In 2018, Amazon’s global net sales reached $233 billion, and its impressive growth continues to rattle the retail industry.

Amazon is on a path to become the largest retailer in the U.S. — and is expected to overtake Walmart by 2022, according to data from a recent market research report by Packaged Facts titled Amazon Strategies and the Amazon Shopper, 2^nd Edition. Amazon’s U.S. gross merchandise sales will contribute nearly half of U.S. e-commerce sales by 2022, up from 43% in 2019 and 28% in 2015.

Gig work soared after the Great Recession, as workers were laid off and millennials entered the job market. In addition, new technology – including ride sharing apps and the ability to telecommute and provide freelance services from home – also fueled growth in part-time gigs. In an effort to find life/work balance, millennials and others embraced this more flexible lifestyle.

The food industry is the latest targeted for “disruption.” With the rise of meal kit delivery services, venture capital firms have been in a frenzy the past three years to find a success story, and profits. However, when the economy turns south, who will be left to pay $10-12 per person per meal for gourmet food?

Matchmaking and online dating has become big business, with dating services estimated to be worth $2.5 billion in 2015 and forecast to grow 5.1% per year to $3.2 billion by 2020.

The dating industry consists of much more than just dating websites, although these get the bulk of the media attention and account for 70% of the industry’s revenues. America’s 124 million singles are using mobile apps more often, but traditional services like matchmakers and dating coaches are also doing well.

The subscription economy is one of several alternative business models gaining traction across sectors and is explored in a recent report, Engage, Return, and Repeat: The Subscription Economy, by Euromonitor International.

The subscription model has wrought major changes across many industries — from Dollar Shave Club’s disruption of the razor market, to Birchbox’s explosion into cosmetics, and the impact of companies like Zipcar selling mobility rather than the car itself. Many businesses are asking themselves how they can tap into the subscription model, but should they is another important question.

With almost everyone getting great gift deals sent to their inbox these days, it’s not surprising that the peak holiday shopping period of November and December brings in 30 percent more revenue for e-commerce retailers than non-holiday months, according to a report by RJMetrics.

This year’s Black Friday and Cyber Monday, two of the biggest online shopping days of the period, saw record-breaking sales totaling $6.8 billion in 2016, a 17 percent increase over 2015. 

Long reliant on advertisements as their primary source of revenue, internet publishers, broadcasters, and search engine providers face mounting challenges to their ad-supported business models.

In particular, the rising use of ad blockers – software programs that prevent internet ads from being displayed – by consumers is threatening to undermine the industry’s key source of revenue.

Like it or loathe it, it seems like everyone has one. No, not “an opinion,” a smartphone.

How many people in the US have a smartphone? About 60% of the total population in 2015. No small feat, considering the devices really only gained consumer market traction when Apple introduced the first-generation iPhone in June 2007.

What’s driving smartphone adoption? It certainly isn’t the ability to share meaningful voice conversations with friends and family — you don’t need a smartphone for that. The real value lays in the ever-expanding range of capabilities smartphones possess and the services they can access.

One of the world’s oldest professions is matchmaking, and given the role of technology in today’s world, it’s no surprise that the industry is booming. With an explosion of new websites and apps, the dating services industry has performed very well in the past five years and is continuing to grow as today's singles turn to the Internet for help finding love.

Read on to discover insights into the market for dating services and what the future holds for this industry.

In this video, Jack W. Plunkett, CEO of Plunkett Research, Ltd, highlights several e-commerce trends that are transforming retail, travel, entertainment, and communication.

“The Internet is all about saving time, and therefore saving money, and about eliminating geographic and physical boundaries,” he explains. "The Internet will allow you to do business, gather information, and watch entertainment virtually anywhere, anytime, without any physical constraints whatsoever beyond the necessity of having access to the Internet."

To find out how e-commerce is affecting different industries, watch the video and read a summary of Mr. Plunkett's findings below.