United Natural Foods announced that Sandy Douglas, the former CEO of Staples, will become its CEO on Aug. 9, replacing the retiring Steve Spinner. The UNFI board also elected Jack Stahl as independent chairman, also effective Aug. 9.

Independent distributors can best compete against the likes of Amazon Business by selling on more than one B2B online marketplace, say Alex Moazed and Nick Johnson of Applico. "We think that the best outcome for distributors would be if there is not that dominant, multi-category generalist that has 40% to 50% of online sales in B2B," Johnson says.

United Rentals earned $293 million in the second quarter on revenue of $2.29 billion, both up from a year earlier. The results "reflected a continued recovery across our construction and industrial markets," CEO Matthew Flannery says.

Artificial intelligence and machine learning can mine data to generate findings that can make e-commerce more profitable, writes Rohan Thambrahalli, founder and president of UpstartWorks. Automation can also save companies time and money with e-commerce, Thambrahalli writes.

Businesses should consider six factors when choosing third-party logistics partners: customer service, security, scalability, customization, technological compatibility and reputation. "The trust factor is what one needs to be looking for in a reliable partner," says Seth Rothbard, an InXpress franchisee.

Sales goals and numbers have value in and of themselves, but they should also prompt deeper questions and introspection, writes David Brock. "When we are making them, we should challenge ourselves to improve, to set new goals/numbers and figure out what we need to do to achieve them," Brock writes.

Leaders who recognize likely problems -- an unhappy customer or conflict between team members -- can be ready to respond to their occurrence and guide the team toward recovery, write Karin Hurt and David Dye. "You get more of what you celebrate and encourage, so be on the lookout for the moments where your team implements their recovery processes," they write.

According to Benj Cohen, entrepreneur of artificial intelligence technology and third-generation distributor "The pandemic brought with it a rise in digital B2B purchasing. Boundaries were broken down and expectations were removed as businesses began making purchases like consumers: quickly and conveniently from their home computers." Read his post.

Through the education alliance between the NAW Institute for Distribution Excellence and Texas A&M University's Industrial Distribution Program, NAW offers this cutting-edge educational program that is customized to distributors. Learn more.

Rate tier changes and new fee increases are the biggest in a decade to costs U.S. businesses pay to accept credit cards. Understanding the fees your business pays has never been more important. Learn how in the B2B A/R Update "Card Brands Make Good on Interchange Fee Increases for B2B Card-Not-Present Transactions."