Amazon

Banks still have advantages in the battle against big tech firms like Amazon and Facebook, but they will need to capitalize on those to survive.

From the identity of bankers in the 21st century to the regulatory turmoil in Washington to the huge impact of technology on the industry, readers expressed an array of strong opinions about what happened in 2017.

Companies like Target and Barnes & Noble are already making moves to streamline payments and connections with consumers, writes Robert Glazer, founder and managing director of Acceleration Partners.

Consumers’ desire to shop online is creating huge demand for distribution centers and forcing property owners to think creatively about redeveloping vacant retail space. Meanwhile, hundreds of billions of dollars will be spent rebuilding areas hard hit by hurricanes and wildfires.

Amazon dominates during the holiday shopping season because Prime offers customers benefits every day, writes Tom Caporaso, CEO of Clarus Commerce.

Analytics can customize experience for consumers and allow consumers to customize the experience for themselves, writes Matt Wilcox, senior vice president of marketing, strategy and innovation for digital banking at Fiserv.

Amazon reported that the Amazon Echo Dot was the best-selling item on Amazon on Black Friday, meaning millions of households are likely to be setting up their new Echo on Christmas morning, writes Scott Hess, vice president of user experience, consulting and innovation at Fiserv.

Jon Stein plans to make Betterment's robo-adviser as personalized and intelligent as the online retailer's recommendation engine.

We entrust tech firms with vast amounts of information about our daily lives, with an expectation that they will safeguard it. But have we become too casual in the trust we place with them in exchange for more personalized experience and convenience?

As the reigning technology giants demand consumers do everything through voice-controlled smart speakers, they may inadvertently succeed where smartphone-based wallets stalled.