Featured Archives

What Distributors Can Learn from the U.S. Government’s New Digital Front Door

The federal government’s new AI-powered america.gov site offers a lesson for distributors: Customers shouldn’t have to navigate your internal complexity to get answers. This piece explores five ideas worth borrowing — and what the latest AI Adoption Index reveals about distributors’ readiness to put them into practice.

October 12, 2026

Economic Trends

August U.S. Wholesale Sales Jump 1.8% as Broad Gains Continue

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October 8, 2026

Strategy

What Global Industrial’s Trade Show Revealed about its Customer Growth Strategy

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October 8, 2026

Pricing

The Tariff Pricing Hangover Distributors Must Fix Before 2027

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October 6, 2026

Market Analysis

Research: Distribution AI’s First Workforce Impact Is Capacity — Not Cuts

NAW’s 2026 AI Adoption Index suggests early returns are showing up as time saved, greater throughput and avoided hiring long before they appear as broad job reductions.

October 5, 2026

Operations

Fuel Costs Put Distributors’ Delivery Miles Under Scrutiny. Here’s How AI is Helping

Rising fuel, labor and operating costs are putting added pressure on distributor margins. This article explores how AI-powered route optimization can help distributors cut unnecessary fleet miles, improve delivery efficiency and reduce costs — without sacrificing the reliable service customers expect.

October 2, 2026

MDM Blog

MDM’s September Premium Monthly Intelligence Brief is Here

Formerly our Premium Monthly report — a PDF often spanning 30-40 pages — our Intelligence Brief provides a consise, synthesized eight-page briefing that extracts the biggest takeaways and themes from the articles published each month. It's perfect for busy executives. Premium members can get our September Intelligence Brief from the link in this blog or from their Premium Dashboard.

October 2, 2026

Mergers & Acquisitions

September M&A Roundup: Rexel, Watsco, ORS Lead the Way

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October 1, 2026

Pricing

How to Give Commercial Teams Pricing Power (Without Losing Control)

Giving commercial teams more pricing authority doesn’t have to mean losing control. This piece explains how distributors can use pricing guardrails, centralized visibility and deterministic controls to balance local market flexibility with financial discipline — an approach that becomes even more important as AI plays a larger role in pricing decisions.

September 30, 2026

Mergers & Acquisitions

Inside Rexel’s North American M&A Push: Buying Scale and Specialization

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September 29, 2026

Strategy

ADI’s Next Test: Turning Integration Into Profit and Cash

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September 28, 2026

Electrical

Rexel to Acquire GCG in $1.4B Specialty Infrastructure Expansion

Rexel’s $1.4 billion deal for GCG would add more than $1.1 billion in annual revenue and deepen its exposure to data centers, utilities, communications and other critical infrastructure markets, extending an aggressive 2026 acquisition push. Get all the details and context here.

September 25, 2026

Perspective

As AI Learns Distribution, Distributors Must Teach it Well

Emerging technology is becoming more specific, more capable and more fluent in how wholesale distribution operates. Here, NAW's Dan Schuberth offers his perspective on how the advantage will go to companies that pair it with the accumulated judgment of their people.

September 24, 2026

MDM Blog

MDM’s Grainger Case Study Report Now Available

MDM’s latest case study examines how Grainger continues to outgrow the MRO market through a connected operating model built on High-Touch customer solutions, curated assortment, private label, digital commerce, data intelligence and fulfillment scale.

September 23, 2026

Featured Blog

At NAW Innovators Summit, Distribution’s AI Conversation Shifts to Business Value

NAW’s fifth annual Innovators Summit brought distributors and technology innovators together in Nashville for targeted meetings and industry discussions. AI was embedded throughout the event, but the conversation increasingly centered on a more disciplined question: Where can technology create measurable business value?

September 22, 2026

Strategy

Inside ADI’s Growth Model: Digital, Exclusive Brands and a Bigger Share of the Job

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September 21, 2026

Future Leaders

At 70, Texas A&M’s Industrial Distribution Program Prepares Talent for a Changing Industry

A blend of technical education, industry partnerships and applied projects is helping Texas A&M connect students with distribution careers while adapting to employers’ changing expectations. We take a look at what the program looks like today and how it's evolving.

September 18, 2026

Sales & Marketing

What to Fix Before Investing in CRM

More quotes doesn't always mean more sales. This piece details why the biggest leak in your sales pipeline happens before the quote, and how a back-to-basics approach will best position you to get the most value out of CRM, AI and whatever technology comes next.