Catherwood LibraryILR School

For years, employees have had to hide their online shopping habit. Now they can start coming out of the closet. Internet retailers and corporations have grown chummy in recent years, with merchants offering companies corporate gift and incentive programs. Emboldened, online retailers are designing technology and Web pages to capture more of the roughly $32 billion in merchandise sales spent on workers and clients annually. This year, for example, Amazon introduced the merchandise rewards program, aimed not at consumers, but at companies like USMotivation, MotivAction Worldwide and Maritz, which manage employee incentive programs for businesses like Caterpillar, Motel 6 and others.