Another week, another Asos competitor on its way, this time from John Lewis…

Online shopping is increasingly popular but development is being held back by barriers to cross-border trade, says a new report from the EU’s Consumer Commissioner

The bookseller’s new site design includes a live sales map and improved search engine plus the ability to pay in euros and dollars — and free delivery to more than 90 countries

The delivery specialist, now renamed ‘Hermes’, is the UK arm of a pan-European home delivery (and returns) network being built by Germany’s Hermes Logistik Gruppe. JD Williams and Land’s End have become the first to sign up…

New research from Emailcenter has found that consumers think they didn’t sign up for one in three of the marketing emails they receive

Tesco and ATG have signed a strategic partnership that will see a new Tesco ecommerce site being built on ATG technology

‘Non-food, non-store sales’ were up last month, but by less than in January or December. Overall, UK retail sales were 1.8% down on February 2008

Comparison shopping engines — CSEs for short — are an ever-growing channel in the UK and across the world, with sites like Moneysupermarket.com posting record traffic figures as credit-crunched consumers search for bargains. Steve Davis, president of GSI Commerce Europe, offers seven key tactics for optimising sales through price comparison sites…

The Snow Valley Online Returns & Refunds Report has found that there are big differences in how well internet retailers handle customers who need to make a return

Following on from Shop Direct’s acquisition of Woolworths.co.uk, The Hut Group has bought Zavvi to bring it back as an online-only business and Toys R Us has splashed $5 million on the Toys.com domain name

A study carried out by Carnegie Mellon University in the US has found that shopping online can have less environmental impact than buying from traditional retail outlets

More than one-third of online businesses say they have implemented new measures to reduce payment fraud

Distinctive fashion brand Joules is broadening its horizons with the launch of Living The Good Life, a foray into building a community with a blog, Twitter feed, community feedback and more that are designed to extend the brand from clothing into a way of life

It is only by embracing a ‘magalogue’ style website that includes news, trends and ever changing ‘hot buy’ items that fashion retailers will provoke the consumer interest and loyalty required to increase online footfall and generate rapid revenue growth, argues Prologic’s Simon Hanson…

New research from Shoppercentric looks in depth at how shoppers are being affected by the recession and identifies changes in behaviour — including increases in online shopping as a way of keeping track of spending

47% of consumers surveyed by 1&1 Internet say they want to be able to sort out after-sales issues online — but 83% of businesses say they don’t think there is any demand

Forrester Research’s latest report says the UK ecommerce market will grow at a slow but steady 6% a year over the next six years, putting the UK behind Germany and France in terms of growth but ahead in terms of overall market size

Last year’s changes to its fee structure and efforts to attract established retailers to the site mean that British retailers and other big sellers could account for £1bn of sales on ebay.co.uk over the next five years, the company says

The supermarket’s new SYM TV channel offers tips and suggestions generated by customers, plus a selection of short films produced by Asda to help save people money, and is part of a plan to increase consumer interaction on its website later this Spring

The company has seen a 50% increase in online sales since January 1, says chief executive Mark Newton-Jones, and Woolworths.co.uk will be back online in June