Ninety-nine percent of consumers who take delivery of online orders in brick-and-mortar stores are pleased with the experience, according to a recent survey. Twenty-nine percent said the option is why they placed the order in the first place.

Brick-and-mortar shopping isn't dead, but it is certainly on the decline: just 57 percent of urban consumers said they preferred to make discretionary purchases in stores, while 39 percent claim their last such purchase was made online.

Today's consumer packaged goods companies are facing a winner-take-all world in which about half the sales growth - more in certain categories and markets - is coming from digital channels. Companies have to earn their online market positions with new approaches and skills tailored to digital sales, says a report released by The Boston Consulting Group and the Grocery Manufacturers Association.

Despite investing significant time and money in current commerce solutions, the majority of marketers and IT professionals surveyed aren't confident in their capabilities. Nearly one third (30 percent) of brands in both B2B and B2C industries spent more than $2m for their current commerce site, and 44 percent say it took longer than a year to implement, according to the 2016 State of Digital Commerce Report from e-commerce solution provider CloudCraze.

Retailers are expanding their networks of stores internationally this year despite the presumed headwind of online shopping, with a greater percentage eyeing growth in the Americas than last year, according to a survey of more than 150 major, international brands released by CBRE Group, Inc.

E-tailing behemoths like Amazon Business are infringing on electrical distributors' turf. Large distributors continue to hone and refine their e-commerce offerings. And finally, mobile e-commerce (or, m-commerce) - driven by the consumer who has grown more comfortable making purchases on smartphones and other mobile devices - is on track to hit $700bn by 2017, according to research firm Digi-Capital.