As digital business become more and more popular today, many companies recognize the opportunities behind it and are trying to expand their online business.

    Staples has just realized that people tend to use fewer paper products since, for example, the smartphone and the ipad have come out, so one of the biggest changes for the company lies in online business: ‘‘…it plans to slash its U.S. store footage by 15 percent and invest the savings in its e-tailing business.’’ By closing quite a lot of retail stores in the U.S and Europe, it has much lower costs and still captures customers through other platforms. Staples has a really good brand image for office supplies, and I think e-tailing will make it more successful and profitable.

http://www.brandchannel.com/home/post/2012/09/26/Staples-Rethinks-Strategy-092612.aspx

     Another piece of news drew my attention as well. Target creates click-to-buy shoppable video starring Kristen Bell and Nia Long. In this case, Target even provides online shopping through a further extension by combining shopping and watching a video at the same time. During my experience of a click-to-buy shoppable video, I felt that I paid more attention to the products on the screen and I found it was interesting compared to the usual dull online shopping. However, I think the technology still needs to be improved because it is hard to match what I like and check if it is on the product list.

One of click-to-buy video episodes: http://fallingforyou.target.com/

Target news source:http://www.brandchannel.com/home/post/2012/09/25/Target-Falling-For-You-092512.aspx

     Overall, I believe the emerging market for e-tailing will gain a lot of people’s attention as the young generation have already adapted to different forms of social media and the continually growing technology.