think the biggest breakthrough for us came in 2003 or 2004 with the understanding that there was an open-source product called OS Commerce that had a large following — but the service providers on the market weren’t really sophisticated, and there weren’t that many of them. So I just spend a few hundred dollars in Google AdWords,  trying to get OS Commerce clients. Roy Rubin was a student trying to make extra money on the side when he founded Varien, the company that went on to launch Magento, an ecommerce platform that enables billions of dollars in online sales.

Santa Barbara-based FastSpring , a developer of e-commerce software headed by Dan Engel, said today that it has released a new product which handles mail-in-rebates for online vendors. Tags: fastspring software commerce rebate The firm said it will allow stores to offer mail-in rebates on their products, as well as related options such as instead offering consumers discounts on other products. FastSpring is the latest venture of Dan Engel, who has previously been at Google, Picasa, and GoToMyPC.

Los Angeles-based Magento Commerce , a developer of open source, e-commerce software tools, has raised $22.5M Tags: magento venture capital commerce ecommerce software shopping open sourc in an equity funding round, according to a regulatory filing by the firm today. Source of the new funding was not disclosed.

A new report released this morning find that retail e-commerce sales dropped in Q4 by 3 percent, as the dismal economy began to affect the online retail sector. According to comScore, which tracks e-commerce spending, Q4 of 2008 was the first quarter of negative growth since it started tracking spending in 2001. Among the winners in e-commerce for 2007: video games, consoles, and accessories, which saw increases of The drop follows double digit gains throughout 2007 and the first half of 2008 in year-to-year ecommerce sales. On the losing end were computer software, which

Los Angeles-based Stamps.com is furthering its focus on online stories, saying today that it has linked its product to the e-commerce payment systems for Amazon.com Pro Merchant, Yahoo Merchant, Google Checkout, and Paypal. According to Stamps.com, the firm's software now allows web store managers to process, manage, and ship orders from "virtually any" e-commerce source. The new additions come on top of an existing push by Stamps.com to cater to eBay merchants. Stamps.com recently started looking back into the eBay shipping market, saying in early October that it would

San Luis Obispo-based Shopatron , a developer of e-commerce ordering software for online retailers, announced today that it has made a number of enhancements to its software. Shopatron said it now has more than 70 brands using its software to run their e-commerce websites; the firm's clients include Berkley Fishing, Brooks Running, Callaway Golf, Panasonic, Thule, and others. ...Tags: According to the firm, it has added new features which allow consumers to ship their orders to a retailer's local store, "Ship to Store," and enhanced its support for its merchants through a new Merchant Support Center.

Los Angeles-based Language Weaver , which develops language translation software, has inked a new deal with a UK-based developer of enterprise software for managing content translation. According to Language Weaver, the deal is with SDL, which provides translation products for online support, technical documentation, and e-commerce customers. Language Weaver said that SDL will Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. READ MORE>> ...Tags:

Friday, May 15, 2009 -- The IE Software Summit. The conference shows e-commerce companies how to make their websites compatible with mobile Internet devices. The theme is "Getting Ready for the Smart Phone: How to make your websites ready for Smart Phones, PDAs, and iPhones." There will also be a panel featuring angel investors and funders.

They tried to make their software do what it wasn't made to do Our web developer had no end to his complaints of OS Commerce [the ecommerce platform they used]. Not to say that OS Commerce is not a great platform for someone to get started with. And we sort of got so far into customizing OS Commerce that it would have been very Somehow, as Luke Burgis raced to build his business, he ended up selling fitness bars, cereal, pet supplements and "sexual enhancement" products. At the same time, he found himself running an online message board and a YouTube-like video site.

Venice, California-based Topspin , a developer of software focused on helping musicians market and distribute their work, launched an upgrade to its product Wednesday at the SXSW festival. The firm said that it has commercially released its software, which helps artists generate demand from fans via direct marketing, social networking and other online channels, widgets, as well as email campaigns. However, the firm still isn't taking just any artists, however, explaining it is still in "invite mode" on which artists can use its products. The company has previously rolled out the