Here Comes the Algorithm

Key takeaways:

• David's Bridal's "Aisle to Algorithm" pivot puts AI at the center of everything — from merchandising to internal communications.
• The Style Squad ambassador program bridges employee creators ("Dream Makers") and external influencers, offering the most aggressive affiliate commission in retail at 20%.
• David's captures 90% of brides who enter their ecosystem — a first-party data advantage few retailers can match.
• The definition of "influencer" is broadening: word of mouth is influence, and everyone is influential.
• David's is building beyond bridal — eyeing the post-wedding household, where the majority of purchase decisions are made.
• [00:00:54] "We're basically a startup inside of a 76-year-old retailer." - Lisa Horton
• [00:12:09] "We have shifted in the last 12 months from being a legacy retailer to a 360 degree wedding planning ecosystem." - Lisa Horton
• [00:13:12] "Word of mouth is influence. And everyone is influential." - Lisa Horton
• [00:22:06] "Everything that we do moving forward is always going to come from a place of how do we mitigate her stress? How do we make her feel excited and seen and celebratory in every moment." - Lisa Horton

Associated Links:

• Check out Future Commerce on YouTube
• Check out Future Commerce Plus for exclusive content and save on merch and print
• Subscribe to Insiders and The Senses to read more about what we are witnessing in the commerce world
• Listen to our other episodes of Future Commerce

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!

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The AIpocalypse, Explained

Key takeaways:

• AI referral traffic currently accounts for just 0.1–2% of retailer traffic; it has also led to eCommerce site traffic growth, not decline. 
• Consumer intent data, not bottom-funnel ads, is where LLM advertising will find its footing.
• Creators are a media channel that predates the hype, and the measurement has been there for years.
• Retail media's growth depends on graduating from ROAS to incrementality — the sooner, the better.
• [00:11:08] "The next big trend already exists. People just haven't really wrapped their heads around it yet." — Andrew Lipsman
• [00:26:09] "We have to stop looking at CPMs and start looking at investments." — Leah Logan

In-Show Mentions:

• Retail Confessions Podcast
• Buy STRATA

Associated Links:

• Check out Future Commerce on YouTube
• See our in-depth analysis of Shoptalk’s theme: “Retail in the Age of AI” 
• Read our post-event digest in The Senses
• Check out Future Commerce Plus for exclusive content and save on merch and print
• Subscribe to Insiders and The Senses to read more about what we are witnessing in the commerce world
• Listen to our other episodes of Future Commerce

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!

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Building the Drone While We’re Flying It

Key takeaways:

• Wing's fastest recorded delivery: 2 minutes, 37 seconds. Average is under five minutes.
• 25% of Wing customers order three times a week – habit, not novelty.
• Wing just announced its largest residential drone delivery expansion yet, with Walmart, covering 270+ store locations.
• ~70% of Walmart SKUs fit in Wing's current delivery box – roughly 50,000 products.
• Wing recently doubled its payload capacity from 2.5 lbs to 5 lbs, opening new SKU and category possibilities.
• [00:20:39] "I want this technology to become unremarkable for people because it just becomes part of the way they go about their lives." – Heather Rivera
• [00:13:09] "I predict there's gonna be whole sets of new companies that design existing products to fit into the five pound baskets." – Brian

Associated Links:

• Get STRATA
• Check out Future Commerce on YouTube
• Check out Future Commerce Plus for exclusive content and save on merch and print
• Subscribe to Insiders and The Senses to read more about what we are witnessing in the commerce world
• Listen to our other episodes of Future Commerce

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!

