Amazon.com

State officials in Tennessee are raising questions whether Amazon.com should start collecting sales taxes from state customers. The company is building three distribution centers in the state and some legislators believe Amazon should begin collecting sales taxes there.

The popularity of flash-sale websites with limited time and inventory offerings has grown exponentially over the past two years. Online shoppers’ love for the thrill of snagging designer clothing, home décor, travel and even wine has caused visits to the category to increase 368 percent in July 2011 as compared to the same month two years ago and 109 percent one year ago. 

Amazon's website visits top a new report from Experian Hitwise that shows search terms for the custom category "Retail 500," ranked by largest increase for the week ending July 23 vs. the week ending July 16.

Amazon is using the foot traffic generated by conventional stores to fuel an effort to maintain its price advantage over them. Meanwhile, brick-and-mortar retailers are defending California's sales tax law.

If you work for Amazon, the tax obsession means you need permission to visit certain states, and might not be able to send certain emails when you get there. In some instances, you won't even be able to identify yourself as working for Amazon.com. Amazon employees have been shown a color coded map of "bad states," according to the Wall Street Journal, and been made to consult with company lawyers before visiting any.

The clones are attacking in droves. Amazon.com is quietly launching its own deal-of-day discount offers in Chicago. The Windy City, of course, is the corporate home of Groupon.

Retailers with unique business models — and those with both the means and the fortitude to expand while others contracted or stood pat — are the stars of the 2011 edition of the STORES Hot 100 Retailers. The top of the list illustrates this abundantly with the likes of Amazon, Apple and Netflix, each with a distinctive enough approach to retail to preclude having a major rival operating in the same space.

eBay is testing a rental program on Half.com in the books and textbooks categories. The company announced the test in mid-July, at which point the rental program was being shown to 25% of traffic on the site. Half.com is only allowing rentals to be offered by "established book rental companies" that it has partnered with, according to the announcement. Sellers posting their reaction to the new program expressed disappointment that eBay was not allowing them to participate in the Half.com rental program, and some did not like the concept of a Half.com book-rental program at all. Alibris allows its

Holiday plans, merchandise assortments and inventory purchases are pretty well in place by now for most cross-channel retailers. But since many businesses gain such a high percentage of their sales and profits in the fourth quarter — as much as 60 percent — it's never too late to see what additional things can be done to increase sales and customer satisfaction.

While the order fulfillment department of your cross-channel retail business isn’t the sexiest or most fun, it’s arguably one of the most important. Most customer complaints are centered around fulfillment issues, for example. And if your business has even the slightest fulfillment gaffe in today’s social media environment, it’s one tweet away from a public relations disaster.