The retail industry underwent several transformations over the past years and continues evolving. Led by technological advancement and rapid E-commerce growth, the industry is continuously looking for process automation to cater to the growing needs of customers. In 2019, emerging technologies are likely to define the retail market as well as how the companies make use of upcoming technology, such as Virtual Assistant to reach their customers. Let's have a look at the latest retail trend for the year 2019. E-commerce continues its march towards rapid growth with more than a billion dollar sales happening on online outlets.

Watching the evolution of physical retail has been inspiring. Retail centers are defying the skeptics and continuing to reconfigure themselves as consumer hubs for entertainment, education and fitness, alongside traditional shopping. Brands are remodeling stores to excite consumers. Online brands are recognizing the advantages of brick-and-mortar locations and continue to multiply their physical square footage (a nine-fold increase since 2012, according to one estimate). As we enter the second quarter of 2018, I expect even bolder changes this year and beyond.

How AI helped Walmart go from 700,000 to 60 million items online. Target shoppers can now use the AI-driven Pinterest Lens visual search tool to find products with ease, using Target's e-commerce site and mobile app.2O'Shea, Online homeware store Wayfair has also adopted AI and machine learning for image-based search.3Terrelong, What the future of retail will look like, according to Google. The power of voice: Voice-assisted ordering for browsing and buying will be big this year, led by tech titans Amazon, Google and Apple. Amazon Echo accounts for approximately 75% of the smart speaker market, and more than 25% of searches now take place using voice-enabled devices, making connected homes a priority for retail tech leaders Amazon, Google, and Apple.6Duggan,