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Our Week In the STRATAsphere

Key takeaways:

• AI was the headline theme, but the humanity angle landed harder with attendees.
• In-booth content creation has become the industry standard; Future Commerce pioneered it in 2017.
• FedEx's Jason Brenner reframed logistics as a brand trust moment, not just a last mile.
• Victoria's Secret CEO Hillary Super showed what vision-led turnarounds actually look like.
• Curious people will always find leverage. AI just multiplies what they were already doing.
• “Maybe by this time next year, we will see OpenClaw-specific agencies on the show floor.” – Phillip 
• "If you're inherently curious and someone who likes to problem solve...AI is gonna help you, totally, without a doubt." – Alicia

In-Show Mentions:

• Get STRATA
• FedEx: Same-Day Local
• Subscribe to catch our full recap on Insiders

Associated Links:

• See more post-show coverage in The Senses
• Check out Future Commerce on YouTube
• Check out Future Commerce Plus for exclusive content and save on merch and print
• Subscribe to Insiders and The Senses to read more about what we are witnessing in the commerce world
• Listen to our other episodes of Future Commerce

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!

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Main Street Went Live

Key Takeaways:

• The barrier to entry for live selling is far lower than traditional eCommerce.
• 80% of Whatnot buyers return the following month, compared with approximately 30% in traditional eCommerce.
• Live selling lets brands tell their story in ways a static product page never can.
• Whatnot raised $225M in Series F; the platform did $8B in GMV last year.
• Live commerce is quietly revitalizing small businesses and local brick-and-mortar.

Key Quotes:

[00:09:00] "It's clienteling in almost a digital way, blurring the line between parasocial relationship and actual relationship between seller and buyer." — Brian Lange

[00:12:00] "It could cost you a hundred thousand dollars to open up a comic bookshop. It costs you $0 to open up a comic bookshop on Whatnot." — Armand Wilson

[00:31:45] "It's really hard to tell your story in an authentic way when you're just telling it on a couple of lines of text on a product page." — Armand Wilson

[00:41:30] "80% of our customers come back the next month, whereas traditional eCommerce is, on average, maybe 30%." — Armand Wilson

In-Show Mentions:

• Whatnot’s State of Live Selling Report

Associated Links:

• Check out Future Commerce on YouTube
• Check out Future Commerce Plus for exclusive content and save on merch and print
• Subscribe to Insiders and The Senses to read more about what we are witnessing in the commerce world
• Listen to our other episodes of Future Commerce

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!

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The More We Automate, the More We Meet

Key Takeaways:

• AI is the backdrop to retail in 2026, but it’s not the whole story
• As AI scales, in-person human connection becomes more valuable, not less
• Shoptalk curates its agenda top-down, then finds the speakers to match; it’s about bringing buzz brands, heritage retailers, and influential platforms together
• In the US, social commerce is still in its early days, which means it’s still incredibly underestimated; brand leaders will share their lessons and best practices on stage during tactical workshops for the first time
• Creator-brand relationships work better when brands let go of the brief

Key Quotes:

[00:05:00] "In-person human connections are even more important today than they have been in the past,  because we have all of this operational efficiency, all of this streamlining and optimization happening in the background in some cases, taking away some of the interactions we might've had before." — Zia Daniell Wigder

[00:11:52] "You've got the huge champions that say yes, [AI] is going to change everything about the world of product discovery as we know it. And then you've got the other side saying, this is way over-hyped." — Zia Daniell Wigder

[00:23:01] "Brands aren't necessarily asking about [social commerce] per se, but it almost feels like they should be." — Zia Daniell Wigder

[00:24:04] "Brands are still having briefs shoved at [creators] and telling them what they should be doing, as opposed to working with them in a more collaborative way." — Zia Daniell Wigder

In-Show Mentions:

• Shoptalk Spring 2026 – March, Las Vegas
• POSSIBLE – April, Miami
• Groceryshop – September, Las Vegas
• Manifest – February 2027, Las Vegas

Associated Links:

• Visit Future Commerce’s Shoptalk hub to see what’s happening during the show
• Apply to attend our After Dark celebration of STRATA Vol. 001, our newest zine
• Check out Future Commerce on YouTube
• Check out Future Commerce Plus for exclusive content and save on merch and print
• Subscribe to Insiders and The Senses to read more about what we are witnessing in the commerce world
• Listen to our other episodes of Future Commerce

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!

