The age of big data and the demands of e-commerce are generating more data than ever before — and with it, the need for "actionable" analytics to manage operations in distribution centers, says Charles Armstrong, founding partner with Orion Advisors Group.

With today's enterprise resource planning systems, companies can view aggregate shipping locations of each distributor, wholesaler and reseller. Most of the time, though, product tracking ends there.

Same-day delivery isn’t a novel idea. Businesses routinely need an item that’s critically important right away — not tomorrow, not next week, but within hours.

As bad as things might seem right now, the situation is temporary — and retailers must be prepared for the flood of consumer demand that will be released by economic recovery.

Many worry that the much-ballyhooed gig economy is merely a stepping stone to a time when all of those jobs will be performed by robots. But don’t tell that to Brett Helling.

What is this thing called a warehouse?

Importers and domestic manufacturers who sell goods to retailers face an increasingly complex landscape of consumer demands and brand positioning, as the balance between e-commerce and brick-and-mortar sales continues to shift.

In the battle to make their product more attractive to consumers, packaging is a crucial element. Many turn to third-party packaging and co-packing service providers to gain the edge.