced EBay management with QuickStart and Custom options, new support for social sites Polyvore, Wanelo and mobile search engine Yahoo Gemini, as well as expanded global capabilities through support for marketplaces such as MeinPaket, Rakuten.de and Zalando.

Atlanta -- EarthLink Holdings Corp., a managed network and cloud services provider, announced that Anna’s Linens have selected the company to provide a comprehensive managed network solution and SIP Trunking for voice over IP for its more than three hundred stores and 3,200 employees.

To accommodate their rapid growth, increasingly centralized IT model, and need to run more applications, Anna's IT leaders worked in collaboration with EarthLink partner Grauman Communications to transition to an EarthLink MPLS network and SIP Trunking.

By Amy Lally and Leah Abeles, Sidley Austin LLP

New York -- Japanese online giant Rakuten has teamed up with First Bankcard to launch the Rakuten Rewards MasterCard Program, which provides cardholders with reward points for using their credit card to shop on Rakuten.com and elsewhere.

Rakuten.com, formerly Buy.com, is Rakuten's U.S. marketplace, offering consumers more than 17 million products at everyday low prices from a network of small and large business shop owners.

Rakuten has teamed up with First Bankcard to launch the Rakuten Rewards MasterCard Program, which provides cardholders with reward points for using their credit card to shop on Rakuten.com and elsewhere.  

Rakuten.com, formerly Buy.com, is Rakuten's U.S. marketplace, offering consumers more than 17 million products at everyday low prices from a network of small and large business shop owners.

Sequential Brands Group has appointed leading brand strategist Jameel Spencer as chief marketing officer, reporting directly to CEO Yehuda Shmidman.

Spencer will develop and lead all global marketing initiatives for the company's portfolio of consumer brands which include William Rast, People's Liberation, DVS, Heelys, Caribbean Joe, Ellen Tracy, Revo and The Franklin Mint.

Ottawa, Canada -- Well-executed dynamic pricing strategies, such as those deployed by Amazon and Overstock, led to higher sales during the 2013 holiday season as opposed to all-season discounting and other strategies. In its “Retail’s 2013 Holiday Winners and Losers” report, pricing intelligence vendor 360pi rated retailers’ overall financial performance for the 2013 fourth quarter on a scale from +5 (above expectations/excellent) to -5 (below expectations/very poor) based on third-party financial analysts’ overall assessments.

New York — Japanese e-commerce giant Rakuten Inc. will buy messaging app provider Viber Media Inc. for $900 million. Rakuten, which is also a major investor in Pinterest and owner of U.S. online retailer Play.com, seeks to use Viber as a platform for both mobile shopping and content consumption, according to the Associated Press.

Rakuten offers services from financing to shopping to online video on its e-commerce platform, the largest in Japan.

Japan’s biggest e-commerce player uses third-party marketplace model to expand

Most U.S. consumers, and many retailers for that matter, have probably never heard of Rakuten. But if Japan’s largest e-commerce marketplace has its way, that will soon change: The company has set its sights on becoming a household name in the United States. An even loftier goal: outpacing e-commerce giant Amazon.com.

Internet services company Rakuten has acquired the global video streaming platform known as Viki as it looks to advance its digital content offerings and extend Internet services to new markets.