Today founder of Checkout Promotions, Gil Greenberg, is joining the show. We recap Shopify Editions, the transformation of the Shop App, the overcrowding of the developer ecosystem, and  how to thrive as an app developer in eCom. Listen now!Like Never Before“​​You're starting to see a lot of developers that actually want to run businesses for their apps and employing fundamentals to do so.”-Gil Greenberg“There’s a world where Shopify didn’t IPO 6 or 7 years ago, and my theory is that part of Shopify’s success was that so many people were able to realize personal benefit from the growth of the stock. What if Magento IPO’d instead? We’ll never know.”  - PhillipThe Shopify platform is now huge and it encompasses way more than anyone outside of the ecosystem, but even more than most people in the ecosystem realize“You either follow Shopify's way or you're on the highway”  - GilThe launch of Shopify Functions will allow you to extend the platform where other APIs won’t let you“There's still a lot of room for better experiences. You have all these apps, where's the centralized billing or better pricing when you're using multiple apps? I just haven't seen anything truly interesting appear yet.” -GilAssociated Links:Learn more about Gil Greenberg and Checkout PromotionsTokengated Commerce- Business Breakdowns PodcastInsiders #123: A Marketer’s Guide To The Multiverse Of MadnessDownload VISIONS 2022 NOW!Subscribe to Insiders and Senses to read more of our hot takes!Listen to our other episodes of Future CommerceCheck out Decoded, our newest limited seriesHave any questions or comments about the show? Let us know on Futurecommerce.com, or reach out to us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, or LinkedIn. We love hearing from our listeners!

Keeping up with the Jonses isn’t just for your neighbors next door, it’s everywhere in eCommerce businesses. Companies buy software based on what they see others in their industry purchasing. Formal RFP processes create a lengthy and expensive buying process, so eCommerce companies are more open today than ever before to the idea of composable commerce. In Episode 5 of Decoded, Phillip & Boris discuss how to purchase digital software well and some key considerations in decision making. Listen Now!Keeping up with the JonesesThere have always been and will always be fads and fashions driving purchases. This is no different when it comes to companies purchasing software.Companies tend to copy purchasing patterns when they see their peers and competitors successfully implementing software.B2B Sales are irrational. The buyer of the software is rarely, if ever, the user of the software. How can B2B companies take the irrationality out of this process?Business owners need to look at an issue in their business and ask themselves if they should be involved in the decision making process for purchasing specific software and to what degree they should be involved. - BorisIf you want to extract value out of a software purchase, the people who will actually be using the software should be involved in some manner in the buying process.Be very explicit and specific about the problems your business is trying to solve. Don’t just buy software.You want to aim for a long-term relationship with your software. Try before you buy is a MUST in order to build sustainable processes.Examining the RFP cycle: by its very nature, the RFP introduces risk, despite its sole purpose being to mitigate it. - PhillipWhat do we mean by “scalability?” An enterprise software isn’t scalable in the same way that Shopify is, nor should it be. They’re two different products solving for two different issues. It’s better to ask what the approach to scalability is.“The SaaSification of the industry is actually leading to many developers losing skills.” - BorisAssociated Links:Learn more about Boris Lokschin and SprykerCheck out Episode 1 of Decoded on the Developer to Consumer!Check out Episode 2 of Decoded on our new composable world!Check out Episode 3 of Decoded on Social Commerce!Check out Episode 4 of Decoded on High-Complexity vs. High-Commodity environments.Have any questions or comments about the show? Let us know on Futurecommerce.com, or reach out to us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, or LinkedIn. We love hearing from our listeners!

TikTok creator Neil Shankar joins the show today to chat about the algorithm, how brands are playing the game, power stances in commerce, and our recent Visions 2022 report. Listen now!Playing the GameNeil Shankar is a TikTok content creator, producing content on what's new with consumer brands“Getting the algorithm to like you is sometimes about playing the game of TikTok, for instance, speaking the language of TikTok and engaging with TikTok creators. You don't need to be like dancing in front of a ring light.” -NeilInteracting with the idea of something is just as compelling to us as potentially purchasing that thing, its the concept of Romanticism, an idea we elaborate on more in our Visions reportAs our infinite choice of options increases, it becomes a footprint issue, not just a carbon footprint, but a time footprint“Brands and companies should be paying attention to how much time and focus their customers are giving them.” -BrianWhen brands are able to slap a date on a project or report, or whatever it may be, it's creating a time capsule, meaning that it will never decay because it lives on in that year“Visions 2022 will never become outdated. It will always be an encapsulation of this current moment.” -NeilAssociated Links:Check out more of Neil’s content over on TikTok!Trends are Dead by VoxDownload VISIONS 2022 NOW!Subscribe to Insiders and Senses to read more of our hot takes!Listen to our other episodes of Future CommerceCheck out Decoded, our newest limited seriesHave any questions or comments about the show? Let us know on Futurecommerce.com, or reach out to us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, or LinkedIn. We love hearing from our listeners!

The $100 PumpkinBrian believes that no matter if there's an economic downturn, people will always make room for food and beverage in their budget, “People don't want to come down on food and bev, they'll forgo other things.”Smaller stores like Erewhon might not face challenges in the downturn due to the loyalty of those going after food and bev, but Whole Foods which is not up-market, might take a hit with downturn challenges“The businesses that go all-in on investing in the right things right now instead of pulling back are actually going to do even better.” -BrianWhat we’re seeing is the echo chamber doing exactly what it’s good at, which is creating a narrative around something that is just a venture-backed industry problem.Associated Links:How to Market in a DownturnInsiders #104: The eCom Brain DrainDownload VISIONS 2022 NOW!Subscribe to Insiders and Senses to read more of our hot takes!Listen to our other episodes of Future CommerceCheck out Decoded, our newest limited seriesHave any questions or comments about the show? Let us know on Futurecommerce.com, or reach out to us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, or LinkedIn. We love hearing from our listeners!

High Complexity, Low CommodityOnline experiences have become more commoditized over time; low and no-code platforms have displaced the need for a “developer,” and instead require feature configurations and tweaksSoftware development thrives where experiences have high complexity. High complexity often means that there are no de facto “standards” or best practices that need to be employed. This requires developers to build, test, refine, and iterate. This is the best-case scenario for a developer in eCommerce.eCommerce platforms have become increasingly prescriptive in UI and UX as customers have become “used to” certain purchasing patternsEcommerce needs to become more complex in certain industry verticals. Specific sectors such as automotive, food, furniture, manufacturing, and pharmaceuticals all have sophisticated requirements, complicated purchase paths, long consideration times, unique regulatory requirements, or other challenges that make them a poor fit for off-the-shelf software, but a great fit for developer innovation.A shopper’s identity in high-commodity environments is tied to the retailer. You’re not a grocery shopper, you’re a Walmart shopper or a Target shopper. However, in high-complexity environments, the identity of the shopper is found in the brand of the product itself. You’re not a car driver, you’re a Tesla driver.Associated Links:Learn more about Boris Lokschin and SprykerCheck out Excite 2022, Spryker’s eCommerce Conference in June

What if everyone is sick of drinking champagne? Retail media is a direct channel to the shopper. It’s an attractive audience for brands to reach shoppers, and it's becoming really profitable Brands are currently using two methods to allocate retail media, which makes it very limited, and its harder to get ahead of trends when using one of the two modelsKiri’s proposal for the two methods is to get back to the basics of the marketing funnel, “the idea is to identify your objective, and then which part of the marketing funnel you are going to focus on given that objective, and then execute for ad types and targeting options within that stage of the funnel.” - KiriWe are currently living in a world where brand is performance and performance can also be brand“There are a lot of constructs organizationally within these companies that make it very challenging because of the silos. The real goal of each team might be they're working against each other because the metrics and what they're focused on don't really align.” - KiriIt can be profitable for brands to launch in retail media, but there are always downsides. Such as: not having a good enough story to compete against other brands, not being on brand, and convincing advertisers it will be worthwhileAssociated Links:Learn more about Kiri Masters and Bobsled MarketingKiri’s most recent report, Retail Media AllocationInstacart for CMOsListen to previous episodes with Kiri!BONUS: Voice Commerce: The Future is HereEpisode 125: Amazon: Equal Opportunity Addiction Episode 148: Uncharted Territory: Amazon and COVID-19Episode 197: Instacart for CMOs: The Four-Sided MarketplaceSubscribe to Kiri’s podcast: ECommerce BrainTrustStay tuned for VISIONS 2022…coming soon!Subscribe to Insiders and Senses to read more of our hot takes! Listen to our other episodes of Future CommerceCheck out Decoded, our newest limited seriesHave any questions or comments about the show? Let us know on Futurecommerce.fm, or reach out to us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, or LinkedIn. We love hearing from our listeners!

