Amit Kumar

Yahoo is casting off its e-commerce business, including Yahoo Stores, later this year when it spins off its Yahoo Small Business (YSB) unit. YSB will move over to a new public company, currently referred to as "SpinCo," along with Yahoo's approximately 384 million shares of Alibaba. Amer Akhtar, head of YSB, announced the news on the unit's blog. "With this new opportunity, we can invest even more in our platform and chart our own course," he said. However, Yahoo had just launched a "next generation" Yahoo Stores platform in August under Akhtar's predecessor, Amit Kumar.

Yahoo showed its commitment to e-commerce on Thursday by launching what it calls a "completely reimagined, next generation" version of Yahoo Stores. The company is emphasizing how easy it is to set up a store, start accepting payments, and get found through its search engine optimization features. Yahoo Stores has been around for 16 years, and Amit Kumar, head of Yahoo Small Business, says the new Yahoo Stores draws upon what the company has learned from its millions of customers. 

Millions of shoppers are going online this holiday season, hitting e-commerce sites harder than ever before. Merchants who want to live through the onslaught — and make a profit — should check their "to do" list twice for these six tips for surviving the holiday shopping season: