Many distributors struggle with private-label branding and view it as an either-or proposition. They see private label as too complex or a conflict to their core supplier partners.

Customer relationship management technology can often pose a challenge for organizations, no matter their size. Many companies are encouraged to sign up for CRMs with stars in their eyes and great expectations of its capabilities.

Supply chains are suddenly under threat. Following years of low inflation and stable trade relations, executive teams in boardrooms across the globe are now grappling with rising inflation, a rapidly changing trade environment and the dire threat of an all-out trade war. Already, pressure is up sharply on earnings, and many leaders fear that traditional cost-saving measures may no longer be enough to avoid a heavy hit.

To enhance competitiveness and meet customer expectations of new technologies, utilities and retail suppliers should invest in customer-centric demand side management products, a report from Navigant Research says.

The high-growth economies of China, India and Indonesia are anticipated to play a key role in attracting higher foreign direct investments to the developing Asian region between 2017 and 2020, according to GlobalData, a data and analytics company.

The European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation has taken effect, and although mostly viewed as setting data privacy requirements for retailers selling to individual consumers, it also affects manufacturers and distributors.

United Parcel Service Inc. jacked up fees by 30 percent to $650 for the largest items it delivers to discourage shippers from putting kayaks, refrigerators and other oversize items into a network meant for smaller parcels.

Joyce Brenny, chief executive of Brenny Transportation in Minnesota, gave her truck drivers a 15 percent raise this year, but she still can't find enough workers for a job that now pays $80,000 a year.

Using traditional product packaging in e-commerce can hurt the bottom line. For many companies, the practice triggers unnecessary, counterproductive costs several percent of their total cost of goods sold (COGS).