Last week saw yet another major e-commerce partnership between two of America’s leading online services providers. Sparks.com and AmericanGreetings.com announced a joint venture to create a new online shopping resource dedicated to personal communications.

Sparks.com, the world’s largest paper greeting card store, will be the exclusive paper card partner for AmericanGreetings.com, a subsidiary of American Greetings Corporation. AmericanGreetings.com, the fastest growing and second largest online greeting card site will become the exclusive electronic greetings provider for Sparks.com.

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“We will be sending various goods online such as wine, chocolates, gifts, just about anything,” said a spokeswoman for Sparks.com.

The pace of e-business opportunities is hotting up. In response to this demand, next month the UK’s Institute of Grocery Distribution (IGD) will be drawing together key players in the e-commerce world to debate these changes.

“E-commerce has enabled the emergence of new Internet retailers onto the marketplace quicker than ever before with no-one knowing when and where their next big competitor will come from. Therefore companies must be one step ahead to fulfil the demands of the discerning Internet consumer and gain the competitive edge,” said Don James, IGD’s IT Director.

The seminar, entitled “ePACE – Compare and Contrast UK and US eCommerce Ventures,” will compare the latest techniques from the US and the UK in traditional retailing and the new online shopping ventures. Johanna Waterous, Director of McKinsey & Company, will act as chairperson at this meeting of minds with key speakers such as Angela Megson, Director of E-Commerce @ Sainsbury’s and Thomas Fitch, MD of queuejumper.com from the UK; Andrew Tsai, President of Urbanfetch and Felicia Lindau, Founder and CEO of sparks.com from the US.

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e-PACE is the first of a continuous programme of seminars to be delivered by the IGD, which will aim to keep industry professionals at the cutting edge of the e-commerce revolution.
For further details of ePACE please click here

Alternatively, further details can be obtained from:
IGD Business Conference Department
Tel: +44 (0)1923 857141
Fax: +44 (0)1923 852531
email:conferences@igd.org.uk

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