HAVI Group announced today it has combined nearly all of its global operating companies under one brand name, simply HAVI.

The holiday season is a make or break scramble for retailers. Their offices are busy and everyone is in a high stress mode to make the season profitable. They invest in getting people in their stores or on their sites with attractive offers. Unfortunately, this omnichannel approach has given way to increase "out-of-stock" challenges.

The container shipping industry is undergoing a historic wave of consolidation as carriers seek to tighten supply to offset the historical drop in pricing.

More than ever, retailers are reimagining their businesses - the functions their stores provide, the value they bring, and how they operate, driven not only by the rise of omnichannel and the need to respond to competitive threats from Amazon and others, but as well by the possibilities that new technologies create. We are at the beginning of a new era, where the store is a multi-faceted venue with the ability to fulfill orders with the efficiency of a warehouse and capture shoppers' buying behaviors and personalize as well as websites do, all while providing the experiential and human touches that only a physical store can.

A newly released forecast anticipates that retail e-commerce will account for nearly $2tr in worldwide sales this year - and will more than double by 2020.