You’re Either Alive or DeadJeremy Cai is the founder of Italic, a leading marketplace that offers the highest quality products at the lowest prices by connecting consumers straight to top manufacturers.People are continuing to buy more online than ever before, and Jeremy thinks it will only continue to grow. With the heightened demand for Amazon, brands will continue to seek out online consumers “If you look at a brand and take away the fluff, they’re taking the same exact product or assortment they have in every season, applying a new coat of paint on it, and a new story on it, and selling the same thing 365 days per year for ten years in a row.” -JeremyItalic no longer seeks consumers like H.EN.R.Y, the consumer they now aim to sell to is Julia, a customer in their late 20s-early 30s, familiar with shopping online and is looking to graduate and take a step up from the everyday DTC brands to a more premium product“It's not just about growth. It's about knowing who your buyer is.” -Brian“The only two things that are constant in start-ups are you're either alive or you're dead. And as long as you're alive, you're still kicking.”In our newest report coming out soon, Visions, one of the emerging themes is Profitability of Distraction, and we may be entering an era where folks are becoming less distracted. But for brands, their direct focus is zoning in on one thing: what is the most profitable? Could brands begin to widen their focus on multiple areas?Associated Links:Learn more about Jeremy Cai and Italic!Alex Geifeld’s LinkedIn PostStay tuned for VISIONS 2022…coming soon!Subscribe to Insiders and Senses to read more of our hot takes! Listen to our other episodes of Future CommerceCheck out Decoded, our newest limited seriesHave any questions or comments about the show? Let us know on Futurecommerce.fm, or reach out to us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, or LinkedIn. We love hearing from our listeners!

Adapting to Customer BehaviorsWe used to only have one marketplace: Amazon. But social media is becoming a marketplace on its own.The good news: for developers, as we standardize API’s and as more companies go headless, social media commerce platforms won’t feel like something completely new, just another property for brands.The bad news: for product, sales and marketing teams, this shift will be much more of a change as they learn new rules, regulations and customer contexts.It seems as though Snapchat and TikTok are forming the new generation of consumer who have a bigger desire to participate in social trends, creating more commerce opportunities.Very little window shopping & impulse purchase happens in traditional eCommerce contexts. Impulse purchases are not frictionless in this context. Perhaps this is something that social commerce offers that traditional eCommerce does not?Tech companies have become very good at creating the illusion of an impulse purchase. However, our online impulse purchases aren’t really all that impulsive. It’s actually hyper-personalization and targeting algorithms.Millennials are  “digital natives,” but Gen Z’s are “social natives” and this affects how each demographic participates in commerce. Are we creating “metaverse natives” in the youngest generation as they participate in commerce on platforms such as Roblox?Boris sees a rise in what he calls “fluent transactions,” which are more immediate and less interruptive transactions that don’t disrupt a person’s day. Shopping is no longer an event.Platform wars aren’t simply PHP vs Java. It’s the number of channels that you’re acquiring customers from competitors.Associated Links:Learn more about Boris Lokschin and Spryker!Check out Excite 2022, Spryker’s eCommerce Conference in JuneHave any questions or comments about the show? Let us know on Futurecommerce.fm, or reach out to us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, or LinkedIn. We love hearing from our listeners!

A Boom to the Creator Economy?Counterfactuals give us a what-if thinking. It’s thinking through scenarios that haven’t happened, but what if they did? They help us analyze our past performance“Counterfactual analysis makes up a lot of like our cause-effect thinking when we're thinking about how to apply a situation in a new context because nothing is ever the same and the pace of change is happening faster and faster.” -BrianThe concern that many have right now is where do customer place their loyalty? Will they be more experimental or less experimental? They're going to go to the things that they know and return to defaultsThere is a demand for growth and demand for goods right now that's being pent up. The demand is there, but it's not being metIn a downturn, more money is necessary for all areas of life, causing people to look for another job, side gig, and ways to bring in that extra income. With everything increasing, there will be a people supply as well, which in hand would lead to a boom in the creator economy Associated Links:Insiders #123: A Marketer's Guide to the Multiverse of MadnessStocking up and Seeking Out, RightpointStay tuned for VISIONS 2022…coming soon!Subscribe to Insiders and Senses to read more of our hot takes! Listen to our other episodes of Future CommerceCheck out Decoded, our newest limited seriesHave any questions or comments about the show? Let us know on Futurecommerce.fm, or reach out to us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, or LinkedIn. We love hearing from our listeners!

As Promiscuous as a GibbonBrian led a whole track on IRCE and helped cover tracks on personalizing your digital economy, Gen Z being underbanked, using data to fuel personalized experiences, finding opportunities in micro-segments, and more!“It's interesting how many folks from traditional design backgrounds actually wind up in eCommerce and then they get into the side of the business where it's just talking about how do we apply design, how do we apply design to this sort of what is no longer a Wild West but more of like a Mild West of design aesthetic?” -PhillipThere isn’t much brand loyalty left. Shoppers are promiscuous now, and feeding them information is the way to win. The number one way for your brand to fail is by being narcissistic“If you are overly narcissistic about your brand, that's going to cause you problems in the age of the promiscuous shopper.” -BrianPhillip led two panels, “What's Hot in DTC: VC investors Weigh In” and another one with the founders of Stix and Couplet CoffeeThe show was back in much fuller force than last year, the content was amazing, and filled with fresh voicesA lot of the upcoming messaging revolving around eCommerce is going to shift away from experiential and growth into cost-cutting modeAssociated Links:Younger Consumers Embracing Mobile Wallets, Pymnts.comThe Persuadables - A Viant Study ReviewStocking up and Seeking Out, RightpointLive at Future StoresInsiders #110: Spirit Guide: Making Me a NA Beverage BelieverStay tuned for VISIONS 2022…coming soon!Subscribe to Insiders and Senses to read more of our hot takes! Listen to our other episodes of Future CommerceCheck out Decoded, our newest limited seriesHave any questions or comments about the show? Let us know on Futurecommerce.fm, or reach out to us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, or LinkedIn. We love hearing from our listeners!

The in-Direct to Consumer eraWebsites are homogenous and lacking inspiration. If you remove the navigation bar, most websites are indistinguishableShopify’s stock is down 75% from its all-time high. While the tech sector experiences pain and economic concerns loom, many brands will need to invest in experience“What do consumers care about? Fast, cheap, and free. Shopify turned a business buyer, a business operator, into a consumer; they want fast, cheap, and free. No wonder eCom is so uninspired.” — PhillipAssociated Links:Shopify down 75% from highStay tuned for VISIONS 2022…coming soon!Subscribe to Insiders and Senses to read more of our hot takes! Listen to our other episodes of Future CommerceTune into Infinite Shelf Season 2!Check out Decoded, our newest limited seriesHave any questions or comments about the show? Let us know on Futurecommerce.fm, or reach out to us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, or LinkedIn. We love hearing from our listeners!

