Online retail continues to grow at a rapid rate, with a 14.6-percent increase in the category in 2015, totaling $341.7bn. That has major implications for warehouse optimization.

Airfreight rates ticked back up again in March, up $0.21 per kilogram, or 6.7 percent over March 2016, as the industry moved out of a seasonal decline in rates that generally follows the holiday surge.

Amazon.com Inc. has created a team focused on driverless-vehicle technology to help navigate the retail giant's role in the shake-up of transportation, according to people briefed on the matter.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc., long known for squeezing its suppliers on prices, is now pressuring companies including Unilever and Colgate-Palmolive Co. to help the world's biggest retailer remove a billion metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions from its supply chain by 2030.

If Amazon's latest clothing manufacturing plans become a reality, air cargo companies could stand to lose billions in revenues. Last week, the e-commerce giant was awarded a patent for a localized manufacturing setup that eliminates much of the traditional supply chain, bringing manufacturing closer to consumers than ever before.

If Arkansas succeeds in executing multiple inmates by the end of the month, despite several setbacks in court, it will show that states have found an effective way of repelling some legal challenges that have thwarted or delayed executions in recent years.