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Granny’s Favorite Store Goes to TikTok Shop

Key takeaways:

• ChatGPT is stepping back from native in-app checkout, but the commerce protocol it built with Stripe lives on
• 77% of shoppers prefer clicking through to a website over buying directly via AI
• The mall remains a societal favorite third space, even as stores become shoppable content studios (just ask John Lewis)
• Dick's Sporting Goods' movement-linked rewards program is quietly building one of retail's stickiest loyalty ecosystems, making it a viable competitor to AI apps
• "Rent-a-Human" platforms signal a strange new frontier: AI agents outsourcing tasks to people in “meatspace”

In-Show Mentions:

• How 2,000 consumers used AI to shop
• Gen Z Is Going to the Mall Again — WSJ
• Rent-a-Human
• Join us at Shoptalk Spring 2026!

Associated Links:

• Check out Future Commerce on YouTube
• Check out Future Commerce Plus for exclusive content and save on merch and print
• Subscribe to Insiders and The Senses to read more about what we are witnessing in the commerce world
• Listen to our other episodes of Future Commerce

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!

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

This SKU Is Delicious

Key takeaways:

• Shopify Sidekick can now build one-off apps on demand, raising real questions about the future of third-party SaaS.
• AI geopolitics is here: data centers are now strategic infrastructure, and the "human in the loop" question has military stakes.
• Meta's move to invoicing ends years of free credit card rewards for brands running paid social,  — and that party's been winding down anyway.
• MrBeast's long-form view counts are down 50% YoY, even with heavy paid promotion; the algorithm has shifted to interest-based, not subscriber-based.
• Media buyers optimizing for CPMs are chasing non-real traffic. — Rrecovering a sense of propriety is the only way back.

In-Show Mentions:

• How MrBeast Dominated 2025 Using Advertising
• Phillip’s Big Arch burger virality prediction
• Get on the list for the Future Commerce x Shoptalk After Party

Associated Links:

• Check out Future Commerce on YouTube
• Check out Future Commerce Plus for exclusive content and save on merch and print
• Subscribe to Insiders and The Senses to read more about what we are witnessing in the commerce world
• Listen to our other episodes of Future Commerce

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!

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The Year AI Stopped Talking and Started Working

Key takeaways:

• Agentic AI is operational now. Platforms like CommerceIQ are replacing FTE-style workflows, running around the clock, and proactively surfacing insights.
• Context is everything… and most native AI tools don't have it. In-tool AI using synthetic or siloed data is producing unreliable outputs. The winning stack integrates across all data sources.
• CRM is mainstream; go-to-market tooling is emerging. Merchants are now using tools like Clay, a tool built for B2B sales prospecting, to find creators, influencers, and strategic partners.
• Clienteling looks different when repurchase cycles are a decade long. Brands like Ernesta (custom rugs) and GHD (hairstyling tools) are rethinking loyalty and relationship-building without the luxury of frequent transactions.
• "Consolidation is power." Whoever consolidates information, tasks, and systems the best will hold the advantage, both in business and in AI.

Quotes:

• [00:20:15] "The marketing agent is looking for a segmentation issue... high CAC and low LTV. Those are things that, as an organization, you'd have to surface, invest in, create segments, create a dashboard — and then bother to look at." — Phillip
• [00:37:38] "The job of the RFP responder is the same as the code developer. They become a shepherd and a reviewer rather than a writer." — Brian 
• [00:48:03] "What do we lose when we eliminate the mundane?" — Brian 
• [00:51:09] "In the next six months, AI is going to own entire workflows without any human intervention." — George Davis, CMO of Cozy Earth (as quoted by Phillip)

In-Show Mentions:

• Listen to Kristin Flor Perret’s episode on Future Commerce
• Get on the list for our ShopTalk Spring After Party

Associated Links:

• Check out Future Commerce on YouTube
• Check out Future Commerce Plus for exclusive content and save on merch and print
• Subscribe to Insiders and The Senses to read more about what we are witnessing in the commerce world
• Listen to our other episodes of Future Commerce

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!