A Natural Evolution of eCommerceBoris defines composable commerce as there being advantages of being the best of suite of world. You can now select the best search that fits the best for your business, and your business might be very different from someone else's business.Like everything, composable commerce has its pros and cons. It can look shiny, but it has its challenges“You can't just turn on or off composable commerce. You need to have the underlying infrastructure.” -BorisThere is not a direct way for an organization to shift to composable commerce, but taking the change allows for the ability to experiment and fail, or to be successful“This could become a natural evolution of eCommerce becoming no longer just a channel for incremental growth that sits underneath I.T. or marketing, but an independent channel where it has its own category and means of operation.” -PhillipAssociated Links:Learn more about Boris Lokschin and Spryker!Check out Excite 2022, Spryker’s eCommerce Conference in JuneHave any questions or comments about the show? Let us know on Futurecommerce.fm, or reach out to us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, or LinkedIn. We love hearing from our listeners!

The Sacraments of CommerceDTC Theory: anything that can be disintermediated eventually will be disintermediatedWith the presence of The Fascination, it could be proof that DTC is still relevant or a sign of the downfall to come “We're still at the beginning of the creator economy in many ways, there's a lot more opportunity for those that come to the table with interesting products and interesting ideas to find ways to scale their brand.” -BrianProduct-first is the new model, whereas marketing used to be first. Distribution is now the second component when it comes to the continued rise of DTC“There's going to be a new brand of retailers that arises. Retailers that hit key markets with shared spaces and offer in-store experiences for a product that has just won over won over people because of its uses or quality.” -BrianWe think there is a huge opportunity for local shopping, it’s just going to require some strategyIf you're dipping your toe into a lot of different channels, that's a great way to catch the ones that are going to be the winnersAssociated Links:Catch us at #RICE22 next week! Use our promo code: RICE50P07 for 50%! Capitalizing on Momentum by RightpointStackCommerce Acquires The FascinationIshani Gujral episodeStay tuned for VISIONS 2022…coming soon!Subscribe to Insiders and Senses to read more of our hot takes! Listen to our other episodes of Future CommerceTune into Infinite Shelf Season 2!Check out Decoded, our newest limited seriesHave any questions or comments about the show? Let us know on Futurecommerce.fm, or reach out to us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, or LinkedIn. We love hearing from our listeners!

One-Click Buy…Say What?Recently Amazon has made a push around their one-click purchase button, "Buy with Prime”Amazon is now comfortable with trying to take an existing model and system and extend that beyond their own channel“The interesting play here is the comfortability of expanding channels.” -Kris The thing that differentiates checkout at the end of the day is the Prime-like experience in that customers  get their order quickly and with potentially free shipping“Amazon is going to market with this theory that the way in which they win the one-click checkout outside of a channel that is Amazon.com is anchoring on the value prop of Prime more so than the value prop of whatever other thing at checkout.” -KrisThis is helping direct to consumer companies address the metric that actually matters, which is conversion and loyalty“We just hit this maturity point where a lot of these direct to consumer companies got big enough where the way in which success was measured wasn't this growth based on brand and marketing. It was now margins and unit economics, and like all of these things that are the actual responsibility of operations that it turns out the other half of the brain is just as essential to grow and get to.” -KrisAssociated Links:Learn more about Kris Gösser and ShipiumSubscribe to Insiders and Senses to read more of our hot takes! Listen to our other episodes of Future CommerceTune into Infinite Shelf Season 2!Check out Decoded, our newest limited seriesHave any questions or comments about the show? Let us know on Futurecommerce.fm, or reach out to us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, or LinkedIn. We love hearing from our listeners!

The Metaverse: Innovation or Skinnovation?The metaverse we’re building right now is not the metaverse we’ll all end up using…if we end up using the metaverse at all.Don’t worry about what competitors and enterprises are doing in the metaverse, worry instead about how you should break into this new world.“The current Web3 and metaverse implementation that we see today feels like small teams of developers who have created something really unique and they're going direct to their own consumer. And that feels fundamentally different than what we have seen in the past.”Developers used to need layers of translation, project managers, and program managers to get a job done. Today’s developers are going directly to their customers. We call this the Developer DTC.People were always collecting items & attaching value to items. NFTs are not a new phenomenon. The technology enables this behavior in a new way.Unlike Web2 and the telegram, which were built as information-first technologies to which commerce added value, the metaverse seems to be about commerce before information.“Low-code and no-code capabilities make it easy to kind of create a new generation of developers. Low-code and no-code unlocks a lot of potential in developers to spend time on sales and marketing and other things.” - BorisAssociated Links:Learn more about Boris Lokschin and Spryker!Check out Excite 2022, Spryker’s eCommerce Conference in JuneHave any questions or comments about the show? Let us know on Futurecommerce.com, or reach out to us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, or LinkedIn. We love hearing from our listeners!

Serendipitous ExperiencesRICE's (the Retail Innovation Conference and Expo) goal is to stay true to their roots and put a new and fun spin on the event and expo spaceRICE is working to reframe the way content is performed for the show, hitting reset on who is given a platform, and making the learning experiences as focused and tailored as possible“We want this place to be a place where conversations happen and ideas get sparked.” -AliciaOne of the goals for RICE is to bring together passionate people from different careers of life and let them get together and geek out“In-person events and conferences allow a serendipity experience for everyone.” -PhillipUse promo code RICE50P07 for 50% off your tickets for RICEAssociated Links:Learn more about Alicia Esposito, and RICE and grab passes here! Be sure to use promo code RICE50P07 for 50%!Subscribe to Insiders and Senses to read more of our hot takes!Listen to our other episodes of Future CommerceTune into Infinite Shelf Season 2!Check out Decoded, our newest limited series coming TUESDAY!Have any questions or comments about the show? Let us know on Futurecommerce.com, or reach out to us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, or LinkedIn. We love hearing from our listeners!

Bells and Whistles At BestIf you’re not familiar with the eCommerce Marketing School podcast, they post five times a week, with 5-10 minute episodes taking a customer story sharing some of their tactics, what's working, what's not, and then a handful of interviews as well with operators who are in the trenches working on new tactics for growthSome businesses start because people have a product, and on the flip side, people have a skillset and find ways to apply it, with this…people are finding their natural sales channels“People that understand how to create content can have tremendous success launching a brand from a cold start.” -BenConsolidation is happening at the small end of the market, but it's going to jump to the midmarket and enterprise as well“There is a fractionalization of the consumer experience in the sort of the bygone era of installing a million apps in the Shopify ecosystem.” -PhillipFigure out how to be sustainable in creating content, make it as easy as possible, and in a format that's going to work for allAssociated Links:Learn more about Ben Jabbawy and check out that second half of this conversation at, eCommerce Marketing School!Subscribe to Insiders and Senses to read more of our hot takes!Listen to our other episodes of Future CommerceTune into Infinite Shelf Season 2!Have any questions or comments about the show? Let us know on Futurecommerce.com, or reach out to us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, or LinkedIn. We love hearing from our listeners!

Living in a Headless World Bryan Mahoney is back today to talk about recent news at Chord such as launching Chord Commerce Hub“We see Chord Commerce Hub as the mission control for business users.” -BryanIf you’re trying to be efficient, you’re doing it wrong. The right way is oftentimes the hard way.“The core tenant of headless for me, is taking a first-principles approach to building. It's not the technology behind it. It's that it obviates you to have to build, starting with no assumptions and starting with the questions: who do we want to be and what do we want our identity to look like.” -PhillipIn order to build a great business, you have to understand your customer“You understand your customer with data and not tricking them into making a purchase by following them around the internet, but really collecting great data, being upfront about the data that you're collecting, and then using that data to make better experiences.” -Bryan M.Associated Links:Learn more about Bryan Mahoney and ChordThe Family Board MeetingSubscribe to Insiders and Senses to read more of our hot takes!Listen to our other episodes of Future CommerceTune into Infinite Shelf Season 2!Have any questions or comments about the show? Let us know on Futurecommerce.com, or reach out to us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, or LinkedIn. We love hearing from our listeners!

