Gearing up for the holiday season, Yahoo! Small Business has announced two new additions to its e-commerce platform, Merchant Solutions. Keyword Finder helps online vendors identify what keywords, search marketing campaigns and shopping directories have led shoppers to their online stores. Merchants can download a list of keywords, products and URLs and make appropriate adjustments to their SEO and other online marketing campaign efforts based on what works for them.

The second addition, Cross-Sell 2.0, is for businesses using the higher level Merchant Solutions packages. The feature suggests related companion products to consumers while they're browsing and when they add items to their online shopping carts. Cross-Sell 2.0 incorporates past purchases and browsing history to offer recommendations. It also allows merchants to choose specific product combinations to suggest to their customers. 

"Yahoo!'s goal is to help level the playing field for small businesses in competing with larger retailers," said Jimmy Duvall of Yahoo! Small Business of the new features.--Emily Weisburg

Many retailers, both e-commerce and brick-and-mortar, have taken advantage of the internet and its growing popularity as a crucial sales channel. But it wasn't until recently that high-end retailers and luxury designers decided to go virtual. Names like Emporio Armani, Neiman Marcus, Saks Fifth Avenue and Zagliani are expanding their collections to the internet.

Now that more and more consumers have computers and high-speed internet, the luxury brands are no longer worried that a web retail channel will devalue their status. And the move to web sales also opens the brand to consumers who don't have, say, a Rodeo Drive or Fifth Avenue. According to consulting firm Forrester Research, e-commerce is expected to grow by 21 percent compared with last year, and growth in luxury apparel sales is expected to exceed that, making it a $1 billion market.--Lindsay Holloway

In our December issue, we profile Perfume Bay CEO Jacquelyn Tran. Last Monday, the Huntington Beach, California-based executive lost her appeal against auction giant eBay.com, which had accused Perfume Bay of "trademark dilution."

The three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously upheld a lower court's September 2005 ruling against the domain names Perfumebay.com and Perfume-bay.com.

EBay had argued that Perfumebay.com and Perfume-bay.com had such similar names that they confused consumers, who might think they were on an official eBay site. 

The panel agreed, and the ruling means that Perfume Bay must get a new URL.

Tran says on her blog that she will appeal to the Supreme Court and file an emergency stay of injunction so she won't have to change her domain name.--Eve Gumpel

For many Americans, the only impact they're feeling from the ongoing writers' strike is re-runs of their favorite late-time talk shows. But according to Mark Deo, executive director of The Small Business Advisory Network, small businesses are feeling the crunch. The entertainment industry relies heavily on small business for services to produce films and TV shows. For example, imagine all the catering and lighting and camera rental companies involved in the filming of just one episode. The bulk of these jobs are performed by independent contractors and employees of small businesses. Even films, which can generate as much as $10.6 million in state taxes, are affected. Deo says the trickle-down effect of this strike will be enormous. Whether your small business is directly dependent on the entertainment industry or not, he recommends looking toward developing alternative markets for continued growth.--Kristin Edelhauser