Bazaarvoice to Acquire PowerReviews in $151.9 Million Deal

| MCM staff

Bazaarvoice will pay $31.0 million in cash, issue up to 6.4 million shares of common stock and assume vested and unvested options to purchase the common stock of PowerReviews equivalent to 1.6 million options to purchase the common stock of Bazaarvoice.

Direct Sales for Staples Rise 2% in 1Q

| MCM staff

First-quarter sales for Staples slipped 1%, to $6.1 billion, for the three months ended April 28. Direct sales from its North American Delivery Business — which includes the Staples and Quill catalogs and online businesses as well as the Staples contract delivery business — grew 2%, to $2.6 billion.

5 Ways Small- and Mid-sized Merchants Can Compete with Large Merchants

| Fred Lizza

Jacque Pelletier, founder of Fashion Connection, says that the ability to manage his inventory across multiple platforms has helped the business flourish and differentiate itself from local brick-and-mortar competitors. Additionally, the Fashion Connection, is looking ahead and readying themselves to take on bigger challenges such as mobile commerce.

A Critical Look at Ecommerce Ratings and Reviews

| Ken Burke

One of the best ways to improve your own ratings and reviews is to evaluate and emulate what the leaders are doing. This article examines several of the best techniques being used today and describes how you can benefit by implementing similar methods.