Amazon is putting caps on the amount of goods that can be kept at its US warehouses by third-party sellers to ensure space availability throughout the holiday season, according to a letter sent to sellers. This week, the company began waiving fees for warehouse inventory removal.

Amazon has introduced a smart shopping cart that will track purchases as shoppers add them, then calculate the total for digital checkout so customers can avoid lines. The Dash Cart, equipped with cameras and sensors and designed for small to mid-size loads, builds on the company's "Just Walk Out" technology and will debut later this year at Amazon's new store in Los Angeles' Woodland Hills neighborhood.

Truck freight markets will likely struggle as coronavirus cases rise, particularly in the Southeast and Southwest, according to FTR Transportation Intelligence. "We do not expect volume to recover to the pre-crisis levels until the second half of next year," says executive Avery Vise.

Lennox International has combined machine learning with Microsoft Power BI to assemble a system that raises alerts to possible supply chain disruptions in areas where the coronavirus poses imminent danger. The resulting dashboard was able to progressively learn from data entered to generate predictions.

Virtual events, awareness of buyer behavior and increased adoption of e-commerce are some of the actions business-to-business marketers can take during the coronavirus pandemic, eMarketer B2B analyst Jillian Ryan writes.

To ensure your messages don't get lost in recipients' inboxes, Mona Bushnell runs through what's needed for an effective email marketing campaign. She discusses various types of marketing messages, explains how to assemble a list of subscribers and offers guidelines for writing emails that get real results.

Controversial ideas are important, as long as they are evidence-based, open the door to discussion and are delivered with conviction, writes Wes Kao. "If you wait for 100% consensus before you say your spiky point of view out loud, that day will never come," she writes.

The traditional role of distributors has been evolving, but with the influx of new competitors and new technologies, changes are happening at warp speed. Through an NAW series of seven research reports and accompanying webinars, you'll receive the intelligence you need to formulate new strategies and ensure that your company thrives through this era of technology transformation. Download the just-released July report, "The Coming Storm of Converging Technologies," and register for the accompanying July 28 webinar. Get started here.

In today's live NAW webinar at 2:00 p.m. ET, we'll follow up with Michael DeCata, President and CEO of Lawson Products, about how he is navigating through COVID-19 and how it has accelerated his plans around innovation. Mark Dancer, author of NAW's "Innovate to Dominate," and Richard Blatcher of PROS will explore with Mike how distributors can implement an "innovation ecosystem" to compete in the new normal. Can't attend today? Register anyway and we'll send you the recording. Register here. Sponsored by PROS.