Online Shopping

President Obama says his Affordable Care Act is about to make health insurance cheaper than the average cellphone bill and as easy to get as “a plane ticket on Kayak.” In a pitch to community college students in suburban Maryland on Thursday morning, Obama compared the soon-to-launch healthcare “marketplaces” to Internet travel websites that let users compare prices and details with a few keystrokes. “Don't take my word for it, go on the website,” Obama told a crowd at Prince George's Community College in Largo, Md. “See for yourself what the prices are. See for yourself what the choices are and then make up your own mind.

Every quarter Google has a larger mobile market share than Apple, but when it comes to shopping online, iOS users outspent Android users with sales five times higher on Christmas Day. Apple iOS users accounted for 23% of total U.S. online sales, according to analytics data from IBM . Meanwhile, Google Android accounted for 4.6%. Apple's mobile users not only accounted for more sales, but they also spent more than their Android counterparts every time they made a purchase.

Calendar Live! picks top online stores for your holiday shopping needs. Go to http://www.calendarlive.com/onlineshopping/.

Bargain-hunting shoppers on Cyber Monday broke consumption records, making the online shopping bonanza the biggest e-commerce day in history, according to data from IBM Digital Analytics Benchmark. Online sales surged 20.6% compared with the same day last year, with Los Angeles rounding out a list of most active e-shopping cities that included New York, Washington, D.C., Chicago and Atlanta, according to IBM. Cyber Monday capped the highest five-day online consumption period in the books, as sales boomed 16.5% over the same stretch last year.

A new one-day record for online shopping was set Dec. 12, exactly a year after the previous peak was achieved, according to a firm that tracks Internet sales. On that day, $288 million worth of non-travel goods were sold on the Internet, according to ComScore Networks Inc., a Reston, Va., research firm. The former record, hit Dec. 12, 2001, was $262 million. Online sales of non-travel items from Nov. 1 through Dec. 13 total about $7.

NetZero Inc. of Westlake Village, which provides free Internet service to its customers, has purchased privately held RocketCash Corp., an online gateway designed to allow consumers to shop on the Internet without a credit card. To complete the acquisition, NetZero issued about 5.6 million shares of its common stock. NetZero officials said they will use RocketCash's currency exchange and payment processing technology to create a merchant network for NetZero's 5 million registered users.

The best fashion bargains from catalogers aren't on paper. They're in pixels, as catalog merchants discover that the World Wide Web is the easiest way to sell their overstocks. Eddie Bauer http://www.eddiebauer.com was one of the first Web sites with its "Great Buys" and "Weekly Specials" sections. Typical deals include a $40 pair of women's leather huaraches for $19.99 or women's houndstooth linen shorts for $24.99, discounted 40% from their regular $42 price.

"Do I need a business plan?" "How do I introduce drug-testing for my employees?" "Where can I get legal advice on a merger?" Small-business owners often have questions about how to run their companies. This column will attempt to provide answers from a variety of experts. Consultants are interviewed by freelance writer Karen E. Klein. * Q: What type of expenses are involved in setting up an online shopping site?

Custom-made clown shoes? Art Deco bidet faucets? Handcrafted Amish quilts? When the Amish are online, you know that just about everyone is. And if you can't find what you want now, just wait a few minutes and a dot-com company backed by venture capital will move in to seize that market. Retail spending online looks to be on the rise. How much depends on whom you ask.

After surviving a brutal recession that saw many chain retailers, restaurants and shops struggle and even go under, Southern California landlords are regaining the upper hand in rent negotiations. With shoppers willing to spend money again, signs of a retail revival in greater Los Angeles are starting to spread beyond destinations such as trendy Robertson Boulevard in West Hollywood and malls in Calabasas to once less popular areas such as downtown Long Beach as well as Echo Park and Highland Park in Los Angeles.

Overall charitable giving rose 2.3% during the three months that ended on Oct. 31, driven in part by the rising stock market, according to Blackbaud Inc. Blackbaud does not release total numbers for the amount of money given over that period. But the Blackbaud Index data looked at 3,828 charities that raised more than $12 billion over the last year. The Charleston, S.C.-based Blackbaud Inc. is a public company that tracks charitable giving. Blackbaud also works with more than 29,000 nonprofit organizations in more than 60 countries that support higher education, healthcare, human services and other issues.

