A number of articles regarding HR and e-commerce have been published on news websites in which the principles and thinking behind the managerial framework 5-D Value are applied. The HR articles concern Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) and the e-commerce articles cover some of the latest developments in the industry, most with a focus on sustainability.
The articles are summarised below and links are provided. Specific reference to the managerial framework 5-D Value is not drawn in the articles.
An excellent source for the latest in developments and ideas related to HR topics is the HR Gazette, with a print edition, online magazine and other forms of content.

The article “The Link Between Workplace DEI and Performance” shows how striving for competitive advantages can lead employees to unconsciously erect barriers to diversity. HR tools can bring down the barriers and at the same time improve the performance of all employees. Thus the business results of the company are also improved.

The article “HR AS A STRATEGIC PARTNER FOR THE BUSINESS IN DIVERSITY” demonstrates that improvements in Diversity, Equity and Inclusion can be aligned to also positively impact normative and strategic management. Where HR has the lead for DEI with these kinds of impacts, HR assumes the role as strategic partner for the business: HR drives the benefits of DEI into an enhanced market position and the attainment of normative and strategic objectives.

The article “DEI in the Workplace as Change Management” presents how HR can treat the challenge of reducing biases against minorities in organizational behavior as a change issue. HR can apply the approach and tools of change management to improve the employee experience in this regard.
Another excellent source for HR developments is the Society for Human Resource Management (shrm.org), with local chapters and other organisations in addition to the multiple channels of communications.
The article “How Improving DE&I can Make Organizations More Competitive” places HR initiatives to improve DEI in the framework developed by Dave Ulrich regarding the impacts of HR work: Strategic Partner, Change Agent, Employee Champion and Administrative Expert. This is the framework to show four different ways in which DEI initiatives ultimately improve business performance.
The article “Using Purpose to Boost Engagement Among Women and Deskless Workers” shows that employees with diverse background and deskless workers can respond positively to the principles of New Work when they participate in designing their inclusive and more secure work environment. The result will be higher engagement and improved performance.
The article “5 Ways to Make Employees more Loyal and Productive by Linking People Management to Strategic Direction” shows that linking the employee experience more closely to the five strategic components mission, values, goals, vision, and purpose, can meet employee demands for personal gratification and structuring the work around their personal requirements. Workers are thus more securely embedded in the organisation and better aligned to the strategic direction of the company, making them more productive.
A number of articles have appeared regarding e-commerce:
Article: In-store mobile services bring home sustainable value and boost customer loyalty

Amazon and Macy’s in the USA as well as Marks & Spencer and Sainsbury’s in the UK have introduced an app for checkout-free payment in stores. In-store mobile services can link the customer’s shopping basket to a range of information for each item including sustainability and more healthy alternatives, which is pertinent for customers because the products are on their minds exactly at this time. This information also serves to promote the retailer’s overall value proposition and binds the customer to the retailer.

Retailers always have sold consumers on the benefits of their products. Today, they must also explain how a retailer’s products can help save the planet and improve the living and working conditions of people. Here are examples of retailers doing it well and 5 suggestions of how each retailer can improve the sustainable value it offers.
Article: Online Fashion Retailers Build Communities For Sustainable Success

Online retail is constantly accused of destroying downtown communities due to running stores out of business. In fact, e-commerce builds communities in a viable manner, suitable to the modern world, by making them sustainable. Online retailers can secure a successful future by becoming the nerve center of virtual communities united in sustainable value creation.
Article: It’s time fashion retailers made the most of second-hand clothing

First-mover advantages for fashion retailers in second-hand clothing: As part of the turn towards sustainable shopping, consumers are increasingly buying and selling preworn clothes. Fashion retailers entering this trending business area can treat the source of the second-hand clothes, the consumer-seller, as a kind of business partner, with mutual benefits in buying and selling. The retailer fashioning the best relationship with such hybrid partners can deepen the tie with more customers, thereby raising engagement and market share.
Article: Online Shops Enable a Fuller Picture of the Product

Conventional wisdom says the customer gains a more meaningful impression of products in a physical shop rather than online. However, the internet offers great potential for wide-ranging information from different stakeholders, smartly packaged by the digital retailer using multimedia, drill-down and linked information. An online shop can communicate a fuller picture of the benefits for customers and satisfy their growing interest to understand the impacts of the product on business, society and the environment.
Article: Clothes sold new and used while rented and repaired online – doing more with less

Clothes are being handled like cars – and why not? Digital fashion companies can learn from the auto industry in building deeper relations to customers by treating them newly as business partners who supply apparel. Together with re-fashioning the value chain, there are opportunities for online clothes retailers to raise their market profile and market share. And also help the environment to boot.
Article: 3 marketing tactics to build customer loyalty during the pandemic

Three marketing aims are prominent for ecommerce companies in the coronavirus crisis: managing customer disappointment short-term with delivery delays, stimulating spending medium-term despite falling consumer confidence, and ingraining the online habits formed in the crisis into long-term shopping behavior on the web. Measures to achieve these aims include a personal story of innovation in logistics, giving consumers the sense that they are building savings while still spending and making online shopping into a social experience. Digital retailers will benefit from more loyal customers as well as personnel, business partners and investors who are enthusiastic at the retailer’s creative response to the crisis.
Article: Mastering 3 coronavirus challenges with customer loyalty

Retailers today face bottlenecks in their online delivery, depressed consumer confidence, and the need to engage customers now and when the shops open again. The challenges can be met by telling a memorable story from the supply chain, helping customers build up savings for a future outlay and making shopping an enlivening group experience, online and offline. Customers will be more loyal and other stakeholders will be reassured to see the retailer doing its best in the crisis.
Article: Learn from Amazon how to serve the consumer, shopper and end-user as one

Offering customers something special in all three phases of the purchasing cycle—before, during and after the sale—is an approach all online retailers can learn from Amazon while developing their own distinctive offers.