The massive increases in the amount of data we generate and share online, alongside leaps in computing power and aggressive development cycles are quickly changing how online retailers are connecting with consumers.

When we were planning this special, future-focused issue of Internet Retailer, one of our goals was to make sense of the noise surrounding buzzy technology topics such as drones, virtual reality, internet of things and artificial intelligence.

We get dozens of technology pitches every week and it often seems as if the people writing them have a checklist of buzzwords they jam into every pitch, regardless of whether their use is merited, just to capture attention. Reading technology news often feels the same: A lot of noise but not a lot of meaning.

So that’s what we set out to do with this digital-only edition of Internet Retailer. First, we set out to define what these technologies are, minus the fluff, and then discern the impact they may have on online retailers.

What we learned was the technologies and applications we were thinking about as part of the future are a lot closer than we thought.

The massive increases in the amount of data we generate and share online, alongside leaps in computing power and aggressive development cycles are quickly changing how online retailers are connecting with consumers. Combine all this with accelerated consumer adoption cycles and what feels nascent today will feel a lot more familiar tomorrow.

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Take, for instance, Google’s self-driving car project, which was recently spun off into its own entity called Waymo. It’s gotten a lot of attention and for many it seems like a development that can help individuals who otherwise can’t or shouldn’t be behind the wheel. But take it up a level and apply it to trucking, as Otto has done (page 44), and it can revolutionize how freight moves across the country and how your packages get to their destination. 

With holiday 2016 in the books and 2017 coming into focus, we hope you’ll take a few minutes to read this special edition of Internet Retailer to learn how such technologies are transforming e-commerce.

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