UPS and other carriers raised their shipping rates in January, much to the chagrin of U.S. e-commerce retailers. Now, some industry observers believe Amazon may be the cause of the price hikes.

The boom in e-commerce and the rising use of the internet will bring boom-time conditions to the industrial property sector in Australia in the coming year, according to logistics leasing experts.

Retailers looking to expand their business internationally might do well to consider selling online in China or Japan. Those two countries take first and second place, respectively, in a new index of the 30 best countries for online retailing from A.T. Kearney.

In the United States, B2B e-commerce revenue has now more than doubled that of B2C - with $559bn annually in sales - and B2B players that fail to embrace online and mobile as leading channels risk losing market share in the short and medium term, and sustainable competitive advantage in the long-term.

Newgistics, a vendor of electronic-commerce tools for brands and retailers, is opening three new facilities, in Kentucky, California and Illinois.