President Obama says his Affordable Care Act is about to make health insurance cheaper than the average cellphone bill and as easy to get as “a plane ticket on Kayak.” In a pitch to community college students in suburban Maryland on Thursday morning, Obama compared the soon-to-launch healthcare “marketplaces” to Internet travel websites that let users compare prices and details with a few keystrokes. “Don't take my word for it, go on the website,” Obama told a crowd at Prince George's Community College in Largo, Md. “See for yourself what the prices are. See for yourself what the choices are and then make up your own mind.

Jeffrey Bezos is best known for founding Amazon.com Inc. and pioneering online shopping, so his purchase of the struggling Washington Post newspaper stunned media watchers and technology analysts alike. Although Bezos, 49, is an active backer of several oddball endeavors -- among them unearthing old rocket engines from the bottom of the ocean and developing a futuristic clock -- most of his previous investments have gone toward creating new technologies, not reviving ailing industries.

After surviving a brutal recession that saw many chain retailers, restaurants and shops struggle and even go under, Southern California landlords are regaining the upper hand in rent negotiations. With shoppers willing to spend money again, signs of a retail revival in greater Los Angeles are starting to spread beyond destinations such as trendy Robertson Boulevard in West Hollywood and malls in Calabasas to once less popular areas such as downtown Long Beach as well as Echo Park and Highland Park in Los Angeles.

Futuristic fabrics and high-tech garments are just one way technology is affecting the fashion landscape. Another, e-commerce, was the topic of discussion at Fashion Digital Los Angeles, a recent day-long conference in Hollywood. Some 450 registrants gathered for a range of discussions with such titles as "Beating Amazon With Inspiration-Based Commerce? Yes, It's Possible!" and "Turning Small Screens and Fat Fingers into Big Opportunities" that underscored that the fashion side of e-commerce is big and getting bigger.

Consumers hopped online for some more Internet shopping on Cyber Monday after last week's post-Thanksgiving Black Friday frenzy came to a close. Many started early this year: Online spending on Black Friday topped $1 billion for the first time as some shoppers turned to their computers instead of braving the crowds in person. Cyber Monday is "the Super Bowl of online shopping," said Jonathan Johnson, president of bargain site Overstock.com. As of late afternoon, the site's traffic was up compared with last year's Cyber Monday, he said, but it was too early to predict how the entire day's sales would shake out. In the last few years, he said, Cyber Monday shoppers with high-speed Web access have started browsing Overstock at home after a day at the office.

China's online shopping market is expected to surge over the next several years and could reach 2 trillion renminbi, or $315 billion, by 2015, according to research by Boston Consulting Group. The study found that Chinese shoppers are the most likely of the world's online consumers to check for product recommendations on social networking sites, and that online retail giant Taobao is the dominant e-commerce player in China. Last year the site, which has more than 800 million online products, accounted for 79% of China's online transaction value, selling more than the country's top five physical retailers combined.

If you have small children, a full-time job and an interest in keeping up fashionable appearances - prepare for some bad news: The era of sneaking in some online shopping at work may be coming to an end. A recent survey by Robert Half Technology, a company that helps businesses find information technology professionals, found that 60% of more than 1,400 chief information officers interviewed said their companies block access to online shopping...

Half of America's workforce plans to hit the holiday sales this season from the comfort of their cubicle. According to a survey from CareerBuilder, 49% of workers will do some of their holiday shopping online while at the office. Of all workers surveyed, 12% plan to shop today's Black Friday sales and 16% plan to check out Cyber Monday deals next week. On Cyber Monday, an estimated 72 million people will go online to take advantage of free shipping and discounts. The CareerBuilder study is based on an annual poll conducted during August and September by Harris Interactive of more than 2,400 employers and more than 3,900 employees.

Amazon.com on Thursday launched a dedicated wine marketplace on its website. The online wine shop is currently in beta, with thousands of labels searchable by type (red, white, etc.), grape varietal, winery, tasting notes (blackberry, vanilla, oak ... ), professional rating, vintage, ABV (alcohol by volume) or price. So far, customers in California, Connecticut, Florida, Idaho, Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska, Nevada, North Carolina, Oregon, Washington , Wyoming and the District of Columbia (with more states to be added)