Boundaries Cause us to ThriveOn March 21st, the Security and Exchange Commission (SEC), issued proposed climate-related disclosures. The rules were proposed for publicly traded companies that report to the SEC.The SEC is proposing these rules to protect investors because they felt that the current rules did not adequately protect investors when it comes to climate-related risks.“The SEC wanted to bring less fragmentation into the way that you report and how they report.” -GaidaSustainaBase provides a climate accounting platform for brands, software companies, and governments. Giada has been tracking this disclosure for quite some time, so it's not a big shock to her or others in the industry.These climate disclosures are going to be tied to a line item in a financial statement, and that's really a great thing for investors to be able to see because they can assess a company based on how they're planning for this transition in the world, and how they're planning for climate risks.“I believe it's going to become just like any other compliance measure.” -GaidaAssociated Links:Learn more about Gaida Zirkelbach and SustainaBaseSECs Press Release Subscribe to Insiders and Senses to read more of our hot takes!Listen to our other episodes of Future CommerceTune into Infinite Shelf Season 2!Have any questions or comments about the show? Let us know on Futurecommerce.com, or reach out to us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, or LinkedIn. We love hearing from our listeners!

Come At Me PacSunEverything and everyone is all about the metaverse right now. Brian is starting to think that the “metaverse is just the internet now.” Maybe it is, hence why some think NFTs, crypto, and bitcoin are part of the metaverse as well.When we think about DTC we have to remember what the entailed vision was: “to disrupt the existing industry or category with a product that is equal to or better than the existing products that are available and make them more affordable and get them to you quicker.” -IngridEveryone is capable of doing everything because there is an audience“Crypto bros are basically just this generation's example of extreme couponers.” -PhillipA company-curated around being highly curated and centered around good company culture, and innovation will beat out money every single time.“The biggest opportunity in this current market is right now, everything that is going to be worth anything is entirely based on curation.” - IngridAssociated Links:Our 2022 Predictions EpisodeTune into Infinite Shelf Season 2!Subscribe to Insiders and Senses to read more of our hot takes!Listen to our other episodes of Future CommerceHave any questions or comments about the show? Let us know on Futurecommerce.com, or reach out to us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, or LinkedIn. We love hearing from our listeners!

A Lesson in Complex Systems Peter is the manager of Strategic Partnerships at BigCommerce and works to help solve the pain points of tax and cross-border “Tax is one of the more complex issues that merchants have to work through when it comes to cross-border commerce.” -PeterLocalization, offering the correct payment gateways, and fraud management are just a few things that will help make a seamless experience for your customersShipping can be a big problem when it comes to cross-border. You need to look at having the right partnerships and you also have to consider how you are going to manage returns.“Returns is often overlooked as a really core component of eCommerce, but it's so important when you consider the cost to acquire a new customer versus retaining a customer and keeping a customer happy and coming back.” -PeterThere’s a risk in that part of your experience as a brand operator is fractured and part is localized. “If you just do a little bit of research, have your homework done and in place, and have the right partner stack, it's very doable and the opportunity becomes better every day as a lot of these markets continue to grow. So I wouldn't focus on the complexity. I would just get the right strategy in place, get the right partnerships in place to help you take advantage of the opportunity.” -PeterAssociated Links:Want to learn more about going cross-border? Download our free Step by Step guide!Get connected with Avalara!Learn more about Peter van der Westhizen and BigCommerceListen to our other Step by Step seasonsFind our other Future Commerce episodes on our websiteHave any questions or comments about the show? Let us know on Futurecommerce.fm, or reach out to us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, or LinkedIn. We love hearing from our listeners!

Launching the Crawl, Walk, RunAs companies scale their operations into new markets, it's important to have the people, partners, and processes to scale efficiently.“We need technology to help us manage exceeding our own capacities and limits.” -PhillipIt’s about the relationships on the other side and how we relate to them, in order to make all things come together and bring product to the hands of the person trying to order from us.“Once you've launched that crawl, walk, run process, if you've done that once in a new market, the next market you enter your tolerance for complexities up dramatically.” -JohnWhen figuring out inefficiencies in your supply chain, go to your front-line workers and ask them about their days and where they feel the most inefficient. They’ll help you uncover the issues in your processes.“Every person's capacity for change management is wildly different.” -JohnAssociated Links:Want to learn more about going cross-border? Download our free Step by Step guide!Get connected with Avalara!Learn more about John Heulskamp and FlexportListen to our other Step by Step seasonsFind our other Future Commerce episodes on our websiteHave any questions or comments about the show? Let us know on Futurecommerce.com, or reach out to us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, or LinkedIn. We love hearing from our listeners!

The Rosetta Stone of eCommerceCraig Reed is the GM of Cross-Border at Avalara and has watched the industry develop over the last 20 years. He’s truly one of the godfathers of cross-border eCommerce.An HS code is the code that an individual country expects you to give them to tell them what you're importing. This is important because all the other rules and restrictions flow from HS codes. Craig likes to label HS codes as “The Rosetta Stone of eCommerce.”The way we think about goods is different for every country and is different in every country.“A marketing description of a good and a country's description of a good are vastly different things, and they don't work well together. But getting that description is important. Getting to that Rosetta Stone is important, and that's the art behind trying to do cross-border eCommerce well.”- CraigIf you’re doing anything cross-border, it is all about having the right information, and the right data.“It's about having good data and providing the right data to the right party at the right time, whether that's the consumer, whether it's a government, whether it's your suppliers, etc. You really need to have good data.”- CraigCustomer expectations have changed, which means that the cross-border customer expectations have shifted. It's important to provide a good buying experience because the buying experience is also the shipping experience.“The way that you deliver your customer supply chain is your customer experience” -BrianAssociated Links:Want to learn more about going cross-border? Download our free Step by Step guide!Get connected with Avalara!Learn more about Craig ReedListen to our other Step by Step seasonsFind our other Future Commerce episodes on our websiteHave any questions or comments about the show? Let us know on Futurecommerce.com, or reach out to us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, or LinkedIn. We love hearing from our listeners!

Have a More Holistic Global View of the WorldKent Allen is the Co-Founder of GELF, who has been in the ecosystem and helping lead the conversation of cross-border for 25 years“We've got to realize that the very nature of digital commerce is cross-border.” -KentIn the last few years we’ve seen a boom in eCommerce, which has inherently led to a boom in cross-borderThe monkey paw of cross-border is having to be extremely specific when manifesting things in the eCommerce worldCross-border eCommerce is a diversification play. It’s an opportunity to be relevant to your consumer and the next-decade consumer.You don’t have to go strictly direct-to-consumer; marketplaces can be a huge opportunity for selling internationally. If you’re able to adapt your domestic operations, you can quickly and easily fulfill international orders from your domestic operation“When you're ready to kind of go into new markets and you need to find customers and things like that, marketplaces are usually the best way to do it.” -KentIf you ignore selling internationally, others aren’t and you will lose markets in the future“You have to have a more holistic global view of the world” -Kent Associated Links:Want to learn more about going cross-border? Download our free Step by Step guide!Get connected with Avalara!Learn more about Kent Allen and GELFListen to our other Step by Step seasonsFind our other Future Commerce episodes on our websiteHave any questions or comments about the show? Let us know on Futurecommerce.com, or reach out to us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, or LinkedIn. We love hearing from our listeners!