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Control Is Overrated, Anyway

Key Takeaways

• Creators are the new CMOs. Brands don't cascade strategy; creators build their own.
• Amazon reviews are still currency. Early investment in social proof compounds over the years.
• Sampling is a long game. Expect results two to three months out, not just the week of Black Friday.
• TikTok Live provides free focus groups. Real-time customer feedback can greenlight a new product line and unlock new growth opportunities.
• You can't dashboard everything. The brands with staying power are building habits, not just conversions.
• "The creators are our mini CMOs. They build their own marketing plans, their own talking points, their own strategies to sell our products." — Jonathan Cohen [00:22:08]
• "We have cut checks for tens of thousands of dollars to creators we've never spoken to before." — Jonathan Cohen [00:22:07]
• "If you brush your teeth, you're an Aquasonic potential customer." — Jonathan Cohen [00:45:28]
• "You're building habits. And there's no better investment in brand than that — because those habits stick with them a lot longer than the ad dollar you spent to get them there." — Phillip Jackson [00:47:50]

Associated Links:

• Check out Future Commerce on YouTube
• Check out Future Commerce Plus for exclusive content and save on merch and print
• Subscribe to Insiders and The Senses to read more about what we are witnessing in the commerce world
• Listen to our other episodes of Future Commerce

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!

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Selling Food, Not Fiction

Key takeaways:

• The wellness hype machine is exhausting consumers. Daily Harvest's "Eat Food, Not Fiction" is its counter-punch.
• Subscription was a business convenience, not a consumer demand, and removing the gate unlocked growth.
• Consumer sovereignty and business autonomy are in tension with one another. The brands that resolve it will win.
• LLMs are the new discovery layer. Brands must build authoritative, trusted ecosystems to surface in AI answers.
• Fixing the food system requires collectivism, even with rivals.
• "Some of our best consumers were the ones who engaged with the skipping function. Active management meant they were finding the right cadence for them." — Ricky Silver
• "Connection is a motive. It is not tech-driven — even if technology is the thing bringing us together." — Ricky Silver

Associated Links:

• Learn more about Daily Harvest
• Catch up on Future Commerce’s 2026 predictions
• Check out Future Commerce on YouTube
• Check out Future Commerce Plus for exclusive content and save on merch and print
• Subscribe to Insiders and The Senses to read more about what we are witnessing in the commerce world
• Listen to our other episodes of Future Commerce

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!

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Key takeaways:

• Why Marcus felt bad for every marketer who ran a Super Bowl ad this year
• The Lay's ad was beautiful. Marcus saw a father handing his daughter a lifetime of debt.
• How Levi's turned a 30-second spot, a stadium, a popup, and a halftime show into one integrated play
• "This is not a 32-second ad. This is a constellation of nodes that together tell the story only Levi's could."
• What Anthropic understood about the group chat that OpenAI and Google missed
• Bad Bunny performed for 120 million viewers at home, not the 70,000 in the stadium, and that was the point

Associated Links:

• Catch our Super Bowl ad analysis in our Things We're Overthinking newsletter.
• Follow From the Culture, hosted by Dr. Marcus Collins and Amanda Slavin
• Buy For the Culture on Amazon
• Check out Future Commerce on YouTube
• Check out Future Commerce Plus for exclusive content and save on merch and print
• Subscribe to Insiders and The Senses to read more about what we are witnessing in the commerce world
• Listen to our other episodes of Future Commerce

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!

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Some Kid In His Dorm Room Is Coming For Your Company

Key takeaways:

• AI works when you rethink workflows, not optimize existing ones
• Domain-specific AI beats general LLMs through context and reduced hallucinations
• Speed of experimentation matters more than prediction accuracy alone
• Adjacent spaces, like auditing, are now accessible through AI-powered digital twins
• Traditional moats are dissolving; data and ecosystem relationships become key

In-Show Mentions:

• Learn more about Shipium
• Learn more about Manifest

Associated Links:

• Check out Future Commerce on YouTube
• Check out Future Commerce Plus for exclusive content and save on merch and print
• Subscribe to Insiders and The Senses to read more about what we are witnessing in the commerce world
• Listen to our other episodes of Future Commerce

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!

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Damon Berger, Head of Consumer Digital Engagement at Gap Inc., joins the show to share the strategy behind the brand's comeback. He unpacks the playbook for rebuilding an iconic brand, why it worked for Barbie, and why creator capital is the new north star. Plus, he reveals how Gap moved from "chasing relevance” to driving it, and why brand distinction is the new survival strategy against the sea of AI slop.

