Right now, many merchants who sell their products online and do not have a distribution center, warehouse or retail store in the state into which their product is sold aren't charging sales taxes, and cannot be required to collect them at the point of purchase. This stands in stark contrast to local wholesaler -distributors and retailers - businesses that have a brick-and-mortar presence on the Main Streets and in the commercial and industrial parks of our cities and towns and who provide jobs to our family members, friends and neighbors - who are required by law to do so.

As the volume of business-to-business purchases being made online continues to grow, B2B suppliers are responding by expanding their e-commerce platforms and overall omnichannel capabilities, according to new research from Accenture and hybris software, an SAP company.

The Federal Trade Commission has updated a longstanding rule governing mail and phone-based retailers to explicitly include e-commerce vendors as well, meaning that online retailers now must abide by a 30-day shipping requirement or refund customers' payments if they can't.

In a first in the athletic footwear and apparel space, Foot Locker has started a trial of same-day/next-day delivery at five stores in California, with plans to roll it out at its 1,300 locations across the U.S. and Canada should it prove a success. This includes all the company's brands: Foot Locker, Lady Foot Locker, Kids Foot Locker, Foot Action and Champs.

The technology-driven shift to omnichannel shopping is the most transformative change to hit retail in decades. Yet in a global survey of CEOs conducted by PwC, only 22 percent felt this monumental shift would impact their organizations. Are these retail CEOs missing the boat?