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