Retailers are betting their futures on big data and artificial intelligence

These and other efforts might help, but brick-and-mortar retailers have learned they need to do more to collect customer data in order to lure them away from the "one click" convenience Amazon offers. "It's all about trying to understand who these people are that are spending money," retail sales consultant Bob Phibbs, CEO of The Retail Doctor, told Salon. "It's much different than in the old days where you take out an ad targeting a million people and hope some of them buy from you. Now it's about owning the customer who has bought from you." As anyone who uses its site well knows, Amazon has been automatically directing its repeat buyers toward items they're more likely to purchase based on data it has collected about them.