FedEx this week is “closing out what has been another busy peak season” for the company, “largely driven by the continued rapid growth of e-commerce,” said FedEx Services co-CEO Mike Glenn on a Tuesday earnings call. “As e-commerce grows, so does the challenge of peak, with multiple days of volume levels approaching or surpassing double our average daily volume,” Glenn said. “This surge in demand is driven primarily by a relatively small number of customers.” Fewer than 50 “large retail and e-tail customers” account for most of the peak demand, “so it’s extremely important that we understand their forecasts well in advance to allow us to plan resources properly,” he said. Though a few FedEx e-commerce customers this year “have experienced demand below their forecasts,” demand at most clients is “meeting expectations,” he said.

Target lured customers Wednesday with a one-day 10 percent discount offer on select electronics -- including Apple products, Vizio TVs and Xbox One bundles -- for online purchases with in-store pickup. It also advertised the last day for free shipping with Dec. 23 arrival for orders placed before 4 p.m. EST. Some Samsung TVs had a $100 gift card included with purchase.

Amazon is opening two more fulfillment centers in Illinois, joining locations in Edwardsville, Joliet, Romeoville and one under construction in Monee. The new locations -- both in Aurora -- include a nearly 1-million-square-foot facility for packing and shipping small items and a 400,000-square-foot operation specializing in handling large items such as big-screen TVs, Amazon announced Tuesday. The new facilities will employ more than 1,000 full-time workers, bringing the company’s employee count in Illinois to more than 7,000, it said.

Holiday season online sales to date climbed 13 percent for the first 48 days of the holiday season vs. the year-ago period, said a Tuesday comScore report. U.S. e-commerce sales via PC totaled $55.2 billion, with the latest week -- Dec. 12-18 -- posting 15 percent growth to $7.6 billion vs. the 2015 period, comScore said. Free Shipping Day (Dec. 16) had $967 million in desktop spending, up 14 percent over 2015, closing out a streak of 22 consecutive days of billion-dollar online PC sales and 30 days overall since Nov. 1, it said. ComScore CEO Gian Fulgoni cited a “notable weekend surge” as consumers rushed to get orders in in time for shipping by Christmas. While the heaviest spending is over, comScore expects another $7 billion-$8 billion to be spent online over the rest of the year.

U.S. e-commerce spending via PC exceeded $1 billion for 11 consecutive days beginning Thanksgiving, said a comScore holiday season retail report. Overall holiday season spending online from Nov. 1-Dec. 4 reached $38 billion, a 12 percent spike from the comparable 2015 period, it said. PC spending during Cyber Week -- Cyber Monday through Dec. 4 -- totaled $11 billion, up 13 percent from the comparable 2015 week, with all seven days topping $1 billion in spending for the first time. Cyber Monday and the following Tuesday each eclipsed $2 billion in sales via PCs, said the e-commerce metrics company. Online holiday shopping continues to perform “very well” through the week after Cyber Monday, said CEO Gian Fulgoni, calling billion-dollar shopping days “the new norm,” and a trend that’s expected to carry through this week and beyond. Citing the growing impact of mobile commerce, comScore said shopping via smartphones and tablets accounted for $597 million of spending on Thanksgiving (up 26 percent over 2015), $797 million on Black Friday (up 41 percent) and more than $1 billion on Cyber Monday (up 29 percent). Mobile commerce helped drive a 20 percent increase in overall digital spending for the three days, it said, with Cyber Monday ringing in as the largest digital commerce spending day on record at $3.7 billion.

Bipartisan legislation that would ban the use of so-called "gag clauses" that permit companies to retaliate against customers who post negative reviews online about products and services was sent to President Barack Obama for his signature. "By ending gag clauses, this legislation supports consumer rights and the integrity of critical feedback about products and services sold online," said Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John Thune, R-S.D., in a Monday news release. The Senate, which passed the Consumer Review Freedom Act (S-2044) last year, approved the House version (HR-5111) Monday by unanimous consent. Both chambers held hearings and passed bills outlawing the practice over the past year -- actions supported by consumer protection groups and companies like TripAdvisor and Yelp (see 1511040028 and 1601150066). TechNet President Linda Moore praised the Senate for approving the bill. “We are now into the holiday season, and nearly 70 percent of consumers will rely on reviews to purchase a gift for a loved one," she said in a Tuesday statement. "Those consumers should never hesitate to post a candid review for fear of retaliation. By banning the use of non-disparagement clauses, the Senate has sent a strong message that it is unacceptable to punish consumers for posting honest reviews online."