It Takes an Ecosystem to Grow InternationallyJason Nyhus is the SVP of Global Sales at Digital River, focusing on helping brands go global“The honest reality of today is a lot different than it was a decade ago. If you make any product, you are inherently global overnight.”- JasonJust because you’re able to take people’s money, doesn't mean you will be able to fulfill the brands promise. You have to make sure that you will still be able to deliver an on-par experience. You have to be able to serve the demandThere are two categories to consider:1. Where is the product coming from? Does it have to cross the border?2. Where is the payment being taken? Does that also have to cross the border?The more onshore, the better. Better in terms of products, how long it takes to get there and making sure you have the appropriate payment methods.A brand can really screw up when they go global if they surprise their customers in a negative way.“It's not just your flagship. If you're going cross-border, it's your only ship.” -Brian“A lot of people think that they can execute an international global expansion. The question is, should they do it themselves or should they find help from some of the companies that you have on this podcast? Because I think that's probably the most likely best path for a lot of them.” -JasonAssociated Links:Want to learn more about going cross-border? Download our free Step by Step guide!Get connected with Avalara!Learn more about Jason Nyhus and Digital River Listen to our other Step by Step seasonsFind our other Future Commerce episodes on our websiteHave any questions or comments about the show? Let us know on Futurecommerce.com, or reach out to us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, or LinkedIn. We love hearing from our listeners!

The Super Bowel MovementWe admit, we were talking s**t about Tushy on a recent Senses email, only because our team was very intrigued by the Super Bowel campaign, and of course this prompted conversation between our teams and here we are, dropping poop jokes on the showTUSHY is the modern bidet brand that washes your butt clean after you poop.“Make something that you would be curious to click on. It changes the way you make art and the way you create and do things. It truly is all about authenticity.”-MikiShowing authenticity in marketing and in gerneral, in being a brand, is important because it matches people up with a brandMiki looks at things in a three prongs thesis:Best in class product. No matter the product, it has to be cool, intriguing, delicious and elevate your life.Artful design across every touchpoint of the brand/product. “It's considered artful design across every touchpoint of our brand, when it makes you open your heart.” -MikiAcessible, relatable language. Have the authentic conversation like you're texting your best friend“The things that we do aren’t just for the sake of them, but to open up a broader conversation.” - Miki“The antidote to late capitalism is more human connection and more fulfillment of us having deeper conversations.” -PhillipAssociated Links:Learn more about Miki Agrawal and TUSHY- Use FUTURETUSHY for 10% off your purchase!Tushy’s Super Bowel Campaign Subscribe to Insiders and Senses to read more of our hot takes!Listen to our other episodes of Future CommerceInfinite Shelf Season 2 OUT NOW!Stay tuned for our newest season of Step by Step…coming soon!Have any questions or comments about the show? Let us know on Futurecommerce.com, or reach out to us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, or LinkedIn. We love hearing from our listeners!

Everything is Better in PersonEveryone is still suffering through the turmoil of work from home life, job transitions, not knowing how to interact with customers, and so much more but Etail West was able to provide a way for everyone to relate and be in person again for the first time in a long time.“The struggles that any company has to build out culture, whether it's in-person or even more challenging when it's remote, those challenges are no different than when you're trying to build a relationship with your customer.” -TommyCulture transparency is important, from company culture all the way down to building relationships with your customers.Mary Grace has a brilliant way of thinking called X-Factor, where she analyzes everything on three levels, execution, raw nerve or bravery, and the overall X-Factor (or wow factor) to the thing being analyzed.Etail West provided the opportunity for everyone to connect again, it provided the safety net for life to feel free and for those attending to interact and share successes and helpful strategies of how they pushed through the times of COVID.Associated Links:Learn more about Tommy Lamb, Mary Grace Tift and WITHINWatch us build in public. Subscribe to our YouTube or Twitch and never miss a Casting Visions Episode!Subscribe to Insiders and Senses!Listen to our other episodes of Future CommerceInfinite Shelf Season 2 coming in March!Stay tuned for our newest season of Step by Step…coming soon!Have any questions or comments about the show? Let us know on Futurecommerce.com, or reach out to us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, or LinkedIn. We love hearing from our listeners!

What Even is Arbitrage?Phillip’s new definition of arbitrage: an untapped source of potential; a source of growth that's under leveraged or as yet undiscovered.“The real arbitrage opportunity is hard work. Everybody wants a shortcut, and everybody wants the one weird trick.” - PhilllipWe’re stuck in a e-commerce industry diet fad phase. Everyone is searching for the one weird trick, but there is no weird trick, its just an endurance race of hard work.“Work hard and keep working longer than you ought, because most others will not.” - PhillipGentle parenting is a style of parenting that is becoming very popular but there is a common refrain which is to do dangerous things carefully. Doing things carefully can be looked at the same in commerce, we take risks and are not promised a guaranteed outcome, but you test it and learn from it.Luxury by nature is an exception because it will always be the minority. In eCommerce, we often look at luxury as an exception, and we go and build for that experience, but we’re actually building for the exception.Associated Links:Watch us build in public. Subscribe to our YouTube or Twitch and never miss a Casting Visions Episode!Subscribe to Insiders and Senses!Listen to our other episodes of Future CommerceInfinite Shelf Season 2 coming in March!Stay tuned for our newest season of Step by Step…coming soon!Have any questions or comments about the show? Let us know on Futurecommerce.com, or reach out to us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, or LinkedIn. We love hearing from our listeners!

The Evolution of Future CommerceToday we’re talking about the future of Future Commerce, going in depth on all our deep and dreamy stuff we got going on!“Commerce is relationship, identity, and connection between people. As we see changes in the way that people relate, commerce is affected and vice versa. As commerce changes, the way that people relate is changed.” - BrianBecause everyone has the ability to change, we at Future Commerce want to grow and adapt with the change, commence Casting Visions: building in public. Casting Visions will be the spot of Future Commerce where we will be looking beyond commerce.“Future Commerce is a company. It's a media company. It performs research and comes up with original ideas, big ideas, on how the world will be changed via commerce and how we're all going to have to adapt or create the new future. And that is powered by people who are futurists, who are risk-takers, and who are creating the new commerce paradigms and experiences for the future.” -PhillipNot only are we working on Visions, but we have amazing growth going on with our subproperties, Step by Step, Infinite Shelf, Nine by Nine, and Future Commerce Salons. That’s why now is a great time to make Visions more than just a report.Visions is more than just a report. That’s why we’re building it in public, with our friends and colleagues of Future Commerce“As you do push boundaries, sometimes you push right over the edge. And I think there's a time and a place to do that. And it is risky to do that. But Future Commerce is for the risk-takers. We want people who are ready to put it all on the line at some point and show things off.” - Brian Associated Links:Watch us build in public. Subscribe to our YouTube or Twitch and never miss a Casting Visions Episode!Brian’s Insiders piece: #080: Rethinking Brand Power StructuresSubscribe to Insiders and Senses!Listen to our other episodes of Future CommerceInfinite Shelf Season 2 coming in March!Stay tuned for our newest season of Step by Step…coming soon!Have any questions or comments about the show? Let us know on Futurecommerce.com, or reach out to us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, or LinkedIn. We love hearing from our listeners!

