Facebook is becoming prime real estate for small retailers rather than the mega-mall that the big chains had hoped it would be. Second-quarter profits from Facebook stores were up 38 percent from the first quarter for the 180,000 small to mid-sized retailers, and have been going strong ever since, says e-commerce company Ecwid, which makes store-building software to work across social-media platforms and Web sites.

Drewry, the U.K.-based maritime research and advisory firm, has created a new service, Drewry Maritime Equity research, to produce investment reports on companies operating in the maritime industry.

Two countries providing flags of convenience to merchant vessels, Panama and Cyprus, threw up roadblocks to the safe carriage of containerized cargo recently. With more than 80 percent of world cargo being moved on container ships and those ships getting ever larger, any measure that can make these shipments safer must be considered. Sadly, these countries find that some proposed measures are inconvenient.

Consumers in India and China are the new kings and queens of the global economy. They have fast-changing tastes and appetites, and they are transforming the world with their consumption.

Sage North America say the results of a snapshot survey of small to medium-sized business manufacturers indicate the general health of their businesses is pretty good, and use of their enterprise resource planning systems has benefited them.

Accellos, a vendor of supply-chain execution software, has released a carrier qualification and monitoring module for its Prophesy Dispatch transportation-management system (TMS).

DB Schenker Logistics has developed a new tool for monitoring air and ocean freight consignments.

Deloitte is forecasting holiday sales will increase between 3.5 percent and 4 percent as the economy's health and the presidential election take center stage among consumers this fall.