Amazon has become an integral part of our lives. We pull things up on our need-to-buy list and click to order and have things shipped with the press of a single button. Remember the days where you had to actually go to the store for things? Man, that was so 2012! Last year when Amazon bought Whole Foods for $13.7 billion, it felt like a massive shift for how we grocery shop. But Amazon, most likely, is just getting started. An analyst has predicted that Amazon will buy Target in 2018.

Gene Munster, the cofounder of Loup Venturesthe and a prominent market analyst, said one of his big predictions for 2018 is that Amazon will buy Target. Munster is already known for his decade-long ability to predict Apple Inc.'s financial future, so this bold claim about Amazon and Target isn't totally out of the question. And, to be honest, it actually makes quite a bit of sense. From a consumer's standpoint, it would really just make things easier for many of us, as their online ordering platform is similar to Amazon's already.

Here is an excerpt from Munster's report where he makes this bold claim.

"Target is the ideal offline partner for Amazon for two reasons, shared demographic and manageable but comprehensive store count. As for the demographic, Target's focus on mom's is central to Amazon's approach to win wallet share. Amazon has, over the years, aggressively pursued mom's through promotions around Prime along with loading Prime Video with kid-friendly content. As for retail stores, Amazon's acquisition of Whole Foods 470 stores along with testing of the Amazon Go retail concept is evidence that Amazon see's the future of retail as a combination of mostly online and some offline."

Sure, going into Target and perusing the latest designs and offerings is a treat in itself, but making shopping easier online also sounds pretty great to me. I have no problem walking into a store, checking things out, adding them to a shopping list on my phone, and then getting a notification when something drops in price. It's like shopping sales without having to flip through ads on Sunday morning.

What do you think of this prediction?