The US consumer price index climbed 3.4% year over year in December from 3.1% the month before, surpassing economists' expectations of a rise to 3.2%, as the Federal Reserve contemplates reducing interest rates from their 23-year high. Core consumer price inflation came in at 3.9%, with the month-over-month rate flat at 0.3%. Rising shelter costs accounted for over half of the core CPI increase.

Process control, fluid management and filtration products distributor Valin Corp is acquiring Brea, Calif.-based sealing products and O-rings provider Ad Tech Seal. Valin said the addition of Ad Tech Seal would bolster its process control and fluid handling product portfolio. The Ad Tech Seal acquisition is Valin's first since September 2022 and the first since being acquired by electrical products distributor Graybar last May.

Excluding autos and gas, total retail sales in 2023 rose 5.32% from the previous year, according to the CNBC/NRF Retail Monitor, and year-over-year sales grew 3.1% in December following healthy gains in November. Retail sales increased 0.4% month-to-month in December after notching a 0.8% gain in November. from the

Walmart is working to expand its InHome replenishment service to include AI-powered capabilities that will automatically create grocery lists and order items based on shopper consumption habits. The feature will be designed to make shopping faster and prevent consumers from running out of goods, and it builds on the retailer's other new AI technology including an app search engine and a device for Sam's Club that scans carts to ensure all items have been purchased.

Reduced business spending, supply chain issues and high inflation led distributors and manufacturers to end the fourth quarter with sales totaling $3.693 trillion, 1% less than a year ago, according to a Digital Commerce 360 projection using Commerce Department data. However, manufacturers and distributors did generate more e-commerce, with more than half of business-to-business buyers making digital purchases of a good or service daily, and 57% of B2B buyers preferring to visit a manufacturer's e-commerce site as their first choice.

Mergers and acquisitions in the industrial distribution sector are expected to remain resilient, but sellers could face lower valuations and more structured transactions, and deals could take longer, says Tim Trzebiatowski of Shorehill Capital. "We are passionate about industrial distribution and we believe it represents a compelling opportunity to partner with founders or management teams," Trzebiatowski says.

Some 58% of both business-to-business and business-to-consumer marketers are experimenting with or have implemented AI, according to a Capgemini survey. Researchers found that B2C marketers implement AI slightly more than their B2B peers, and US marketers lead globally in terms of implementation.

Some 83% of business-to-business buyers initiate the first contact with vendors and are already 70% along their purchase journey when they do, according to 6sense research. In addition, the most common forms of contact with vendors are virtual meetings, in-person meetings and consuming content.

Increased investments in AI training will see the power and capabilities of AI increase significantly in the coming year, industry experts say. Tech companies anticipate adding the ability to instantly generate video content, chatbots that can handle multiple media formats, improved reasoning for complex tasks and AI "agents" that can interact with software or sites on a user's behalf.

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