Third-party Amazon sellers can again use FedEx Ground to ship Amazon Prime orders after the company lifted its nearly monthlong ban on the practice this week. Amazon said the service had a poor on-time record when it announced the ban but now says FedEx Ground's performance has improved.

Amazon is fighting against counterfeit products sold on its site by providing data on merchants to US and European law enforcement whenever confirmed sales of fake products occur, a source reports. Some top brands had hesitated to sell their items through Amazon because of counterfeits.

Distributors should remember to consider profit and the value of each customer when making decisions this year, writes Robert Sabath. "The service package that is provided to large customers rarely is appropriate for small ones, and being responsive uniquely to each customer often maximizes customer satisfaction, results -- and success," he writes.

It's important to understand what motivates Generation Z employees as the older members of the generation continue to enter the workforce, writes Bridget McCrea. These workers generally enjoy technology, want interesting work and find it important to embrace diversity and make a difference in the world around them.

Separate research from Capgemini and Harvard Business Review shows that customers who have an emotional connection with a company are significantly more valuable, but the dominance of digital engagement means forging those connections is challenging, Danny Tomsett writes. Artificial intelligence is a solution to bringing an emotional side to digital interactions via chatbots that more realistically emulate humans, he writes, though they won't be the only answer.

Companies must do all they can to keep customer data secure from fraud, inform customers about the security tools they use and what will happen should there be a breach, writes Shep Hyken. "The moment the customer has doubts, you risk the sale, repeat business and goodwill that comes from positive word-of-mouth," he writes.

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.

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 one seat is available.

This study brings together best practices from leading distributors and their suppliers that were developed through a consortium on Optimizing Channel Compensation. The resulting Channel Alignment Framework is the first-of-its-kind map that seeks to build optimal manufacturer-distributor channels. Distributors need to read this book and buy it for their manufacturer partners. Then they need to sit down with those suppliers and properly plan effective processes to get the supplier market access while meeting distributor investment needs.