Gypsum Management & Supply reported sales of $1.2 billion in its fiscal third quarter, up 7% from a year earlier, but sales growth was slower than in Q2, due to "both the early stages of a slowdown in single-family construction as well as difficult weather conditions during the quarter," President and CEO John Turner said. Increases in multifamily construction and commercial wallboard volume growth helped to offset the decline in single-family volume for the Georgia-based building products distributor.

Amazon Business is constantly implementing changes to increase sales -- projected to reach $80 billion by 2025 -- including developing artificial intelligence and machine learning applications and increasing sales and account services with larger enterprises, according to the "Building Better B2B Marketplaces" report from Digital Commerce 360. The report looks at the growth strategies of other business-to-business marketplaces including industrial products distribution and restaurant supply.

As Amazon ramps up its own delivery service, it has reduced the number of packages being sent through UPS, with 1.3 billion packages handled by the independent carrier in 2022, down from 1.41 billion the year before. UPS expects to make up that revenue by targeting higher-yield small businesses and healthcare deliveries, but Amazon will retain some of UPS' services.

The pandemic brought a rise in reshoring and near-shoring to combat supply chain disruptions, and companies are looking to closed-loop networks and anti-fragile networks to be able to adjust quickly. When making the shift, companies should consider geography, border crossings, weather and housing markets in addition to the price of goods, say industry experts.

Industrial distribution companies need to tap into the customer service expectations of millennial buyers, who expect faster response times, omnichannel support, personalized service and more transparency than older generations, writes Ben Lussier, vice president of Blue Ribbon Fastener. "Buyers need to get work off their desk quickly, and a smart distribution partner will help their customers work more efficiently through same-day responses and order confirmations, demand planning services and forecasting solutions," Lussier writes.

Customer case studies, or customer-success stories, can be helpful marketing tools if users are aware of certain drawbacks, writes Stephan Liozu, founder of Value Innoruption Advisors. Liozu recommends avoiding studies that are based on one scenario or involve only friends and family, and making sure not to exclude how you determined your ROI.

Make networking effective by focusing on how you can help others instead of the other way around, deciding if you want to attend small or large networking events, keeping records of who you meet and following-up to deepen relationships, writes Christine de Largy, and executive fellow with the Leadership Institute at the London Business School. "It takes effort to build your network, but is enjoyable when you choose to be curious, have a learning mindset, and want to help people," de Largy writes.

Communication from leadership during a time of crisis must be clear, as factual as possible given the information they have and delivered with transparency, writes consultant Glenn Parker. "Leaders who are transparent garner a high degree of trust and loyalty from both employees and customers," Parker writes.