Amazon.com

In exchange for agreeing to a slower shipping method, Amazon will give Prime members a $1 credit to spend on music at its MP3 Store. Amazon's Prime membership program costs $79 for a year of unlimited fast shipping that includes free 2-day shipping, or 1-day shipping for $3.99 per item.

Retailers are all about putting customers first nowadays, and with the holiday gift-giving season upon us, Walmart is doing just that. In an effort to make gift unwrapping as joyful as possible, the retailer is joining Amazon to promote "rage-free" packaging for a number of its non-food products, according to Business Week. Both companies are putting pressure on suppliers to eliminate excessive and cumbersome packaging materials, such as hard plastic casings enclosing electronics and wire ties used to secure toys to cardboard backings. In addition to being more environmentally friendly, the push can improve supply chain efficiency and customer

San Francisco -- The 15 cities with the most shopping activity on Black Friday 2011 were Manhattan, N.Y.; San Francisco; Los Angeles; Brooklyn, N.Y.; San Jose, Calif.; Seattle; Chicago; San Diego; Houston; Atlanta; Dallas; Saint Louis; Portland, Ore.; Austin, Texas; and Minneapolis, according to mint.com, an online personal finance site. The 10 national merchants with the most shopping activity on Black Friday, mint.com reported, were Apple, Best Buy, Nordstrom, Kohl’s, Macy’s, Target, Wal-Mart, Gap, Old Navy and Amazon. After comparing user spend from Black Friday 2011 to last year’s spend, Mint.com found that: Atlanta, New York and Houston

Amazon.com and Wal-Mart are prodding more manufacturers to change their packaging to cut waste and alleviate “wrap rage,” the frustration felt when a product is difficult to open. The retailers have been pushing vendors to eliminate excessive and cumbersome packing materials, such as hard plastic clamshell casings that enclose electronics and wire ties used to secure toys to cardboard backings.

Google added a "Best Match" feature to its Google Product Search shopping engine to make it easier for shoppers to find products and feel confident in their purchases. When searching for a specific product, Google will highlight the product it thinks the shopper is looking for at the top of the search results page. Google also added a "Popular Products" feature, which is a list of products ranked in order of popularity. This is designed to help shoppers focus quickly on a few models, and Google will provide suggestions on how to refine the search - for example, by

California shoppers have one last chance to avoid paying state sales taxes on many of their online purchases this holiday season. By the time Black Friday rolls around next year, Amazon.com and other internet retailers will have begun collecting sales taxes on purchases made by their California customers, the result of a deal struck with lawmakers in September.

Black Friday is an unforgiving affair. Retailers duke it out, using middle-of-the-night openings, limited-time promotions and mega sales as their weapons in the battle to grab as much share of consumers' holiday shopping budgets as possible.

Whether it’s an unbeatable return policy, a helpful sales associate or 24-hour shopping convenience, holiday shoppers define customer service in a variety of ways. The National Retail Federation Foundation has announced the top 10 retailers for excellent customer service selected by shoppers in the seventh annual NRF Foundation/American Express Customers’ Choice survey.

A set of talking dolls aimed at children have caused controversy because of their potty mouths. The You & Me Interactive Play and Giggle Triplet Dolls giggle and burp like real babies, but parents are concerned because they also appear to say the ‘F’ word and the unsavoury greeting ‘Hey crazy b****’. The pajama-clad dolls , which are recommended for children aged three and up, are sold by Toys"R"Us in Canada and the U.S. as well as a number of online retailers like Amazon.

2011 was the kind of year that tests leaders. So when Fortune set out to pick a Businessperson of the Year (and 49 runners-up), great stories were easy to find.