Analyst Insight: Consumers want the same experience regardless of what supply chain is in play. Consumers' expectations are growing and now the brands must be more cognizant of their supply chains and how it supports the brand. The dynamics between CPG - retail - consumer has changed drastically. Consumers no longer distinguish between channels and therefore CPGs themselves must be more proactive to manage their role in this ecosystem. - Guy F. Courtin, Vice President & Principal Analyst Constellation Research

Analyst Insight: Data has become as consumable as a box of crackers. As a society, we expect information about product origins, ingredients, allergens and other information will be available at our fingertips prior to purchase. However, data inconsistencies often frustrate consumers on their quest to learn more and can stop them from completing their purchase. As a result, consumer packaged goods (CPG) companies are focusing on data quality to satisfy the demands of increasingly empowered consumers. - Angela Fernandez, Vice President of Retail Grocery and Foodservice, GS1 US

Analyst Insight: Digital business creates new opportunities for consumer packaged goods companies to transact directly to their end consumers. Digital business is information-enabled business that employs an abundance of new information in ways that better service customers. Bottom-line digital business offers the potential to transform the way that CPG companies interact with and serve their customers allowing them to create new operating models that tighten the bonds with their end consumer, which has the potential to transmogrify the CPG industry. - Dwight Klappich, Vice President, Supply Chain Research, Gartner

Analyst Insight: Not too long ago, many supply chain professionals were skeptical of adopting a SaaS delivery model for their solutions. There was a hesitancy to move their solutions off premise, into the cloud and pay a subscription. How times have changed. Supply chain solution providers are all moving to the model or designing native solutions that are cloud-based. - Guy F. Courtin, Vice President & Principal Analyst, Constellation Research

Analyst Insight: Consumer perceptions of a company's supply chain have a big impact on how consumers feel about a company and its corporate brand. Research provides insight into how supply chain reputation impacts the overall corporate reputation and how supply chain strategies can be used to boost consumer perceptions of corporate brands. - Viktoria Sadlovska, Research Director, Reputation Institute

Law enforcement is hot on the trail of cargo thieves. But the thieves are hot on the trail of your shipments.

Analyst Insight: The next defining opportunity for supply chain is in digital operations. The scope of digital operations is enormous, and it presents amazing opportunities. But failure - either from moving too fast or too slow - may lead to redundancy or, in extreme cases, extinction. Companies must clearly understand where they are today to drive change successfully and must move with purpose. If they cannot, they will be history. - Peter Anderson, Principal, Advisory, Ernst & Young LLP, & Chekyiu Ng, Senior Manager, Advisory, Ernst & Young LLP

Retail CEOs say internal silos are holding back omnichannel success. In fact, retailers without these operational barriers are more positive about achieving profitability, according to a new report.

Mobile is driving the shopping experience both in stores and online. Roughly 73 percent of all online buyers are using a mobile device to shop online, and 21 percent are using mobile devices to help them shop in stores, according to Bizrate Insights, a division of Connexity.