With more than 6000 brick-and-mortar stores closed in 2017 in US alone, according to Fung Global Retail & Technology, specialists predicted a "retail apocalypse". However, according to Statista, e-commerce represents only 10.1% of the total retail globally and is expected to grow up to 15.5% by 2021, so there's still a lot of room for growth. In 2017, 58.9% of the retail e-commerce sales worldwide came from mobile devices, with 11% of online shoppers using their smartphones weekly for purchases. So not only are we buying more and more online, but we are buying on the go. PwC also conducted a study which revealed that 35% of online shoppers say their smartphone will become their main purchasing tool, while 39% use social networks to get inspiration for purchases.

There has been a lot written about the future of retail, whether it's in an apocalypse, whether it's dying, or whether it's in a dip. People wonder if shrinking malls are a harbinger of things to come, and if Main Street and Anchor Stores will be subsumed by online e-commerce giants with same-day shipping. I've seen more than one headline talking about the'changing shape of retail.' The truth is, shopping hasn't changed. The traditional model of retail has changed. There will always be a demand for shopping centers.

Chances are, if you've ever used a digital assistant, you've run up against a problem that's proven difficult to solve: They may be good at certain helpful tasks, but they aren't great conversationalists. It's easy to understand why that might be something companies like Amazon.com Besides the obvious--people would presumably prefer an alternative to barking out carefully formatted commands--it could also make the assistants more useful. A few ideas: They could better understand what they're being asked to do, leading to fewer errors. They could help lead people toward information they need that they might not know exactly how to ask for. Or assistants could set people at ease at critical times, making people more likely to use them.

The consumer packaged goods (CPG) and Retail industry are going through a period of significant change. Both retailers and manufacturers are struggling to find growth and improve profitability. One strategy is through consolidation - e.g., Kraft-Heinz, Keurig- Dr Pepper Snapple Group on the manufacturer side, as well as Safeway-Albertsons, Ahold-Delhaize, Walgreens-Rite Aid on the retailer side. The thinking here is that these mergers would lead to large operational efficiencies and focused growth strategies. Another important lever to drive growth is pricing and promotion.

According the New York Times, Amazon paid $1.1 billion for Ring, which makes security cameras and video doorbells which stream live video and audio to smartphones. Ring was an early portfolio company of Amazon's Alexa Fund, which got off the ground in 2015. Amazon invested an unknown amount in the startup as part of a funding round in March 2016, according to Crunchbase. As I wrote in our recent feature, the Alexa Fund's main goal is to seek out startups that might extend Alexa into new parts of consumers's lives. It lets users ask Alexa to show them their front door video feed on an Echo Show's video screen.

According to a recent survey by, shopping by voice is expected to grow from $2 billion today to $40 billion in the next four years. But how far along are smart speakers right now? USA TODAY Isabelle Olsson, lead designer for home hardware for Google, Inc., introduces the new Google Home Mini at a product launch event, October 4, 2017, at the SFJAZZ Center. The retail revolution that is shifting sales from stores to laptops to smartphones could be on the verge of its next sea change -- when shoppers will ask Amazon's Alexa, and other voice-driven speakers, to order just about everything. Purchases made through devices like Google Home and Amazon's Echo are projected to leap from $2 billion today to $40 billion by 2022, as technology improves, U.S. consumers become more comfortable, and the speakers become nearly as commonplace in homes as a flat-screen TV, according to a new study from OC&C Strategy Consultants. "We really see this as the next big disruptive play in U.S. retail,'' says John Franklin, associate partner at OC&C which surveyed 1,500 smart speaker owners in December . The smart speaker space is one that many tech giants want to play in. Though Amazon and its digital helper Alexa have come to define the niche, Google Home with its Google Assistant is second in popularity. Apple began shipping its Siri-assisted HomePod smart speaker in February. Microsoft's "Cortana" is also part of the mix. For now, the most popular use of voice-driven speakers is to play music or find out whether to take an umbrella when heading out the front door, OC&C says. More: Amazon's Alexa has a new voice, Jeff Bezos reveals in Super Bowl ad But with virtual assistants that can turn up a thermostat and even rattle off jokes, voice-driven speakers are at the center of a budding universe of AI-connected devices that include bathroom mirrors, door locks, and TV monitors. Smart home product sales are expected to total $4.5 billion this year, up 34% from 2017, according to The Consumer Technology Association. Among the U.S. residents who have a smart speaker, 62% have used it to buy groceries or some other item, according to OC&C's study. And the report predicts that the percentage of U.S. homes with a smart speaker will rise from the current 13% to 55% by 2022. "That number has been going up incredibly rapidly over the last two years,'' Franklin says.

With wit, vision, and scholarship, Domingos describes how these scientists are creating programs that allow a computer to teach itself.

Many years ago, Maplin was the place to go if you needed a VGA to Scart cable, a weird battery or a new charger for your Samsung flip phone before there were industry standards for that kind of thing. Next to aisles of every cable and converter you could imagine, you'll often find random delights such as a smoke machines and soldering stations. In more recent years, Maplin started stocking products with a broader appeal, like Nest thermostats, Amazon Fire TV sticks and Google Home speakers. It even launched a smart home consultation service late last year, but the change in tack hasn't rescued the retailer from going broke. Maplin's CEO today announced the company has gone into administration after failing to find a buyer to inject cash into the beleaguered business.

The acquisition, believed to be Amazon's second biggest after its roughly $13.5 billion purchase of Whole Foods last year, is the latest in a string of moves that signal the company's ambitions to enter a staggering variety of markets. From its start as an online bookseller in Chief Executive Jeff Bezos's garage more than two decades ago, the company has expanded into delivering its own packages, building a dominant cloud computing services business and becoming a brick-and-mortar grocer overnight with its acquisition of Whole Foods. The latest deal plays to Amazon's efforts to control the devices that power smart homes, an area in which it is becoming a dominant player. Certain Ring doorbells and cameras already connect with its virtual assistant, Alexa. Package theft has become an increasing problem for e-commerce companies as consumers order more online.

Last fall, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos charged his company's studio division to produce bigger shows with a "global appeal," in an attempt to compete with other streaming video companies in the race to produce high-end original content. Since then, Amazon has moved quickly to begin developing an impressive slate of genre television shows that include adaptations of novels such as Ringworld, Snow Crash, and J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings. Now, The Hollywood Reporter reports that Amazon has acquired the rights to another huge book: Consider Phlebas, the first installment of Iain M. Banks's space opera Culture series. THR reports that Amazon will partner with British screenwriter Dennis Kelly (who created the critically acclaimed Channel 4 series Utopia), and that should the scripts for the series work out, it will order it directly to a series. By acquiring big-name franchises such as Lord of the Rings, while facing intense competition from companies like Netflix, Apple, and Disney, it's clear that Amazon is working to aggressively pursue major projects that play with complicated stories.