This is episode 34 of Adventures in Supply Chain podcast.  We are pleased to present the Data and Tech in Supply Chain Video Series with guest Rick Watson, E-Commerce Expert.

This episode is sponsored by USM Supply Chain. USM stands for Unstoppable, Scalable, Mindful Supply Chain. Check us out at usmsupplychain.com to scale up your profits together with your supply chain. 

Our guest, Rick Watson, after spending the last 20 years as a technology entrepreneur and operator exclusively in the eCommerce industry with companies like ChannelAdvisor, Barnes & Noble.com, Merchantry, and Pitney Bowes, started his own business to help with incubating and growing direct-to-consumer businesses.

Rick has been a featured speaker at nationwide news programs such as Bloomberg Surveillance and Bloomberg West, as well as at a number of retail-focused industry events including NRF Shop.org, ECommerce Europe, ETail West, and others.

In this episode we talk about the following:

1. What are the most common challenges that e-commerce companies face? Is it Marketing or Supply Chain?
2. Where are cost savings opportunities?
3. What is the role of data and technology in e-commerce companies?
4. If a company needs to choose a particular area where to invest in technology, what's that area? And why?
5. Thoughts about the battle between UPS and Amazon?
6. What companies that are already in business and want to scale should do?
7. What companies that want to start or developing more their ecommerce channels should do, in particular those that are doing B2B?