Delivering more than $10m in cost savings, spearheading a new global distribution model and driving a start-up's exponential growth are among the outstanding personal achievements of young professionals named winners in the ThomasNet and Institute for Supply Management 30 Under 30 Rising Supply Chain Stars Recognition Program.

Analyst Insight: Retailers are seeing new opportunities afforded by omnichannel commerce to leverage brick-and-mortar assets as more than just nodes in the distribution network. They are taking advantage of customers' desires for low or no shipping costs to drive additional in-store spend and seamless returns that make customers happy and ease the burden on distribution. -- Rob Dold, Retail Industry Leader, Fortna Inc.

The global penetration of embedded and hybrid factory installed OEM telematics in new passenger cars will exceed 72 percent by 2021, according to ABI Research.

Here's a question for U.S. exporters who were grievously harmed by the West Coast longshore labor slowdown in late 2014 and early 2015: Would it make you feel any better to learn that you were the victims of "a street brawl"?

After years of delay, the automation of importer filings, involving multiple government agencies, is upon us. Say hello to the "Single Window."

Analyst Insight: An enterprise-wide global trade strategy increases supply chain cost and service performance for all trading partners and enables importers and exporters to comply with mandatory trade and security regulations. Companies that prioritize best-in-class global supply chain trade practices, maintain effective global transport / trade organizations and employ enabling technologies are the best positioned to capture the economic and brand benefits available in growing and changing global markets. - Don Anderson, Principal, Tompkins International

Analyst Insight: Suppliers competing in a global market grapple with several factors that are pushing them to redesign their distribution footprints. A boom in mergers and acquisitions, increasing delivery demands, and a shift in the locations of supply sources are all converging, requiring reconfigurations of the single or multi-echelon networks of warehouses and cross-docks used to "hub and spoke" products in a cost-effective manner to customers while ensuring the appropriate level of required customer responsiveness. - Michael Albritton, Director, AlixPartners

Analyst Insight: When Star Wars was released in the U.S. in 1977, China was a broken, impoverished, country reeling from the Cultural Revolution and seeking ways to rejoin the "Republic" of nations. To many Chinese alive at the time, the China of today must look much like the Star Wars universe looked 40 years ago to American moviegoers. Full of unimaginable technologies, bullet trains and jets whizzing people around and avant garde fashions replacing Mao suits. - Michael Zakkour, Vice President China/Asia Pacific Practice Leader, Tompkins International

U.S. retailers are racing to stay relevant in a rapidly changing shopping environment led by growth of e-commerce, the ubiquity of mobile devices, and the demanding expectations of consumers, according to PwC's annual online shopper survey, Total Retail: The Race for Relevance. Based on a survey of more than 23,000 online consumers globally, the report reveals the changing behaviors of consumers, driven by convenience, price, social media and brand trust.