Chinese e-commerce conglomerate Alibaba is seeking to expand its business by making its seller platform available to US vendors with the hopes of adding other countries later. One-third of the company's 10 million business buyers are in the US, and Kivanc Onan, Alibaba's head of B2B North America financial products, says that making payment seamless and building trust will be crucial to the program's success.

Producers of natural and other niche beverages should focus distribution initially by region with an anchor account readily supplied, says Alex Marx, KeHE's director of growth solutions. He advises considering conventional channels right away as categories are blurring, tapping distributor expertise when plotting growth strategy and following a five-point plan for build-out that he outlines in this video.

Winsupply's e-commerce expansion took several years, involved gradual additions of technology platforms and overcame skepticism among senior management, says marketing executive Steve Edwards. The autonomy of local partners and Winsupply's ability to build "a community of users based on customer satisfaction" contributed to the company's digital success, Edwards says.

Business-to-business e-commerce is expected to be double that of its business-to-consumer counterpart this year, writes Zen Media CEO Shama Hyder, before offering five tips on how B2B marketers can maximize the opportunity. Deliver a seamless online shopping experience that's fast and optimized for mobile, provide educational content to help decision-makers and tailor e-commerce for B2B buyers who seek account management, bulk orders and prices and have complex shipping needs, she writes.

Austin Gould outlines 10 key content trends for marketers this year, including user-generated content and video to engage prospects. The rise of voice search will demand a new approach to keywords, and personalization will continue to be an important goal, he advises.

Leaders can elicit more opinions and ideas by minimizing interruptions, encouraging dissent and asking quieter team members for their thoughts, writes Mikaela Kiner, a former HR executive. "If people from underestimated groups don't feel welcome making suggestions and sharing ideas, you're leaving a lot of creativity and innovation on the table," she writes.

The nature of work and leadership have changed over Wally Bock's lifetime as the definition of work itself evolved, knowledge workers took over and long-term planning lost its effectiveness. "We can see the shape of how things are developing, but most of us still need to dig in, learn, and think about how we should lead differently," he writes.

The October kickoff meeting was so popular that the NAW Institute and Texas A&M are holding a second kickoff meeting Jan. 23, so more companies can participate in our groundbreaking Digitizing the Sales Process Consortium. Distributors: This is your opportunity to contribute to this fundamental research on how distributors will determine which portions of the sales process will be digitized. Learn more here; if you're interested, you have to register soon, because only four seats are available.

Don't miss the NAW 2020 Executive Summit: INNOVATE TO DOMINATE, Jan. 28-30! This year's forward-looking program and networking with distributors who are your peers will really shake up your thinking, provide you with fresh ideas and critical thinking, and give you a rare chance to benchmark your business. You'll walk away with valuable insights that you'll translate into ideas to help you run your business more effectively and profitably. Register today.

Called the "Master class in innovation for distributors," "Innovate to Dominate: The 12th Edition in the Facing the Forces of Change Series" has arrived. A roadmap for innovation, it helps distributors connect the dots between the forces of change and how distributors can change their business to capture opportunities -- and defend their business when necessary. The best innovations are about getting ahead instead of catching up. Order your copies!