| Google and PayPal collide at the checkout
Jon Kuhlmann has had a front row seat as that competition unfolded. Kuhlmann, whose company Grapevinehill.com sells discount footwear, had been taking PayPal for years, largely to service the eBay Inc. customers that account for 80% of his revenue. And when Google Checkout came along he added that payment option to his eBay store and his own site. But eBay, which owns PayPal, was having none of it. For the first few days we took Google Checkout for some eBay transactions, but that was quickly stopped by eBay, he says. A year later, eBay was still banning Google Checkout, saying it is unproven. And Kuhlmann was on hand in Boston when Googles attempt to poke fun at that ban badly misfired. Party crashing Google invited merchants attending the annual eBay Live event in June to attend a Revolutionary War-themed party billed as a celebration of freedom of choice.
Internet Newegg's Scrambled Cyber Monday Promotion
Newegg generally has a good reputation with the technology community. The company rose to prominence around the turn of the century for its lightning-quick FedEx Super Saver shipping and its excellent customer support. Over the past few years, the company has done much to maintain its reputation with enthusiasts and still manages to hold on to a Reseller Rating of 9.90. However, Newegg has found itself embroiled in a testy dispute over a promotion it offered on Cyber Monday. The promotion was held in conjunction than with everyone's favorite whipping boy: PayPal. On Monday, Newegg offered a promotion where customers who purchased merchandise from the site using PayPal would receive 20 percent cash back. The promotion was to start on Monday, November 26 and end on November 28. Under the terms of the promotion, Newegg stated that "The cash back payment will be deposited into your PayPal account by January 31, 2008." According to Newegg's terms and conditions for the promotion, the 20 percent cash back was limited to a maximum of $50 USD.
Minding the Gap
Two days before Black Friday, that late-November day when all hell breaks loose in the holiday-obsessed American retail industry, Gap Inc. chief executive Glenn Murphy was calmly walking analysts through the company's good-news, bad-news third quarter. Murphy, a veteran Canadian merchant, was recruited last summer by the struggling San Francisco-based retail giant, and this session marked his first full reporting period as the new boss. Though he hails from the considerably less stampede-prone world of big-box pharmacies—Murphy had been the CEO of Shoppers Drug Mart since 2001, presiding over a spectacularly successful run—he gamely talked about 5 a.m. store openings as if they were old hat. Murphy let on that he planned to drop by an Orlando store for a midnight madness event.
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