Crossborder, Spotify, and The Truths of Modern Living“A lot of growth in retail and eCommerce is trying to sell you things that really nobody actually needs.” - PhillipBehavioral purchasing modes help explain personal shopping habits and the need to stock up on a product one really likes. We all have behavioral purchasing modes, even though each individual might go about it differently.Step by Step Season 7 Preview: The future of many brands is to go cross-border. But American brands cannot expect that other countries and cultures will have the same shopping habits and demand curve as US markets.“The way that [brand operators] think about that consumer has to change, which means that maybe the whole purpose of [the] brand and the way [operators] market changes too.” - PhilipBuying items from Amazon is just pure fun. The Amazon Advertising ecosystem is also a prime example of conspicuous consumption.You would think with DTC era and the growth of Amazon prime that recycling matters would increase, but they've actually been spiraling down.Brian offers a genius new venture to Amazon for cardboard recycling. Hey Jassy, take note.“Modern living, our work is really just waste management. Most of our lives are just spent managing our waste. I don't think it's that far from the truth.” - BrianAssociated Links:Phillip’s recent Insiders piece: The Death & Rebirth of NeutralitySubscribe to our Casting Visions Twitch Stream as we build in Public. Check out Casting Visions! Subscribe to Insiders and Senses!Listen to our other episodes of Future CommerceInfinite Shelf Season 2 coming later this month!Stay tuned for our newest season of Step by Step…coming soon!Have any questions or comments about the show? Let us know on Futurecommerce.com, or reach out to us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, or LinkedIn. We love hearing from our listeners!

A Pop-Up Amazon Go?Overall, health safety was top of mind for everyone“The safety protocols and the vaccine protocols worked very well for this event, and I think it proves we can have large scale events even if they're lightly attended.” - PhillipThe shining star of NRF ‘22 was the innovative Amazon Go Pop Up Store on the main floor, providing attendees with convenient snacks and needs.Maybe they should consider hosting it a different weekend? Not MLK weekend…“Prior to the 90s, there was the age of clientele and glamor to retail that NRF to some degree represented.” - Brian“Ecom can be an invisible industry. And you know what that's doing? It's taking the glamor out of the industry.”- BrianAssociated Links:Subscribe to Insiders and Senses!Listen to our other episodes of Future CommerceListen to our newest podcast, Infinite ShelfHave any questions or comments about the show? Let us know on Futurecommerce.com, or reach out to us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, or LinkedIn. We love hearing from our listeners!

“Every Company Will Be a Crypto Company”Mags is someone who is thinking about the future of the startup ecosystem. She’s passionate about why and how people spend their time, money, and attention“The reality is people will always have needs, they will always buy things and services to fulfill those needs. New brands will still be launching.” -MagsThe journey of NFTs is still early. In many ways they’re very similar to DTC brands as its become easy to launch, and the early movers have made a lot of moneyIn return, we’ve gotten flooded with too many options that are not differentiated“My gut feel right now is that Web3 is about technical capabilities and about user needs. But it's also about culture and ethos and the mentality around what that actually means and then why the centralization matters.” -Mags“Initially, every company is a tech company and then every company is a fintech company, and at some point every company will be a crypto company.” -MagsNFTs are loyalty. They’re a way to assign value to what it means to be associated to a brand“The benefit of a DAO is just the speed of organization.”- BrianLive Streaming is just a part of content, and content is important and will continue to be in the future. It’s a matter of storytellingAssociated Links:Learn more about Magdalena KalaSubscribe to InsidersListen to our other episodes of Future CommerceListen to our newest podcast, Infinite ShelfHave any questions or comments about the show? Let us know on Futurecommerce.com, or reach out to us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, or LinkedIn. We love hearing from our listeners!

Connecting Acquisition Back to SubscriptionHawaii Volcanic Beverages is a purpose-driven ultra-premium alkaline water and active lifestyle brand based in Hawaii.Ordergroove helps innovative brands enable Relationship Commerce with successful subscription, predictive reorder, and membership experiences.“Water brands have a tremendous opportunity in really high, densely populated metropolitan areas…no one wants to lug around a case of water in the subway, walk up 10 flights of stairs to their apartment on a monthly basis. So why not just order it online?” -DanielThere are three major parts of relationship commerce. How you get them to enroll, the way you retain them, and the way you extend lifetime value.“Ordergroove provides this platform or this flexibility out of the box for people.” -Eddie“What eCommerce enables us to do is eliminate those barriers of not having those distribution points to where even if we have someone come all the way from New York to Hawaii to buy our water and they want to take that product home with them, they can still jump on our website and get a case delivered to them all the way in New York.”-DanielAssociated Links:Learn more about Eddie Hsieh and OrdergrooveLearn more about Daniel Kim and Hawaii Volcanic BeveragesSubscribe to InsidersListen to our other episodes of Future CommerceListen to our newest podcast, Infinite ShelfHave any questions or comments about the show? Let us know on Futurecommerce.com, or reach out to us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, or LinkedIn. We love hearing from our listeners!

Living Rent-Free in our BrainsThe drop culture and the hype culture have created a much shorter attention span.“We trample over each other to get the goods we want.” -PhillipGuided commerce has an emotional and personal impact when you do it in person, in such a way that it never lands the same when you’re doing it from a questionnaire.“Those sorts of sensory moments in commerce are often overlooked, but those are the things that actually make customer experience.” -Phillip“Ee-commerce is democratized access to at least the understanding of what's available and to browse and to shop unfettered.” -PhillipAssociated Links:Episode 225: Jingle All the WayInsiders #009: Shop Like It’s Your JobPhillip’s TikTokSubscribe to InsidersListen to our other episodes of Future CommerceListen to our newest podcast, Infinite ShelfHave any questions or comments about the show? Let us know on Futurecommerce.com, or reach out to us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, or LinkedIn. We love hearing from our listeners!

Predicting the Ecom, DTC, and Tech winners and losers of 2022It’s a new year and spoiler alert…Brian still loves Costco. He’s actually banking that it becomes the biggest retail winner of 2022, whereas Phillip is rooting for GAP Brands (Old Navy, Banana Republic, Atheta)Will Amazon come out as the biggest retail loser of 2022? Possibly. Everyone is feeling the effect of disinformation and it doesn’t seem to be getting betterCould beauty brands be leading the way in DTC this year? Phillip and Brian are thinking Harry’s and Hero Cosmetics“To criticize a direct to consumer brand is to somehow intrinsically criticize its founding team and the small amount of people that work on it. That has to change.” -PhillipWho will take home the gold for biggest media winner of 2022? HBO Max, Netflix, or could Youtube come out on top?“YouTube is completely untouched and maybe it should be the biggest winner of 2022.” -Phillip“Here's my loser for media: None. I think media is on a trajectory. Media continues to dominate.” -BrianThe rise of the Aggressive Aesthetic: brands are becoming loud.  They’re starting to stand out in a sleek and bold way.Associated Links:Insiders #092: These Brands I TrustEpisode 8: Body DataSubscribe to InsidersListen to our other episodes of Future CommerceListen to our newest podcast, Infinite ShelfHave any questions or comments about the show? Let us know on Futurecommerce.com, or reach out to us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, or LinkedIn. We love hearing from our listeners!

Phillip and Brian join Ingrid on Infinite Shelf to chat about the best highlights throughout the season thus far. Tune in now!

"This is Not Van Gogh"Today we're reviewing the best of the podcast in 2021, but instead ofBranded resale enables you to have a better understanding of how things are being bought and sold and how your brand is having a life after you’re done“The most sustainable product in the world is the one that already exists.” -Adam“Brands are actually a new kind of canvas. They are a piece of art to some degree.” -PhillipWe live in a world full of existential crises, but it's kind of fun. Sometimes other people won't agree with you that something should exist until they do.It’s easier to start carbon counting when you're small and your needs are small and you have a less complicated business. It's much harder to do it later on, and that's true of everything.Associated Links:Brands mentioned: Spirited Away, Curious ElixirsEpisode 191: Net Neutrality and the Deplatforming of TrumpEpisode 194: “The Most Sustainable Product is One That Already Exists”Episode 195: “Adorkable” Brands, Blands, and CARLYEpisode 196: Non-Fungible PodcastEpisode 66: Leading Indicators of Unchecked InflationEpisode 202: "Well Made": You Need to Have a Reason Why Something Should ExistEpisode 205: Rally and The Age of Fractional OwnershipEpisode 219: Project Gigaton: The SMB and DTC Impacts of Climate AccountabilitySubscribe to InsidersListen to our other episodes of Future CommerceListen to our newest podcast, Infinite ShelfHave any questions or comments about the show? Let us know on Futurecommerce.com, or reach out to us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, or LinkedIn. We love hearing from our listeners!

