New York state settled with seven online third-party sellers that used Amazon to sell prohibited toy guns that look like real ones, New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman said in a Wednesday news release. The AG levied $44,000 in penalties through the settlements. The companies, which combined sold about 2,000 imitation guns across the state, are Halloweencostumes.com (fun.com), Holy Monkey (Kids Army), Dentt, Inc. (Hammond Toy & Hobby), GL2 LLC (Always Brilliant), Chevere International Corp (Five Big Stars), Fatherland Shop (Jubilee Enterprises) and Costume Hub, the AG said.

U.S. retail e-commerce spending from desktop computers and mobile devices jumped 18 percent in Q4 to $109.3 billion, from Q4 a year earlier, comScore said in a Monday report. Online spending from a desktop computer jumped 13 percent to $86.6 billion and was 79.2 percent of total e-commerce spending, versus 83.1 percent in Q4 a year earlier, comScore said. Online spending from a mobile device jumped 45 percent to $22.7 billion, it said. Mobile’s 20.8 percent share of total e-commerce dollars in Q4 was its highest recorded share of online sales for a single quarter since comScore began measuring m-commerce in 2010, the company said: “This mobile share of digital commerce dollars grew considerably from 17 percent a year ago and from only 4 percent in Q4 2010. Smartphones and tablets have become increasingly important to online buying with every succeeding year.”

Amazon plans to open two new fulfillment centers in Eastvale and Redlands, California, that will create more than 2,000 full-time associate roles when they begin operations, it said in a Thursday news release. Workers at the 1 million-square-foot facility in Eastvale will handle smaller items, such as books, electronics and toys, and the 750,000-square-foot Redlands facility will be a pack and ship center for larger items including sports equipment, patio furniture and pet food, the company said. A fulfillment center in Sacramento is under construction and expected to open this year, it said.

Walmart ditched its Amazon Prime-like ShippingPass membership program (see 1606290078) after less than a year and is refunding customers in full for their subscription, it said on its website Tuesday. “In today's world of e-commerce, two-day free shipping is table stakes. It no longer makes sense to charge for it,” said Marc Lore, CEO of Walmart U.S. eCommerce, in a statement. Walmart replaced the membership-based shipping program with another Amazon-like perk: free two-day shipping. But Walmart’s two-day ship offer -- on more than 2 million products -- has a $35 minimum spend and no membership fee. On the website, Walmart thanked ShippingPass customers for "helping us develop our new 2-day shipping offer." Refunds will be automatically issued to the original form of payment within 30 days, Walmart said. Lore said the new shipping program is “the first of many moves” the retailer will make to improve the customer experience and promote growth. Free shipping applies to items customers shop the most, it said, including baby necessities, pet products, food, cereal and peanut butter, cleaning supplies, beauty products, top electronics and toys.

Amazon will open its first fulfillment center in Colorado, it announced Monday. The 1-million-square-foot facility in Aurora is expected to create more than 1,000 new full-time jobs and will be a packing and shipping center for larger items such as sports equipment, musical instruments and furniture, it said. The fulfillment center will join an Amazon sorting facility in Aurora. The company disclosed two weeks ago a plan to add some 100,000 jobs in the U.S. over the next 18 months.

The global blockchain technology market could be worth $20 billion by 2025, up from $315 million in 2015, predicted Transparency Market Research in a Wednesday news release. The research firm said it expects the market for blockchain, a type of authentication technology for online payments, to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 58.7 percent from 2016 to 2024. IBM, R3 and Chain Inc. lead the global market, with a combined 45.3 percent share in 2015, and will likely make acquisitions to widen their customer base and enhance their technologies, TMR said. Stringent regulations are one restraint on the market, it said: “It is imperative that [companies] adhere to privacy laws, which vary with each country.”

Amazon added another perk for Prime members, debuting the Amazon Prime Rewards Visa Signature Card that gives 5 percent back in rewards, redeemable at Amazon, on purchases made there. The card offers 2 percent back on purchases made with the card at restaurants, gas stations and drugstores, and 1 percent back on other purchases, said a Wednesday announcement. Current Amazon Rewards Visa Signature card members with an eligible Prime membership will be upgraded to the new card, it said. The card carries no annual fee.

Mondays were peak traffic days during the holiday shopping season, digital performance monitoring company Soasta reported. From the week before Thanksgiving through the beginning of January, Mondays were consistently the top traffic days, “outside of Thanksgiving weekend,” it said. The company attributed the behavior to buyers doing some or all of their holiday shopping at work away from the eyes of family members. Black Friday had more holiday traffic than Cyber Monday, Soasta said, calling the trend a “huge shift.” Cyber Monday still saw a “significant” spike in traffic, but it was overshadowed by Black Friday, which accounted for 25 percent of all Thanksgiving weekend traffic, Soasta said. It cited possible factors: consumers turning to online shopping to avoid crowded stores; shoppers becoming increasingly savvy about in-store deals not being “as good as they’re made out to be”; growth of shopping on mobile devices; and “the Amazon effect” on consumer behavior. Almost half of consumers surveyed said they used Amazon for holiday shopping and 43 percent bought at least half of their gifts from Amazon, it said. Soasta encouraged retailers to prepare for continued transition from stores to online shopping, citing Macy’s announcement it’s closing 68 stores as “writing on the wall.” It said retailers need to plan for more traffic than they expect to avoid site crashes due to traffic surges from successful promotions. The mobile shopping experience has to improve, Soasta said, citing “abysmal performance” on mobile device conversions. The sweet spot for peak conversions is 2.4 seconds across all devices, it said.

Total U.S. e-commerce spending from computers for the November-December holiday season reached $63.1 billion, said a Thursday comScore report. Online sales via PC grew 12 percent over 2015, it said. For the third straight year, Cyber Monday was the heaviest spending day of the year, with more than $2 billion in desktop buying, and it was the first day ever to eclipse $1 billion in mobile commerce, comScore said.

Beware of fake mobile phone retail apps that impersonate well-known brands to steal your personal information, said FTC Consumer Education Specialist Ari Lazarus in a Thursday blog post about how fraudulent apps can pilfer an individual's credit card and bank data, install malware or demand ransom to unlock a device. He said consumers should hop onto a retailer's website to see if it's promoting an app and where they can download it. Consumers can also search a brand name and type "fake app" to see if there are reports of the brand being spoofed, he said. Users also should read reviews of an app before downloading because if there are none then the app was likely newly created and might be a fake, whereas established retailer apps typically have thousands of reviews, said Lazarus. Plus, he said people should be careful of misspellings in an app's description, which may indicate the app was created quickly. He recommended consumers, if using an app to shop, save a product description and price, online shopping receipts and any communication with sellers, and monitor credit card statements for dubious charges.