With its exclusive license to supply promotional merchandise to the nation’s ballparks, BDA faces a massive challenge in meeting requirements for product quality and on-time delivery.

As its jingle says: “Ace is the place with the helpful hardware folks.” But in a store with frequent stockouts, customer service can only go so far.

Milan, Rome and other major Italian cities pose huge logistical obstacles to deliverers of product ordered online.

New demands generated by omnichannel and other supply-chain innovations are posing challenges to 3PLs — and technology is expected to play a major role in solving them.

It’s no surprise to anyone that these are uncertain times for global trade. Countries are levying new tariffs on commodities like aluminum, steel, clothing and more. Manufacturers, retailers and distributors are starting to feel the crunch of rising commodity and product costs and they’re concerned that these new tariff “wars” will upset and in some cases destroy the trading ecosystems that have flourished under a decades-old free-trade business environment.