Companies and investment funds are pioneering the field of flipping on Amazon's third-party marketplace -- "acquiring the rights to successful Amazon products, redesigning the product pages, investing in new fulfillment infrastructure and scaling up sales," writes Michael Waters. This trend could make selling on the platform more homogenized and less accessible for hobbyists and smaller enterprises.

Hy-Vee has joined the ranks of food retailers helping to launch COVID-19 vaccines, with pharmacy staffs vaccinating front-line health care workers in Iowa and Minnesota. The grocer is distributing Moderna's vaccine.

The era of big data is over, replaced by the concept of wide data, "which encompasses all types of data no matter where it lives—in the cloud, on prem, in data lakes, or data warehouses," says CEO Justin Borgman of Starburst Data. Borgman's prediction was among several gathered by Alex Woodie, who forecasts that "the accelerated pace of change" in analytics will continue.

Long-term brand building offers five major benefits to business-to-business companies, including a boost to both short-term and long-term sales and the leverage as a well-known brand to raise prices, write The B2B Institute's Peter Weinberg and Jon Lombardo. Investment in brand building also attracts the best talent and future-proofs against category changes, they write.

Sales managers should know that most business-to-business customers are lost not because of errors on the part of salespeople, but indifference, writes Colin Campbell. Other surprising sales statistics include that 25% of sales representatives say they have not yet received the training they need to succeed.

Being a leader means you can't avoid difficult conversations, even when addressing conflict makes you uncomfortable, Marlene Chism writes. One of her four suggestions for inviting discomfort is to avoid interrupting during triggering conversations, instead encouraging the speaker to express themselves.

After constant virtual conference calls in 2020, "Zoom fatigue" is real. That's why we've designed a highly interactive virtual event that will capture your attention from start to finish. Every moment of the NAW 2021 Digital Summit will be aimed at helping you lead through a time of transition. Hear from some of distribution's leading CEOs, network with your peers and discuss critical issues, get the 2021-22 economic forecast and learn what the Biden agenda will mean for distribution, plus much more. Special 5- and 10-pack registrations are available so bring your team!

In this capstone webinar for the NAW Series: How Technology Will Transform Wholesale Distribution, Ian Heller and Jonathan Bein will summarize what they learned from the research conducted with distributors, suppliers and customers. They'll provide a roadmap forward: a specific set of recommendations on the strategic actions that the distribution industry -- and individual companies -- should take to fend off competitors, outflank the disruptors and prepare to take market share and improve profitability. Register for this free Jan. 21 webinar at 2 p.m. Eastern. Sponsored by Unilog and PROS.

The pandemic is forcing many distributors to reevaluate their supply chains to create more resilient models. At the heart of "Optimizing Channel Profitability" is a common ground for distributors and manufacturers to focus on making a one-to-one connection among a supplier's channel compensation, a distributor's capabilities and customer value, all leading to a process where all three entities can have constructive, objective dialogue rather than subjective, selective fault-finding. If you're looking to strengthen your value proposition post COVID-19, this resource will help.