E-commerce

Groupon puts all gun-related promotions and deals on hold

Groupon has suspended all of its gun-related promotions, a move that has led some gun-rights advocates to call for a boycott of the daily deals site.

"All scheduled and current gun-related deals featured on Groupon North America, including shooting ranges, conceal-and-carry and clay shooting, have been placed on hiatus while we review internal standards that shape the deal inventory we feature," Groupon spokeswoman Julie Mossler told AOL Daily Finance in a story published Sunday. "The category is under review following recent consumer and merchant feedback."

Although the move is presumably in reaction to last month's … Read more

Hearst gives iPad owners early dibs on magazines

Publisher Hearst has a new initiative that gives iPad owners early access to digital versions of its magazines.

Apple today quietly launched a new section in its App Store called "Read them here first," with a listing of Hearst-owned magazines that can be had digitally before they arrive on newsstands or on competing digital platforms.

Hearst has 20 of its titles involved in the program, including Esquire, Car and Driver, and Popular Mechanics. A company spokeswoman said the lead time varies by publication.

The move gives Apple a leg up against competing digital newsstand products, particularly apps Zinio … Read more

iPhone, iPod Touch users can now buy music from Amazon

iPhone users now have another option for downloading songs from their device.

Amazon today launched its MP3 store for iPhone and iPod Touch users, allowing them to buy digital music from Amazon's 22-million song catalog. There's one catch, though. The purchases have to be made via the Safari Web browser, not through any of Amazon's apps. That means the process isn't quite as seamless as buying music through iTunes.

Amazon noted that music purchases are automatically saved to the customer's Cloud Player library and can be downloaded or streamed instantly from an iPhone, iPod Touch, … Read more

Uber drives its car service onto the streets of Berlin

Uber began operation in Germany today, giving Berliners their first taste of the fast-growing private car-summoning service.

The service, which the company said is being conducted by "Secret Ubers," is in the testing phase, with more drivers being added each day, Jena Wuu, an international launcher, wrote in a company blog post today. The new service, which allows users to request rides via their smartphones, will apparently be limited to the capital, at least initially.

Interestingly, the service's first passenger was Alexander Ljung, cofounder of the steaming audio host SoundCloud, who was mysteriously "spotted" and … Read more

EBay sales climb 18 percent to $3.9B in fourth quarter

EBay's sales climbed 18% to $3.9 billion in revenue during the fourth fiscal quarter, up from $3.4 billion during the same period a year earlier.

In a prepared statement, management touted double digit user growth across its portfolio as well as strong gains in mobile adoption.

EBay posted net income of $751 million, or 57 cents a share, compared to net income of $1.98 billion, or $1.51 a share, for the same period the previous year. Excluding various expenses -- primarily $1.7 billion related to the sale of eBay's remaining investment in Skype … Read more

PayPal's in-store payment partners grow to 23 retailers

Increasingly bringing its service offline, PayPal announced today that it has nearly doubled its brick-and-mortar store lineup to 23 retailers that now accept its payment service.

"Delivering valuable digital and mobile payments is alive and thriving, and consumers all over the U.S. will now start seeing PayPal more where they shop every day, including the grocery store and at the gas pump," PayPal's vice president of retail services Don Kingsborough said in a statement. "No bells, whistles or buzzes -- just technology that works and gets the most from your money."

Throughout the U.… Read more

Audiobooks.com cancels all-you-can-hear plan

Audiobooks.com has lowered its subscription price, but now you can listen to only one or two books per month.

The new plans offer two different options. You can pay $14.95 per month to listen to one audiobook or $22.95 each month to hear up to two books. Previously, the site charged people $24.95 per month but gave them the ability to listen to an unlimited number of audiobooks for that fee.

Why the change? A spokesman for Audiobooks.com sent CNET the following statement:

The switch from "all you can listen" to the new … Read more

First all-digital library in the U.S. will look like an Apple Store

The first book-free library in the U.S. may look pretty familiar to visitors. That's because it's being modeled after an Apple retail store.

Bexar County, Texas, which includes San Antonio, will launch the nation's first all-digital public library system, dubbed BiblioTech, this year. A prototype location on the county's south side is slated to open this fall, and the county hopes to open similar libraries in the future.

Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff got his inspiration for the all-digital library from Walter Isaacson's biography of Steve Jobs, according to the San Antonio Express-News.

"… Read more

Shopping via mobile devices increased 81 percent in 2012

The phrase "shop by phone" took on new meaning in 2012, with U.S. consumer spending via mobile devices nearly doubling over 2011 levels.

Shoppers used their smartphones and tablets to make $25 billion in purchases last year, an increase of 81 percent over the previous year, according to data released today by market research firm eMarketer.

The researcher estimates that mobile devices accounted for 11 percent of e-commerce sales last year and expects that number to increase to 15 percent in 2013.

eMarketer expects consumers to make nearly $87 billion in mobile purchases by 2016, more than … Read more