Gift cards and shipping refunds were offered by Amazon.com Inc to appease its customers after UPS said it would not be able to deliver some packages by Christmas, Bloomberg reported.

JD.com, China's second-largest e-commerce site, is set to exceed 100 billion yuan ($16.47 billion) in annual sales for the first time in a market that has drawn investment from global retailing names such as Amazon and Wal-Mart.

Vale, the world's leading producer of iron ore, agreed to enter into a joint venture with power company Cemig to run six hydroelectric power plants. Vale also halved its 9% stake in Norte Energia, which builds a hydroelectric dam in Amazon, Brazil

E-commerce giant Amazon may have quietly bought Silicon Valley-based mobile payments startup Gopago for an undisclosed amount for a new "ambitious" project, according to Italian newspapers.

Washington-based tech firm Opscode has raised USD32 million in a Series D funding round and changed its name to Chef after its configuration management and IT automation "cookbook" has become popular in the enterprise market.

Lazada, the "Amazon of Asia" has raised USD250 million from Rocket Internet to mainstream the company's position as the largest online retailer in Southeast Asia.

Chief Executive Officer John Donahoe of eBay Inc said in an interview with Emily Chang on Bloomberg Television that the use of drones to deliver products to consumers is a fantasy.

Google acquired seven robotics firms in the past six months to create manufacturing and logistics robots for a project under Android founder Andy Rubin to compete with Amazon's flying delivery drones.

According to a Financial Times report, Amazon faces safety and regulatory hurdles before it can get its plan to use drones to deliver packages to consumers off the ground.

An article on Forbes detailed how e-commerce giant Amazon manages to dominate the market despite embarking on new ventures like its plans for 30-minute delivery services via aerial drone as revealed on the eve of Cyber Monday.