Despite investing significant time and money in current commerce solutions, the majority of marketers and IT professionals surveyed aren't confident in their capabilities. Nearly one third (30 percent) of brands in both B2B and B2C industries spent more than $2m for their current commerce site, and 44 percent say it took longer than a year to implement, according to the 2016 State of Digital Commerce Report from e-commerce solution provider CloudCraze.

Retailers are expanding their networks of stores internationally this year despite the presumed headwind of online shopping, with a greater percentage eyeing growth in the Americas than last year, according to a survey of more than 150 major, international brands released by CBRE Group, Inc.

Retail CEOs say internal silos are holding back omnichannel success. In fact, retailers without these operational barriers are more positive about achieving profitability, according to a new report.

Retailers should see a moderate increase in holiday sales in the stores and online this year, according to Deloitte's annual retail holiday sales forecast.

New data from Juniper Research has revealed that global e-retail sales are expected to reach $1.7tr this year, up by more than 17 percent on 2014's total. It argued that while recent growth had been buoyed by factors such as public Wi-Fi deployments and 4G rollout, in the medium term sales would receive a strong fillip from the trend of social media companies to act as direct sales platforms.

European officials want to make it easier for companies to offer e-commerce across the continent, and are asking whether some firms are putting barriers in the way of that happening. Among the actions they announced is an antitrust inquiry to investigate "possible competition concerns" put in place by some Web companies.