Distributors can counter Amazon's alleged antitrust and anticompetitive behaviors by emphasizing their trustworthiness and using technology and analytics to improve their operations, say Mike Marks of Indian River Consulting Group and Tom Gale of Modern Distribution Management. "At the same time, I welcome the efforts of [the National Association of Wholesaler-Distributors] and government agencies to ensure a fair marketplace where Amazon or other marketplaces are held accountable to not leverage their third-party seller data to grow their own share," Gale writes.

Sysco is expanding its e-commerce operations by offering customers more product personalization tools and click-to-order emails. Meanwhile, fellow foodservice distributor US Foods is introducing Moxi, an upgraded mobile commerce app, later this year.

Logistics companies are increasingly enlisting robots to help with warehouse inventory management amid ongoing labor shortages, with GXO Logistics set to operate over 5,800 robots around the world by year's end. However, companies are finding that the technology doesn't always deliver as hoped, and Matthew Johnson-Roberson, director of The Robotics Institute at Carnegie Mellon University, says that no current robots are intelligent or versatile enough to fully mimic a human worker.

Hybrid computing -- a combination of cloud and on-premises systems -- is ideal for logistics, because it uses the best attributes of both computing types, writes Bernd Stoger, executive product manager at KNAPP. Successful hybrid systems require interconnectedness, security and room to grow, Stoger notes.

Melanie Deziel, co-founder and vice president of marketing at The Convoy, talks in this podcast about how business-to-business marketers can use evidence-based content to develop trust with audiences. Deziel explains how B2B marketers can put "corroboration, demonstration, and education" into their content and why the creation of any content should begin with the question, "My audience doesn't trust me. How can I fix that?"

Research indicates consumers are demonstrating media fatigue, but direct mail engagement is generally on the rise, and "new technologies are making it more personalized, scalable, affordable and trackable," writes PostcardMania's Joy Gendusa. "Direct mail innovations have turned the tide, and today it has a place in every part of the sales funnel to elicit direct buying responses," Gendusa writes.

When conflicts arise within a team, leaders have strategies available, including making feedback a normal process, using one-on-one meetings to gather input and bringing in an outside facilitator or training team members to facilitate themselves, writes Ed Batista. "If you fail to actively involve your team in the process, you might exact their compliance, but you won't win their commitment, and the latter is necessary for lasting and sustainable change," Batista writes.

Too many priorities and demands from others can lead to a loss of focus and productivity, writes Gregg Vanourek, who recommends taking regular breaks, minimizing disruptions, determining the most important tasks and identifying the times of day when energy is high or ebbing. Vanourek also recommends four productivity tools, including the Eisenhower Matrix and the "Eat the Frog" method to enhance focus.

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