Today is a big day at Borders. According to AP, the company is relaunching its online bookstore after being tied for 7 years with Amazon in a sales contract.
In 2001, the nation’s second-largest bookseller abandoned its money-losing online business, turning it over to Amazon. Under that arrangement, Borders.com took shoppers to a site partnered with Amazon, while a Web site for its stores allowed shoppers to check inventories and reserve items.
The new Borders.com is a full featured independent online bookstore offering appealing user experience. The retailer kept the popular free shipping on [most] orders $25 and up, and now also offers free “ship to store” option for extra savings. In addition, shoppers enrolled in the Borders Rewards loyalty program will be able to redeem rewards online — something they couldn’t do on the Amazon-partnered site.
May 27th, 2008
Microsoft has announced a new initiative targeted at breaking into Google dominance of web search. The new functionality, which is an integral part of Microsoft’s Live Search, will offer cash back to the consumers who buy products available through the program. The project is called Live Search cashback and currently offers products from around 200 merchants.
On one hand we at Buxr are excited to see Microsoft experimenting with new web technologies, on the other hand we believe the truly budget minded consumers should explore all options on their quest to the best deal and while web search is the fundamental instrument to achieving this goal, it should not be biased towards any particular product or merchant.
Integrating cash back into Live Search can be damaging to the search quality since it requires Microsoft to engage into affiliate agreements with each of the merchants and makes it dependent on the merchant pay backs.
May 22nd, 2008
We wrote earlier about the “Taxation Problem” New Yorkers are facing with Amazon. The state enacted a law that requires Amazon affiliates residing in the state to pay sales tax. Amazon subsequently brought the issue to court challenging the law which was supposed to bring about $50 million to the $122 billion state budget recently signed by Gov. David A. Paterson.
The law of course doesn’t apply only to Amazon affiliates, any merchants that reside in New York and have affiliation with an out of state company will be required to pay sale tax come June 1. We just learned that Overstock, another big online retailer, is taking the issue to heart. Instead of fighting it though they chose to vote with their money and recently sent an email to all the affiliates residing in New York effectively terminating their agreement with the company.
It sounds like these events precede a bigger storm around online taxation. States are known to follow each others’ steps just as other merchants might choose to abandon states enacting these laws. This can’t be good either for merchants or states, nor it is good for the consumers. Our guess is it all will depend on how the issue plays out in the courts for Amazon in the upcoming months.
Source: NY’s “Amazon Tax” Takes First Casualty: Overstock Affiliates at TechCrunch
May 15th, 2008
Walmart continues it’s aggressive pricing on drugs by now including over 1,000 over the counter medications for only $4 or less. If that weren’t enough, they are also making some drugs available in a 90 day supply for $10, reports Reuters.
“We expect that today’s extension will generate additional pharmacy volume for the company, especially given the current weak consumer environment and rising health-care costs,” wrote Uta Werner, a retail analyst with Sanford C. Bernstein & Co, in a research note.
While this is bad news to competitors like Kmart and Target, this is great news for consumers. Hopefully this will spark more competition, driving prices down even further.
May 6th, 2008
Philips Outlet announced that they would be pulling out of the US market for HDTVs, and begin licensing it’s brands (Magnavox and Philips) to maker Funai starting on September 1st.
All of this has generated some incredible bargains on HDTV’s, like this 47″ 1080P HDTV for only $750 + $29 shipping!
You might also want consider a LCD warranty from Squaretrade.com for fifty percent off with coupon code FIFTYOFF
April 28th, 2008
Next Posts
Previous Posts