The First Ever Future Commerce DraftEvery person has a blind spot, and your mind fills that gap. But what are we missing? “We resort to hard data or often like quantifiable knowledge instead of gathering true, in the moment insight from people from their perspective, that first person perspective, which is really, really hard to validate.” -BrianExperience is different from every moment to every moment. We often don’t pay attention to the data that is related to our narrative.“​​I believe what we do is more art than it is expert analysis, right? Or an exploration of thought leadership. What we're doing is trying to communicate big, hairy ideas. And sometimes you can't communicate every single idea with logic and reason, and data. Sometimes you have to communicate it with art.” -PhillipThere is a power struggle. We can break the power struggle by having discourse. Having discourse is the future of brand building and equitable brand relationships.Associated Links:Insiders #107: Dork Mode: An Antidote to the Sea of SamenessInsiders #088: Paula’s Choice: On Blind Spots and Phase CancellationInsiders #070: Phenomenological BrandsInsiders #077: So You Think You’re a Collector Insiders #068: Proselytize Insiders #108: The Idolatry of the Algorithm Insiders #080: Rethinking Brand Power Structures Insiders #92: These Brands I Trust Subscribe to InsidersListen to our other episodes of Future CommerceListen to our newest podcast, Infinite ShelfCheck out our latest report Nine by NineWatch the Nine by Nine live experienceHave any questions or comments about the show? Let us know on Futurecommerce.fm, or reach out to us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, or LinkedIn. We love hearing from our listeners!

The Way We’re Shopping Has Changed Forever When looking at Black Friday/Cyber Monday recaps, retail analysts and reporters drew a little bit of a flat lineBrands are seeing underwhelming sales growth on Amazon's Black Friday. “In general, performance for many brands was somewhat muted compared with the bumper 2020 sale event. A considerable factor could be that it appears that shoppers did not flock to Black Friday deals as eagerly this year.”- Kiri Masters, Forbes“More and more of these types of companies are being transparent with their data, even though they're private companies. As they become more dominant, they're helping us to understand the landscape a little more in the way that they're sharing data.” -PhillipWalmart was still the leader in brick-and-mortar sales on Black Friday, with nearly 59% of consumers who shopped in-store stepping into one of the box store locations. Over 42% visited physical Target locations, while approximately 30% went to Best Buy and 21% went to Kohl’s.“The way we're shopping has changed forever.” -PhillipWalmart was still the leader in brick-and-mortar sales on Black Friday, with nearly 59% of consumers who shopped in-store stepping into one of the box store locations.The future is here but not equally distributed yet. Market leaders are making investments in the metaverse, this might be an area where more brands are going to make investments and become more experimental.Associated Links:Salesforce DataForbes- Kiri MastersBarron’s Thursday StatsAdobe stockPymnts Black FridayPoolsuite NFT LaunchInsiders #108: The Idolatry of the Algorithm Adweek Boston Protocol Buweiser launches NFT cansSubscribe to Insiders to get our exclusive offers for Black Friday!Listen to our other episodes of Future CommerceListen to our newest podcast, Infinite ShelfCheck out our latest report Nine by NineHave any questions or comments about the show? Let us know on Futurecommerce.fm, or reach out to us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, or LinkedIn. We love hearing from our listeners!

Becoming a Gift Influencer Drips vs. Drops? Drips all the way. Businesses should be providing drips to their customers, constant communication. Whereas drops are the seasonality of pushing your customer. “I love the always-on drip culture. I do still think there's excitement and like sexiness to a big drop. But you have to make sure that those drops are super, super necessary in the moment, like hitting exactly where they need to hit and then using the drips throughout the year to prepare for the big drops, but then also make sure that you're staying relevant and on top of mind.” -IngridThe best part of the holiday season is giving! But there’s different kinds of gifters. According to Brian and Ingrid, they’re both gift influencers.We’re going to see more of an experiential gift this season than an actual material gift.“This is a year where people are going to be giving things that get people out and moving and doing things.” -BrianAssociated Links:Subscribe to Insiders to get our exclusive offers for Black Friday!Listen to our other episodes of Future CommerceListen to our newest podcast, Infinite ShelfCheck out our latest report Nine by NineWatch the Nine by Nine live experienceBands mentioned: Our Place, Tracksmith, SferraHave any questions or comments about the show? Let us know on Futurecommerce.fm, or reach out to us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, or LinkedIn. We love hearing from our listeners!

Smart Contracts are the New Covenants “All this stuff is stuff that's been out that we've been talking about for quite some time, but it's actually finding its way into the mainstream now and that's really exciting.” -Brian The future is fractional ownership and we are seeing it happen right now with an autonomous organization potentially fractionally owning the governance of us all being able to acquire a copy of the Constitution of the United States of America.“There's an ecom brain drain risk here in that these sexier, open source projects today are effectively of this variety where  folks are putting in many months of effort, a person months of effort, I should say, for what to what end.” -Phillip“Curation doesn't necessarily mean marketplace.” - BrianThis is what a lot of brand collabs feel like according to Phillip:Associated Links:Listen to our other episodes of Future CommerceListen to our newest podcast, Infinite ShelfCheck out our latest report Nine by NineWatch the Nine by Nine live experienceSubscribe to InsidersPhillip’s Insiders piece with Melissa LeeHave any questions or comments about the show? Let us know on Futurecommerce.fm, or reach out to us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, or LinkedIn. We love hearing from our listeners!

Approaching Dork ModeNo Best Practices is a blog and a newsletter on a mission to help marketers think more like operators and make sure that what they're working on is contributing in a meaningful way to the bottom line.“There are three different ways of approaching marketing. One where you start and things are completely instinctual and gut driven, and then, “I'm making data driven decisions," and then there's the "Well, there actually are some kind of guiding principles that can explain what's going on," to help you to avoid analysis paralysis. That's what I'm trying to go after with the writing: getting things to an actionable place.” -Alex Is there a current existential threat to ecom businesses right now?“The eCommerce game itself is getting harder. There are fewer arbitrage opportunities and almost, unless you really are aware of that, it makes that past 20 years of experience less applicable to the future because you can't run the same playbook.” -AlexDork Mode is based off an obsession with technology to enable personalization, but moving past that to create real, personalized experiences for a subsegment of customers.The web should be much more diverse than it is.“There's the opportunity for the web to be so many more things to so many more people, and for brands to be so many more things, to so many more people. We think that we have to regress the mean, but we have the ability to not do that and we just haven't done anything with that power.” -Brian“Go back and really understand the narrative behind your business and how you got to where you are now and where you're trying to go.” -AlexAssociated Links:Learn more about Alex Greifeld and No Best Practices Read Alex’s work on Insiders: Digital Luxury Experiences: An Exercise in “Skinnovation”Dork Mode: An Antidote to the Sea of SamenessListen to our other episodes of Future CommerceListen to our newest podcast, Infinite ShelfCheck out our latest report Nine by NineSubscribe to InsidersHave any questions or comments about the show? Let us know on Futurecommerce.fm, or reach out to us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, or LinkedIn. We love hearing from our listeners!

