Bay Area

Target has announced the release of a slew of enhancements to its mobile shopping offerings that promise to take location-based shopping to new heights when they go live later this month. Target has partnered with the startup Curbside to offer curbside pickup at 10 San Francisco Bay area stores. Guests simply place an order for store pickup through the Curbside app and collect their purchase in person at a convenient Curbside-branded trailer or tent near

In a falling out between two e-commerce companies, a Bay Area art retailer was sued on Tuesday for allegedly hacking into the computer servers of another internet retailer and stealing swathes of consumer information. Gotham City Online, a website that sells discount brand-name shoes, sued Art.com, an Emeryville, Calif.-based company that sells fine art online, in the U.S. District Court in San Francisco, claiming trade secret violations and computer fraud. According to the lawsuit, Art.com illegally accessed Gotham City's servers and changed the security passwords and ownership credentials to prevent Gotham City employees from accessing email or company files.

Google is wading deeper into the growing pool of online shopping competitors, testing out its ability to provide customers with same-day delivery. This week the company launched a small pilot program in the Bay Area called Google Shopping Express. The service allows online shoppers to order from name-brand stores like Target and Toys"R"Us and have those goods delivered the same day. The service, for now, is free to consumers. Google will make money by taking a commission from the retailer.

On the heels of the new site redesign it launched earlier this week, Reuters reports eBay has also been quietly testing out a new service called eBay Lifestyle Deals that puts it squarely in competition with Groupon. The service, which is doing limited runs in metro areas including the Bay Area, Los Angeles and Washington, D.C., is another example of a large company targeting the local deals market. In that sense, eBay is more making a direct play at Google Offers and AmazonLocal than at Groupon itself.

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