Gap is Back, Baby.

Key Takeaways:

• Creators are the cultural conduit, building conversational capital through authentic audience relationships
• Gap's KATSEYE campaign sparked participation, not just viewership, enabling fans to own the moment
• Purpose-driven brands live their values quietly rather than preaching them publicly
• Brand distinction becomes a survival strategy when 50% of internet traffic is bots
• Get Blue partnership scales Gap's influence to address global water access for 200M people

Damon Berger [03:33]: "Creators are the conduit to what is kind of cool out in the world...the idea for us is that we have a variety of relationships with them."

Damon Berger [12:14]: "That was really why one of the reasons that it was so popular and shared and viral...people started taking that video and doing all their own dances and doing their own interpretations to it and expressing themselves and joining a larger conversation."

Damon Berger [15:14]: "We were just being ourselves. We were just living our own brand values, where we believe in the value of diverse voices. We believe in people being themselves no matter what."

Damon Berger [29:26]: "In the sea of sameness and the sea of AI slop and all of these worlds of not really knowing who you're buying from…[brand distinction] is what people care about, and that's how we've won over the last couple of years."

In-Show Mentions:

• Gap's "Better in Denim" Campaign - Viral campaign featuring "Milkshake" by Kelis
• Get Blue Initiative - Partnership with Gap Inc., Amazon, Starbucks, and Ecolab

Associated Links:

• Check out Future Commerce on YouTube
• Check out Future Commerce Plus for exclusive content and save on merch and print
• Subscribe to Insiders and The Senses to read more about what we are witnessing in the commerce world
• Listen to our other episodes of Future Commerce

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!

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Content Is Dethroned, Context Is King

Key Takeaways:

• Brands must shift from persuasive advertising to informational publishing
• Brand publishing empowers direct audience relationships, cutting out middlemen
• Context and transparency build trust, but objectivity is increasingly seen as a myth
• Well-informed consumers strengthen brands, while fear of knowledge signals weakness
• Storytelling is the new sales department and remixability drives cultural power

Key Quotes:

"A good brand doesn't fear a well-informed client. A good brand wants a well-informed client." — Paulo Ferreira [00:58:52]

"With our new media, people have the freedom to find it themselves. Brands are becoming their own campfires, allowing people to crowd around and exchange stories." — Andrew McLuhan [00:10:11]

"‘The medium is the message’ was telling radio people to calm down about TV. Being obsolete doesn't mean death, it means rebirth." — Andrew McLuhan [00:23:53]

"Trust is built through transparency. The scroll is infinite now. The stakes have never been higher for laying our cards on the table." — Andrew McLuhan [01:00:22]

Associated Links:

• Learn more about The McLuhan Institute
• Learn more about Baroes Brand Publishing
• Check out Future Commerce on YouTube
• Check out Future Commerce Plus for exclusive content and save on merch and print
• Subscribe to Insiders and The Senses to read more about what we are witnessing in the commerce world
• Listen to our other episodes of Future Commerce

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!

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Key takeaways:

• Seasonal brands need capital access during revenue troughs, not just peaks
• Multi-channel operations demand different buying cycles—wholesale plans months ahead while DTC converts in hours
• Speed separates winners in apparel—trends change faster than traditional finance approval loops
• Small teams need executive-level spend control with rapid scalability for growth moments

Key Quotes:

Sushi Radhakrishnan [00:14:49]: "Because we are a seasonal business, having access to credit cards like a Brex where we have charge cards—in those situations when we're in our cash flow troughs, having that extra flexibility is really critical to us. There's a six month period where we have to have really good months because that's what funds the business in the lower months."

Sushi Radhakrishnan [00:20:28]: "This is my first foray into apparel and selling it online and trends change so quickly. A winning product—it's definitely a very dynamic environment to operate in."

Sushi Radhakrishnan [00:18:12]: "We move really fast. Getting that feedback loop shortened is really important when we're managing cash. That's been refreshing with Brex—the support we're getting from a credit card provider. I don't have that same level of one on one service with American Express."

