While the summer sales are just picking up speed, companies are already focusing on the next winter peak season with Black Friday and Christmas sales. For various reasons companies are facing major challenges this year. A timely and strategically thought-out preparation is therefore of particular importance. With smart peak management, a sensible inventory strategy and foresighted diversification of the supply chain, companies are optimally positioned for the upcoming peaks in demand.

Sustainability is not just a trend, but one of the major tasks of today. This is why companies are striving to improve their environmental balance sheets and are actively working towards reducing their harmful emissions. A first or additional step in this respect is the offsetting of carbon emissions. But which measures actually serve their purpose? We have the answer.

For many years, companies have organized manufacturing, procurement and logistics processes according to the principles of lean management. Lean and cost-efficient – this is how production and supply chains should be designed. However, in view of the current challenges in the global trade and transport of goods, agile models are now gaining in importance. So what is supply chain agility and how can companies use it to boost their success?

Europe remains of outstanding importance for online retailing: Four of the nine highest-revenue e-commerce markets are located on the European continent and make a significant contribution to the ongoing global online boom. However, the European economy is not only one of the most profitable sales markets, but with its pronounced heterogeneity, it also poses major challenges for cross-border commerce. The second part of our article series "Sales Market Europe" looks at the country-specific peculiarities of European e-commerce trade.

B2C online commerce has seen record growth over the past two years. Sales in cross-border e- commerce have also increased significantly: in 2021, the 500 most successful companies registered 1.4 billion cross-border visitors per month – an increase of 40 percent over the previous year. The first part of our series "Sales Market Europe" provides an insight into the development of European cross-border e-commerce.