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.

Omnichannel retailing means meeting shoppers' expectations in their channel of choice, digital or physical. That is forcing many retailers to break out of their routines and experiment with new models. And it’s not just brick-and-mortar sellers that are being pressed to change.

Amazon will claim nearly half of US retail ecommerce sales in 2018. Sales will be driven by Amazon’s marketplace, which will account for 68.0% of business.

Amazon Prime Day has emerged as a fast-growing retail promotion that’s altered the mid-summer and back-to-school shopping landscape. This report examines what consumers shopped for and bought on Prime Day, and the implications for Amazon and competing retailers.

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.

The share of consumers using mobile devices for retail purchases is lower in France and Germany than in several other nations in Western Europe. Yet together, the two countries will account for over $45 billion in mobile sales in 2018.