Sushi Radhakrishnan [00:23:22]: "People buy apparel based on emotion, not just because they see it come across their Instagram reel. It's really important that we continue to appeal to our buyers in a way that's more than just selling the value prop of our product."

Associated Links:

• Learn more about Brex
• Learn more about Melio
• Check out Future Commerce on YouTube
• Check out Future Commerce Plus for exclusive content and save on merch and print
• Subscribe to Insiders and The Senses to read more about what we are witnessing in the commerce world
• Listen to our other episodes of Future Commerce

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!

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Key takeaways:

• Retail shifted from twice-yearly peaks to monthly cultural spikes brands can't predict
• Cash conversion cycle reveals hidden supplier payment leverage beyond inventory optimization
• Credit card float extends working capital without compounding traditional loan debt
• Liquidity separates trend leaders from trend chasers regardless of business size

Key Quotes:

Nicole Thomas [00:06:27]: "Seasonality is kind of taking shape in the way that it's less of like these ebbs and flows maybe twice a year to maybe once a month. If your product goes viral or if a celebrity endorses something, your consumers are now expecting to get those products when they want it."

Anand Mehta [00:22:17]: "Costco managed to have a very low, if not negative cash conversion cycle because their store is the warehouse. They've already sold and converted their inventory to cash before they even have to pay it out."

Nicole Thomas [00:37:06]: "Commerce is definitely making a big shift to flattening out, but not flattening out enough to where you can actually predict those peaks and valleys. We're definitely shifting from a calendar economy to more of a cultural economy."

Anand Mehta [00:32:14]: "This use case of extending cash flow isn't just for businesses who are struggling. If you're a brand that is very liquid, having that cash buffer allows you to be a brand that's jumping in on a trend in the early stages of the trend, not chasing a trend."

In-Show Mentions:

• Learn more about Brex
• Learn more about Melio
• Check out Future Commerce on YouTube
• Check out Future Commerce+ for exclusive content and save on merch and print
• Subscribe to Insiders and The Senses to read more about what we are witnessing in the commerce world
• Listen to our other episodes of Future Commerce

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!

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Key takeaways:

• Tariff volatility forces brands to message consumers directly about pricing pressures
• Small businesses gain agility advantage by switching suppliers faster than competitors
• Payment independence decouples cash flow from vendor relationship power dynamics
• Technology stacks need finance-novice friendliness, not just CFO sophistication

Key Quotes:

Corinne Boonstra [00:08:11]: "Brands are having to reach out to their consumer base to communicate with them why prices are increasing or using that as kind of a pivotal point of, say, buy these goods now while they're this price."

Aharon Naveen [00:12:06]: "Switching vendors is complex. It comes with an operational overhead of different net terms, different currency conversions, different shipping time, different payment acceptance."

Aharon Naveen [00:19:45]: "Giving the control back to small business, putting them in a position that they can overcome the relationship dynamic or the power dynamic of a new vendor—that is what technology brings to play."

Corinne Boonstra [00:23:10]: "These tools need to be able to be leveraged by your CMO, your head of digital, your founder—whoever is ultimately making these decisions might not have an accounting background."

Associated Links:

• Learn more about Brex
• Learn more about Melio
• Check out Future Commerce on YouTube
• Check out Future Commerce+ for exclusive content and save on merch and print
• Subscribe to Insiders and The Senses to read more about what we are witnessing in the commerce world
• Listen to our other episodes of Future Commerce

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!