Not planning for the volume of people visiting a web or mobile e-commerce site accounts for 25 percent of outages during big online events, said BigPanda Monday. Some 75 percent of e-commerce outages during high-volume events such as Black Friday and Cyber Monday are due to unplanned configuration changes, BigPanda said. Recommendations start with identifying absolutely critical systems and building a “bulletproof” disaster and recovery plan around them, it said. It recommended having three to five tiers of services to make prioritization and response quicker, along with a backup and failover plan for the highest service tier. A BigPanda tool allows IT and operations teams to deal with potential problems during high-traffic events.

The FCC Enforcement Bureau issued a citation and order to HobbyKing USA for marketing at least two devices in the U.S. in violation of the commission’s equipment authorization and labeling requirements. “Marketers must ensure that RF devices are properly authorized and comply with all applicable labeling and identification requirements prior to being offered for sale in the United States,” the order said. “We therefore direct HobbyKing to take immediate steps to comply with the Commission’s equipment authorization and labeling requirements and cease any marketing of unauthorized RF devices in the United States.” HobbyKing faces fines of up to $18,936 per day and other sanctions, the bureau said. Representatives of HobbyKing, which markets model aircraft, drones and other products via its e-commerce site, didn't comment Friday.

Amazon is cutting the price of a Prime membership by 20 percent to $79 for new members in a Friday promotion that runs from midnight EST to 11:59 PST. The promo is connected to the launch of Amazon’s original series The Grand Tour, it announced Wednesday. The first episode airs on Friday and new episodes will release weekly for 12 weeks, it said. Amazon also trumpeted “a month of Black Friday prices” in a Wednesday announcement promising new deals every five minutes through Dec. 22. The best deals will pop up over what Amazon called the “Turkey 5” days of Thanksgiving through Cyber Monday. It encouraged shoppers to download the Amazon app to track deals through its “watch a deal” feature so they know when a deal is about to start. Deals will be available at various dates and times from Nov. 18 to Black Friday at www.amazon.com/blackfriday, said Amazon. Amazon’s device specials topped the list with $40 savings on Echo and Tap (to $139 and $89), $10 savings on Dot (to $39), $30 savings on select Kindles, bringing them to $49-$69, $30 on the Fire HD 8 tablet (to $59) and $10 savings on the Fire TV stick with Alexa control (to $29). TV deals for the period: an unnamed 32-inch 720p LED TV ($69); unnamed 43-inch 4K Ultra HD smart TV ($199); TCL 32-inch 720p smart TV ($125); 55-inch LG 4K smart TV ($398); “premium brand” 60-inch 4K smart TV ($599); premium brand 55-inch 1080p TV ($298), “top-selling” Blu-ray player ($49); Denon Heos 1 wireless speaker ($99); Sennheiser HD 598 headphone ($99). The e-tailer’s “package x-ray” feature began Wednesday, allowing iPhone users to scan a code to see what’s in a delivered box from Amazon without having to open the box.

Most Americans and Chinese have purchased a product or service digitally over the past 12 months, while Chinese digital users lead the way on mobile purchases as well, the Interactive Advertising Bureau and IAB China said in a survey Thursday. Eighty-nine percent of Chinese and 84 percent of American digital users engaged in online commerce, a news release said. Chinese users were more bullish on mobile purchases over the past 12 months, with 67 percent engaged vs. 34 percent of American users. IAB said 24 percent of Chinese users make a mobile purchase daily while only 15 percent of U.S. mobile shoppers do. Much higher portions of both groups are interested in buying something through their mobile device over the next month, and IAB said security is an obstacle: "These feelings manifest in different ways depending on the country, with [American] shoppers concerned about information safety and privacy and Chinese shoppers fearing digital fraud and scams." Consulting firm Hypothesis Group conducted the digital survey of 1,000 online adults in the U.S. and China Sept. 19-Oct. 12.