Amazon will account for 39.5% of all US retail ecommerce sales in 2022, or nearly $2 in $5 spent online. Altogether, the next 14 biggest digital retailers will make up just 31.0%, with the remaining 29.5% of the ecommerce pie going to everybody else.

On today's episode, we explore the "madness" surrounding the NCAA tournament each year, customers' reception of QR codes, soccer's rise in popularity in the US, discounts on Amazon Alexa, gaming subscriptions on the horizon, rules around how soccer players can celebrate during games, and more. Tune in to the discussion with our analysts Ross Benes and Dave Frankland and director of reports editing Rahul Chadha.

In 2022, 40.7% of China’s digital ad spending will go toward the ecommerce channel, for ads offered by retailers like Alibaba and JD.com. This eclipses the share in the US, where 14.5% of digital ad spending will flow to ecommerce channel ads sold by the likes of Amazon, Walmart, and eBay.

YouTube is the leading podcast platform among US adults who listen to 5 hours or more of these shows per week, with 55% tuning in there. Streaming audio platforms Spotify and Apple Podcasts take second and third place, respectively, while Amazon Music, iHeartRadio, and Facebook round out the top five.

It should come as little surprise that Amazon was the top US shopping app in 2021, downloaded 40.0 million times that year. More remarkable is Shein’s leap to the No. 2 spot, up from seventh place in 2020. The Chinese fashion giant had 32.0 million US downloads under its belt in 2021, 68% more than the year prior.

Amazon is maneuvering to become a dominant player in direct-to-consumer healthcare services, beginning with its online pharmacy and telehealth services for its employees. It may acquire more healthcare delivery outlets, such as primary care and urgent care clinics. Entrenched industry players are watching carefully.

We look at 2021’s biggest tech flexes that changed the landscape of business or left us scratching our heads. The year saw Facebook meta-morph into a VR-focused platform, Clubhouse rise and fall, Amazon convert 60 million smart speakers into a giant Wi-Fi network, and more.

Walmart is the most popular online alternative to Amazon, with nearly 63% of US Amazon buyers picking up products there when not doing so on Amazon.

US retail sales growth will stabilize in 2022, but changes wrought by two years of the pandemic will drive growth in online automotive and grocery sales.