Big-name retail comes to grips with online

CNBC: If there's one indisputable truth about retailing on the Internet, it's that the established retail cliques have consistently underestimated how it would grow. That's allowed the new wave of entrepreneurs, led by Jeff Bezos of Amazon and Pierre Omidyar of Ebay, to break into mature markets where they theoretically had no right to become established, and build that foothold into positions where much longer-established retail rivals operate in fear of them.

Now online retailing is entering its next phase, and a fascinating showdown is taking shape. The big beasts of the industry now know they can't ignore the Internet, so they're muscling in. And while some of their efforts are surprisingly defeatist — UK retail giant Marks & Spencer is employing a rival retailer, Amazon, to run its site — signs suggest that few will give up their entrenched positions without a fight.

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