Wes MacLaggan, senior vice president of marketing at Marin Software, discusses why marketers need to keep mining search and other types of data to stay competitive.

Technology publisher The Information rattled the digital sector with a report suggesting that the vast majority of smart speaker owners have not used the devices to make purchase, and the few who had tried voice-controlled shopping were unlikely to do it again.

Amazon’s advantage when entering new markets is its ability to offer a wide variety of items that can be shipped quickly. By fortifying its place in Europe, Amazon aims to take advantage of rising consumer spending.

Amazon Prime Day was just last month, but by hype-cycle standards July might as well be last year. Reports keep coming in, though, and are adding more color to the original narrative. The online giant said more than 100 million products were purchased during the event this year. And it looks like mobile is playing a larger part.

The big-box retailer is testing online grocery delivery using Waymo (formerly the Google self-driving car project). While the order is being prepared by Walmart, a car will pick up and drive the consumer to the store to retrieve the purchase. But is there consumer demand for this service?

With the June acquisition of PillPack and quieter forays into beauty, Amazon has demonstrated its intent to move into the online pharmacy business as well as the space dominated by Sephora and Ulta Beauty. Should traditional pharmacies and beauty retailers be concerned by Amazon’s exploration of new product categories?

This StatPack provides a visual overview of major omnichannel retailing trends in the US.

In 2015, Amazon made retail industry headlines when Cowen and Company forecast that the company would dethrone Macy's, the No. 1 clothing retailer, by 2017. Fast forward a few years, and by many measures that did come to pass. According to Morgan Stanley, Amazon had a 7.9% share of US apparel sales in 2017, compared with 4.1% for Macy's. But the top spot belonged to Walmart, with an 8.6% share. The financial firm expects that to change this year.

In the latest episode of the "Behind the Numbers" podcast, eMarketer's Andrew Lipsman and Krista Garcia take a look at some of the key data points and storylines that emerged from this year's Prime Day event.

Amazon made waves last year with the acquisition of Whole Foods Market. Despite forays into food and beverage with Amazon Fresh, this was a loud and clear signal that the online retailer was invading the traditional supermarket space as well. And the retailer that solves the logistical issues of getting perishables to shoppers quickly and cost-effectively stands to gain exponentially.

Amazon's marketplace sales not only have leapfrogged its direct sales business, but marketplace growth is significantly outstripping that of direct operations, which means the gap between marketplace and direct will grow larger in coming years.

A recent Deloitte survey found that parents who start their back-to-school shopping in June and July spend considerably more than those who wait until closer to summer’s end.

Retail ecommerce platforms in China will total $1.53 billion in sales this year. Over 58% of these sales will take place through Alibaba’s digital storefronts.

When it comes to the US ecommerce market, Amazon is leaving the competition in the dust. This year, the online shopping juggernaut will capture 49.1% of the market, according to eMarketer’s latest forecast on the top 10 US ecommerce retailers, up from a 43.5% share last year.

Amazon Prime Day has become bigger and bolder since its 2015 inception. The shopping event has also taken on a life of its own, prompting other retailers to offer competing sales even if they never make mention of Prime Day specifically. According to RetailMeNot, the number of retailers offering Prime Day deals on its platform rose from 27 in 2016 to 119 in 2017, and 54% planned to hold sales during this year's event.

How much of an impact has Amazon's annual Prime membership increase really had on consumers? Not that much, according to a recent survey from AlixPartners, which polled 1,124 US internet users in July.

Amazon Prime Day has emerged as a retail phenomenon that’s reverberated around the industry. This report examines why consumers are responding so strongly to this new shopping holiday, and what retail brands and marketers can do to benefit from the uptick in mid-summer shopping and lead-in to the back-to-school season.

eMarketer recently published several Amazon forecasts, including retail ecommerce sales, direct vs. marketplace sales, retail ecommerce sales by product category, Amazon Prime users and households, and Amazon smart speaker users.

Jeff Cohen, partner and CMO at Seller Labs, explains what marketers should do before, during and after Prime Day to benefit from the shopping surge.

Since its 2015 inception, Amazon Prime Day has quickly rippled across the industry and reshaped the dynamics of the summer and back-to-school shopping seasons. Cooper Smith, director of Amazon research at Gartner L2, spoke with eMarketer’s Andrew Lipsman about what to expect on Prime Day 2018, and how marketers can capitalize on this fast-growing and influential retail phenomenon.