The parcel industry is projected to grow 9 percent annually to more than $343bn globally by 2020, according to Accenture, thanks to the increase in e-commerce orders, which are forecast to surpass $600bn by 2021 in the US alone. Parcel carriers are challenged in this era of explosive e-commerce growth to maintain historic profitability as the number of stops per delivery and the size of packages increase, while customer expectations for speedier deliveries continue to heighten. -Dan Clark, Founder and President, Kuebix

Three months after the launch of Amazon in Australia, local competitors say they are still waiting for the dreaded “Amazon effect” to hit their sales.

E-commerce has disrupted retail to an extent that it is now the new "traditional" channel and the future of retail is omnichannel. The retail industry is going through an upheaval. Thousands of stores have closed, over 4000 net-new stores opened in 2017. Large department chains are closing stores while discount retailers and specialty businesses have opened many. Online-first retailers are setting-up physical stores while brick-and-mortar retailers are moving online. All these retailers are investing in technology to survive and grow. -Ashwin Ramasamy, Co-founder/CMO, and Shrikanth Jagannathan, Co-founder/Chief Data Scientist, both of PipeCandy

The world’s biggest container shipping line is trying to stop customers like Amazon.com Inc. and Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. from becoming competitors in just a few years’ time.

Digital disruptions continue to play an important role in the evolution of retail. The dot-com era of the 1990s begets the dot-com bubble that burst to create the dot-com collapse. By 2003 the few dot-com survivors began playing an important role in retail. By 2010 e-commerce had reached a level of significance creating the term multichannel retail, describing retailers who participate in stores and online. The field has evolved, and entered the era of New Retail. -Jim Tompkins, CEO, Tompkins International and MonarchFx

Omnichannel fulfillment has been increasingly adopted by big-box retailers and other outlets with large brick-and-mortar footprints. Online sales of large bulky items, such as furniture and kitchen appliances, are a rapidly growing segment as shown by the growth of white glove delivery companies such as XPO Logistics. Reliance on these last-mile delivery companies and the physical nature of bulk size items will push omnichannel fulfillment adoption at an increasing rate. -Paul D'Arrigo, Vice President of Information Technology, Spend Management Experts