Retail trade and the supply chains enabling it have existed since the dawn of human civilization.

From the humble beginnings of storing food in village granaries and recording transactions on clay tokens, massive social and technological advancements throughout millennia have ultimately led to modern department stores, global supply chains, massive data centers, and same-day deliveries. Throughout these transformations, retail trade and the systems connected to it have both reflected society’s changes and been a driver of social and industrial development.

Today, the retail sector appears to be going through a new period of transformation. The rise of the Internet is luring consumers out of brick-and-mortar stores, causing unprecedented numbers of store closings despite steadily increasing retail sales and consumer spending that routinely makes up nearly 70 percent of U.S. economic output, according to Federal Reserve Economic Data from the Federal Reserve Bank of St