Superseding Customer Relationships "Relationship supersedes brand" is a phrase that we've often said on the podcast, but Phillip is calling this into question.A transaction doesn’t have to be an exchange of goods or monetary. It can be influence, it can be power dynamics, it’s identity exchange.“What often is overlooked is the employee experience in delivering service and support. It's never been more important than it is today.” -PhillipGetting customer service right during post purchase is important and solidifies loyalty, but prepurchase is just as important. “The role of a customer support agent is morphing into something else: a brand ambassador. Someone that has to be on brand, someone that has to represent the brand well as they interact with the customer.” -BrianBrands are changing their view of what brand ambassadors can be. “We're all consuming more and we're all participating in commerce more because commerce touches everything.” -Phillip “The whole focus we have at Gorgias is let's automate. Let's focus on self-serve so that we can transfer all of the human time towards those valuable conversations.” -RomainAssociated Links:Learn more about Romain Lapeyre and GorgiasJoin the Gorgias community on Facebook!Brands mentioned: Princess Polly, Ilia BeautyListen to our other episodes of Future CommerceCheck out our latest report Nine by NineSubscribe to InsidersHave any questions or comments about the show? Let us know on Futurecommerce.fm, or reach out to us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, or LinkedIn. We love hearing from our listeners!

Having Conversations That Don’t Exist in Other PlacesWelcome to Infinite Shelf, a human-centric show designed to help explore what it takes to make brands, products and services hit the right recipe of connection, relevance, emotional attachment, and, of course, profitability.Phillip and Brian of Future Commerce join Ingrid to welcome Infinite Shelf to the networkThe three play a game of “Get off my Lawn,” where INgrid has the guys guess what different TikTok lingo means.“When we talk about Infinite Shelf, the stuff gets onto the shelf somehow and the stuff gets taken off the shelf by someone. And the shelf is just the table that's being set for the meal that is being prepared. The shelf brings us together, but it's not about the shelf, it's about the people.” -PhillipThe Pendulum...better known as The Big Three (Amazon, Target, Walmart) are taking over our mindshare, wallet share, and going full force on the economy. But what happens when a smaller brand disrupts the industry?“How do we set ourselves up to be a part of what is currently going on with these big retailers but also be future focused on when the pendulum swings back the other way that we're ready and that we aren't blindsided by what the needs of the future consumer mindset is going to be?” -IngridWe have some exciting topics planned for Infinite Shelf, all revolving around open conversations from different POV’s, including: In-Store Tech, Influncers- Dead or Alive and Well?, how to organize and hire teams, and SO MUCH MORE!Stay in the loop with Infinite Shelf!  Let us know your thoughts on Futurecommerce.fm, or reach out to us on Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn or Facebook. We love hearing from our listeners!

Our Inability to Predict Demand The National Retail Federation predicts a whopping 10.5% increase in holiday spending this year.Maybe supply chain issues are overblown? Moselle is on a mission to provide e-commerce businesses with everything they need to create stable and scalable supply chains.The Beer Distribution Game is really just supply chain 101. If you have shortages or additional lead time in this game, you'll basically run into supply-demand issues. A lot of what's happening now is on the extreme end of it, where there's a lot of individual things in the chain failing or slowing down immensely.“Unless you have your own boats or private shipping method or have an exclusive way to bring your goods from one part of the world to another, you end up having to work within the existing system. And then when you work in that existing system, it's all about how can I get an edge?” -Lakhveer Jajj“The inability to predict demand in the physical supply chain is this thing that will never be overcome, our expectations are skewed by online services and that's just not how the physical world works.”- PhillipAssociated Links:Follow us on Twitter to catch our next Twitter Spaces!Learn more about Lakhveer Jajj and MoselleOur episode with Stephan AngoCheck out our most recent report: Nine by NineSubscribe to Insiders!Listen to more episodes of Future CommerceHave any questions or comments about the show? Let us know on Futurecommerce.fm, or reach out to us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, or LinkedIn. We love hearing from our listeners!

Building a New Type of Relationship“For the future of commerce to thrive, brands must be able to own those direct relationships with their customers.” -RosaIn recent news, Yotpo and Shopify have joined in a platform partnership to help accelerate  Yotpo’s growth and ultimately empower merchants to grow their relationships with consumers. “It’s never been more important than now to truly understand your customer. This partnership with Shopify allows us to grow that relationship and loyalty with customers.” -RosaHow does Yotpo  provide more value to customers compared to others? It’s the little things. Packaging, service, 24-hour chat help, and more. They work on delivering their promise to their merchants. When you give your customers choice and let them give the opportunity to set their values, they’ll feel a mutual value exchange. In the end, you will be better off because you will be using tools to build empathy rather than using tools to engage. We are needing a new type of marketer. The creative and the relational need to come together. This new marketer focuses on loyalty and creating relationships with customers at the same time.“Even if your customers are shopping in-store, you need to make sure you’re tying their online and in-store experience together. They need to stay connected” -Rosa Associated Links:Learn more about Rosa Hu, and YotpoListen to our other episodes of Future CommerceCheck out our latest report: Nine by NineSubscribe to InsidersHave any questions or comments about the show? Let us know on Futurecommerce.fm, or reach out to us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, or LinkedIn. We love hearing from our listeners!

The Modernity of Site SearchWe recount Brian’s visit to Aime Leon Dore’s flagship store in Soho, talk about the store design, the need for physical retail for “anchoring” the ultimate vision of a brand.We contrast the store design of ALD with another Soho shopping experience: Shinola. The future of digital requires having a physical experience. Brian’s ALD experience will likely drive future digital purchases.We’re in a brave new world of being introduced to brands. Price doesn’t matter anymore. User accessibility is what’s important. “In-store is the next frontier for digital.”- BrianThere is still a lot of opportunity to optimize the experience for shoppers, if stores are able to create a seamless instore and online experience there would be a lot more growth.GroupBy’s Roland Gossage joins the show to talk about the past, present, and future of customer journey orchestration, and the tools that help us do that today. The GroupBy Product Discovery Platform powered by Google Cloud Retail AI drives the world’s most relevant and highly converting eCommerce websites. In the beginning days of eCommerce, it was all about working to create an online experience and seeing it would work. Now, twenty years later, the game has changed.“80% of clients who hit a website that have a poor user experience are likely to never return. So the stakes are much higher.” -RolandThe market is ready for a plunge. It’s getting bigger and better. Bringing in new waves of technology helps all parts of the market. “The old analogy was garbage in, garbage out and that still exists today. We realized upfront that we had to solve the data problem first. So we had to create the golden record.” -RolandAssociated Links:The Twitter post of Brian’s shirt from Aime Leon DoreLearn more about Roland Gossage, and GroupBy Inc.Get our latest report: Nine by NineSubscribe to InsidersListen to our other episodes of Future Commerce Have any questions or comments about the show? Let us know on Futurecommerce.fm, or reach out to us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, or LinkedIn. We love hearing from our listeners!

Being an Informed Consumer Requires Recognizing Disinformation Searching the web can be a bit confusing these days with the addition of third party sellers, in a recent Washington Post article, the author stated “These days navigating Amazon, Walmart and Google's maze of third party sellers or judging hip looking social media ads requires the same kind of skills as identifying misinformation and conspiracy theories.” Phillip thinks this is the quote of the year.Mainstream media is coming to attack in spreading misinformation. With consumers not knowing how to determine a good product, it's creating bad commerce centered experiences. “When you get good at identifying what a good product is and what a bad product is, you're actually building a skill that's applicable for a lot of other things.” -BrianMaybe things that are fun are actually just fear, uncertainty, and doubt. We fear that something will happen (i.e you fear the supply chain falling) which creates a lot of uncertainty, in the end creating a pit of doubt. But what if there’s a way to fix it? Shipping has been experiencing troubles on all ends for over a year now, and as we approach the holiday season it's going to get worse again. Our research for the same products at different places of the next brand up, could result in losing brand loyalty. Associated Links:Washington Post articleCometeerStep by Step Emmett Shine episodeGet our latest report: Nine by NineSubscribe to Insiders