The consumer retail economy, buttressed by low unemployment and rising wages, is experiencing its best growth since 2011. And despite the 2018 demise of old-retail stalwarts like Sears and Toys "R" Us, recent gains at retail aren’t only flowing in the direction of digital – although they do increasingly bear hallmarks of its influence.

First books, now … mattresses? Amazon and a host of new brands are shaking up the mattress industry and remaking the customer journey. eMarketer’s Andrew Lipsman lays out the facts and data.

Direct-to-consumer (D2C) brands—encompassing everything from startups like Billie offering women's razor subscriptions to Casper, the once online-only mattress company that has products now being sold at Target—have been growing in popularity for a variety of reasons.

Podcasting is one of the fastest-growing advertising media, with the IAB and PwC projecting the US market will more than double ad spending from 2017 to 2020 to $659 million.

This report contains a framework for making sense of customer engagement metrics at one’s organization. It shares requirements for putting that framework to use and gives examples of companies successfully navigating customer engagement efforts.