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Key takeaways:

• Positionless marketing drove 88% campaign efficiency gains in 2025
• AI accelerates range; humans provide judgment and validation
• 70% of consumers unsubscribed from 3+ brands in 3 months
• Mindset change precedes technology adoption in successful AI integration

Key Quotes:

[00:09:20] "The biggest compliment you get is something called ‘rosh gadol’...It means, I want your head to think about more things than it's currently thinking.” – Pini Yakuel

[00:21:26] "Consumption and making decisions are the work. If you can't make decisions for yourself, you can't work with AI." – Brian Lange

[00:28:44] "We have access to knowledge on every field...we have the best personal tutor in our pockets available 24 over seven." – Pini Yakuel

[00:38:10] "It's very, very difficult to scale personalization. That's the bottom line. It's almost impossible to scale it." – Pini Yakuel

In-Show Mentions:

• Optimove Connect (March 2026)
• Optimove + Forrester Study: Closing the Gap Between Promise and Performance
• Optimove Marketing Fatigue Report

Associated Links:

• Check out Future Commerce on YouTube
• Check out Future Commerce Plus for exclusive content and save on merch and print
• Subscribe to Insiders and The Senses to read more about what we are witnessing in the commerce world
• Listen to our other episodes of Future Commerce

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!

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

• 🆕 Access to our newest analysis feature for members, Field Notes, our retail space analysis briefing. Featuring brands like Swatch, Printemps, and Skims.
• Access to our new Word of Mouth Index with Fairing, a brand new member benefit
• Save 15% on Future Commerce print journals and merch
• Exclusive invites to physical events, dinners, and priority invites to industry events (SXSW, Art Basel, VISIONS)
• Ad-free episodes and bonus content!

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2026 Brought Us An AI Wake-Up Call

Key Takeaways:

• AI saturation at NRF contrasts sharply with minimal executive adoption
• Successful AI integration preserves brand heritage rather than replacing it
• Multiplayer brand engagement becomes reality through tools like Taco Bell's Fan Styleplatform
• Analog intimacy resurfaces as consumers fight against  digital fatigue
• "Who here has used AI to search for a product that you would like to buy? Not a single hand went up. Three out of 300 people had used ChatGPT to search for anything." — Phillip
• "The point isn't the technology. The point is building a memorable experience that connects people to people." — Brian (referencing Taco Bell's Dane Matthews)
• "How do you take a brand that is as beloved and known for being a merchant and design-led company and use technology in a way to just add to it and not try to over modernize it?" — Alicia (on Ralph Lauren's approach)
• "Maybe people are just figuring out where they want their time and how they want to spend their time... getting back to our roots through things like mahjong, board games, and very simplified intimate spaces." — Alicia

In-Show Mentions:

• Future Commerce Holiday AI Report, produced in partnership with Cimulate
• More details from NRF 2026
• Our official recap of Phillip’s conversation with Dane Mathews
• Shop Future Commerce's Multiplayer Brand book

Associated Links:

• Check out Future Commerce on YouTube
• Check out Future Commerce Plus for exclusive content and save on merch and print
• Subscribe to Insiders and The Senses to read more about what we are witnessing in the commerce world
• Listen to our other episodes of Future Commerce

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!

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Your 2026 Resolution: Get Unstuck

Key takeaways:

• 63% of commerce teams face data quality issues affecting business decisions
• Inventory latency remains a competitive differentiator in agentic commerce experiences
• Zero-click phenomenon reducing referral traffic by 9% across e-commerce channels
• AI compute costs compressed 10x in one year, matching traditional search
• Energy infrastructure, not algorithms, poses the greatest bottleneck to AI advancement

Key Quotes:

• [00:02:04] Lou Camassa: "Most companies, whether you're a retailer or brand, you're moving at spreadsheet speed. That's just not the way of the future."
• [00:10:55] Lou Camassa: "We don't want to take from the past and just push it into the future. When we go into a chat experience, we don't want to drop somebody onto a homepage with a banner and categories. Let's think about this differently."
• [00:18:58] Lou Camassa: "We're seeing drops of about 9% across e-commerce in general on referral sources from Google because data is just being propagated in the AI overviews."
• [00:24:04] Lou Camassa: "Inventory latency is going to be a big game changer. It helps us get faster shipping and creates a competitive factor, specifically in LLM search, where everything else is commoditized."

Associated Links:

• Check out Rithum’s 2026 Commerce Readiness Index
• Learn more about Rithum’s offerings.
• Check out Future Commerce on YouTube
• Check out Future Commerce Plus for exclusive content and save on merch and print
• Subscribe to Insiders and The Senses to read more about what we are witnessing in the commerce world
• Listen to our other episodes of Future Commerce

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!

