C&A, a fashion retailer founded in the Netherlands in 1841, has gone thoroughly modern with the addition of hangers in its stores in Brazil that feature a digital readout displaying the number of people who have "liked" a particular item on the company's Facebook page.

Online shoppers spent more than $44 billion during the first quarter, says comScore, a 16.6% increase over Q1 2011. It was the highest year-over-year growth rate comScore has observed since late 2007.

"While Amazon has had some success in fashion with Zappos.com, Endless.com, MyHabit.com and Shopbop, it has yet to achieve the level of dominance that it has in other product categories it has targeted."

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