eCommerce

New York -- Less than 30% of middle-market retailers have websites optimized for mobile purchases, according to a national survey of C-suite executives by GE Capital. Currently, middle market retailers conduct 16% of their transactions online and about half expect the proportion of online transactions to increase in the next 12 months. (GE identifies middle-market retailers as ranging from $10 million to $1 billion in annual sales).

Atlanta -- Teradata, the analytic data platforms, marketing applications, and services company, announced that it is working with Office Depot to expand the retailer’s enterprise data warehouse (EDW) with the very latest Teradata platforms and innovation. The new Teradata Active EDW can support the most demanding real-time workloads, with the ability for unlimited concurrent users to run queries against massive data volumes.

Digital coupons possess amazing powers to influence shopper behavior, according to a new study funded by digital coupon provider RetailMeNot.

Digital Coupons positively affect brand loyalty, broaden consumer’s horizons and rule the world of promotions, according to the study titled “The Impact of Online Coupons and Promotion Codes.” RetailMeNot commissioned Forrester Consulting to conduct the survey of 500 consumers in May.

Seattle – Online specialty retailer Zulily beat Wall Street expectations by almost doubling its net earnings and sales in the second quarter of fiscal 2014, compared to the second quarter of the previous fiscal year. Net income rose 95% to $7.8 million from $4 million, while net sales increased 97% to $285 million.

Zulily attributed its overall strong performance to improved mobile sales, with mobile devices now accounting for 47% of North American sales, a growing customer base, and higher average order values.

Austin, Texas - Nearly seven-in-10 consumers (68%) surveyed strongly believe that digital coupons have a positive impact on a retailer's brand, and 68% also state that coupons generate loyalty. According to a new survey from RetailMeNot Inc. and Forrester Consulting, digital coupons increase the potential for conversion when consumers are in the cart and checkout phase of a purchase, and they play a key role in combating shopping cart abandonment.

San Francisco – Twitter is reportedly making moves that indicate it is considering launching e-commerce services. According to The Next Web, users of the Twitter Android app are reporting a dormant “Payment & Shipping” option appearing in the settings menu.

Despite reporting a second-quarter sales increase of 5% and a digital sales increase of 9% — with mobile representing 15% of its total sales — HSN missed Wall Street expectations for its net income thanks to a 5% drop from $43.3 million a year earlier to $40.9 million for the quarter.

Overall net sales grew 5% over the prior year to $855.2 million.

Seattle - Amazon.com has expanded same-day delivery in Baltimore, Dallas, Indianapolis, New York City, Philadelphia, and Washington, D.C., metro areas, with more than a million eligible items now available for same-day delivery. These six cities join the existing same-day delivery-eligible cities of Los Angeles, Phoenix, San Francisco and Seattle.