Grainger's online Zoro unit had third-quarter sales of $276 million, a 27.4% increase from $217 million in the year-ago period. There were 4.41 million registered Zoro users in Q3, up 4.1% year over year, while the number of SKUs available on Zoro increased 29% to 10.3 million.

United Natural Foods has partnered with Cornerstone for Natural to introduce the Smart Shelf Tag program to UNFI retailers and suppliers. The system uses ELi QR Codes that give shoppers product information and other digital content such as promotional offers and brand stories when scanned.

The core personal consumption expenditures price index, the Federal Reserve's preferred inflation gauge, increased 0.5% in September from the previous month and 5.1% from a year ago, according to a report by the Commerce Department, in line with expectations. The report also showed personal spending rose 0.6% in September, above the 0.4% estimate.

Over half of senior business decision-makers say "much improvement" to their supply chains is still needed, and one-third expect supply chain challenges to continue into next summer, primarily due to global political turmoil, raw material shortages, higher energy and fuel costs, and inflation, an SAP survey finds.

An effective business-to-business content strategy is one that educates, guides and supports while also emotionally connecting with prospects, Margo Waldrop writes. Waldrop explains how to create successful B2B content spanning case studies, video, social media, newsletters and search engine optimization.

At a recent summit, top sellers shared success tips, including Collective's Melissa Gaglione, who talked about identifying the sales superpower that can help you shine. Lynn Powers of Clari told the audience she doubles down after losing a deal and explained how she brings those deals "back from the dead."

Simplify what Leo Babauta calls "the Huge Pile of Things" you need to do by reframing them as opportunities and giving each of them your full attention until they get done. Learning the art of "A Sacred No" can also help in turning down new requests, "because then we can be a Hell Yes to what we truly want," Babauta writes.

C-suite executives should take a more hands-on approach in situations that have high stakes, are time-sensitive or where they're needed to remove any obstacles that hinder new projects, write independent education researcher and writer Rachel Burstein and Vanessa Peters Hinton, a senior learning sciences researcher at Digital Promise. Delegation might be best in other instances, they write, as middle managers might see executives' involvement as micromanaging.

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