More companies are turning to Avnet, Arrow Electronics and other distributors for help securing semiconductors during the ongoing global shortage. Arrow has reported higher global component sales as a result.

Home Depot has gotten more creative to keep its stores stocked during months of container shortages, port congestion and pandemic-related supply chain slowdowns. The DIY retailer has leased a ship that will begin running next month to carry only Home Depot's imports, and it has also occasionally flown in power tools and other smaller items and sometimes paid more to buy goods on the spot market, President and Chief Operating Officer Ted Decker said.

On its current growth curve, Amazon is poised to outpace top US retailer Walmart based on gross merchandise volume by next year, according to new research from JPMorgan. Amazon grew its e-commerce market share from 24% in 2014 to an estimated 39% last year, with 2020's sales fueled by a pandemic-related surge in online shopping, the report found.

Last-mile delivery options for B2C food companies often don't work for their B2B counterparts, so food distributors and wholesalers should instead use strategies such as hybrid route optimization, writes Brian Hoey of DispatchTrack. Such a system would "create optimized static routes -- routes that accounted for stores' and restaurants' hours of operation, etc. -- that could be dynamically adjusted on a daily or weekly basis as needed," Hoey writes.

Instead of rushing to create sales proposals, salespeople must first discuss expectations, cost and the specific problems their solution will address for the customer, writes Stephanie Downs. "You should prepare yourself with research and knowledge, and prepare your prospect with the essentials that you'll be presenting formally in the proposal," Downs writes.

Wharton marketing professor Raghuram Iyengar discusses the three major challenges of synergistic marketing and potential solutions, such as utilizing machine or predictive learning to meld data silos and shoring up marketing attribution with testing. In the wake of regulatory changes, consumers will need to see value in providing personal information and consider the context of its use, Iyengar says.

Many people have suffered during the pandemic and are subsequently grasping for meaning and drastic change, writes Ruth Reader, who shares her story of loss and highlights advice from grief writer David Kessler. Be careful not to act too quickly, Reader writes, as "making extreme alternations to your life while experiencing grief is much like operating heavy machinery while drunk -- you shouldn't do it."

It's easy to let common assumptions about organizational change prevail, such as the expectation that transitions will be linear. Make sure people at many different levels, not just the senior executives, are champions of the effort.

Suppliers are increasingly selling direct, customer demographics are skewing younger and many distributors are struggling to keep up. Distributors are grappling with fundamental changes in the expectations of their supply chain partners. Suppliers continue to report frustration with their distributors' poor digital capabilities. Join NAW on June 29 at 2 p.m. for this free, live webinar with Ian Heller and Jonathan Bein of Distribution Strategy Group, who will recommend actions distributors should take to address this growing channel conflict. Register today.

Designed for C-suite executives, these roundtables provide actionable strategies that will increase your company's competitive advantage. Companies belonging to this community are from distribution firms between $100 million and up to $1 billion in annual sales. You'll engage in thought-provoking conversations with your peers and hear from industry experts on topics that will ultimately increase your profits! Register today.

How have distributors been innovating their business during the pandemic? Find that out and much more from 10 distributors who tell their stories and share ideas for both surviving and thriving in a drastically changed business environment. Author Mark Dancer shares up-to-the-minute ideas and insights from distributor leaders based on their experiences and lessons learned from the coronavirus pandemic. Order this just-released e-chapter, "Distribution Leans In: Stories of Resiliency and Innovation During the COVID-19 Pandemic."