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Within five weeks, Temu accounted for over 12% of Grumpy Butcher's online sales. Yet the real story isn't just about velocity, it's about reaching younger demographics and using real-time data to fundamentally rethink product creation and curation.

From corporate attorney to food industry innovator, Denys shares how mastering the operational challenges of frozen logistics, leveraging platform analytics, and partnering strategically with Temu transformed Grumpy Butcher from a pandemic-era startup into a fast-growing business that redefined how Americans shop for gourmet perishables.

Shipping the Impossible – With **Operational Excellence

Key takeaways:

• Being first in a hard category pays off: Pioneering frozen food on Temu positioned Grumpy Butcher as a category leader and innovator.
• Direct feedback and engagement with shoppers on Temu enabled product development, revealing stronger resonance with younger customers and reshaping the broader business strategy.
• Mastering complex logistics is defensible: Streamlining frozen food delivery and tackling common challenges helped Grumpy Butcher establish its core competitive advantage.
• Platform partnership means strategic collaboration: Temu provided operational support and guidance that went beyond transactional seller-marketplace relationships.

In-Show Mentions:

• Learn more about Grumpy Butcher’s journey on Temu
• Explore Temu's seller services and marketplace solutions

Associated Links:

• Check out Future Commerce on YouTube
• Check out Future Commerce Plus for exclusive content and save on merch and print
• Subscribe to Insiders and The Senses to read more about what we are witnessing in the commerce world
• Listen to our other episodes of Future Commerce

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!

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But how do you scale across regions when you’re shipping succulents to consumers across different time zones with varying expectations, living in different climates?

And what happens when Temu’s scale and network efficiencies across third-party logistics partners help make fulfillment more cost-effective and sustainable for low-cost products that were previously constrained by fulfillment economics?

Jessica shares how Shop Succulents grew from 50 to 500 SKUs on Temu in months, leveraging platform-specific catalogs, vertical integration of growing operations, and continuous creative innovation to stay ahead in the highly competitive marketplace landscape.

Creativity Is a Competitive Moat When Marketplaces Commoditize Everything Else

Key takeaways:

• Marketplace success requires constant product innovation: The sea of sameness demands creative catalog curation, strategic bundling, and staying ahead of copycats selling competitive products for lower prices.
• Temu’s scale and network efficiencies across third-party logistics partners help support more cost-efficient fulfillment for low-cost products, unlocking new catalog opportunities.
• Owning your supply chain optimizes margin: Shop Succulents now grows plants in-house to control costs, differentiate its catalog, and ensure product quality.
• Platform partnerships should drive collaborative problem-solving: Working directly with Temu's team solved live plant-specific challenges. By directly addressing customer concerns and inquiries, Jessica and her team maintained customer satisfaction and loyalty.

In-Show Mentions:

• Learn more about Shop Succulents’ journey on Temu
• Explore Temu's seller services and marketplace solutions

Associated Links:

• Check out Future Commerce on YouTube
• Check out Future Commerce+ for exclusive content and save on merch and print
• Subscribe to Insiders and The Senses to read more about what we are witnessing in the commerce world
• Listen to our other episodes of Future Commerce

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!

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

How do you transform personal passion into global reach? And what happens when a marketplace's algorithm becomes your best marketing tool?

We sit down with Toyiah to explore how she leveraged Temu's platform to test, learn, and scale strategically, while sticking with her mission and vision as a founder. From creating a special patch for customers battling cancer to discovering unexpected demographic opportunities, Toyiah's journey shows how marketplace success comes from staying true to your brand ethos while remaining flexible enough to evolve.

Connection Wins Every Time

Key takeaways:

• Starting small works: Toyiah launched with one product on Temu, using marketplace dynamics to test viability before scaling strategically.
• Temu's marketplace exposure brought her patches to a diverse audience beyond her traditional target market, revealing unexpected growth opportunities.
• Emotional connection drives commerce: Products created with genuine care and cultural representation resonated deeply, building loyal customer relationships at scale.
• Marketplace testing provides real-time validation: Marketplaces like Temu can serve as laboratories to gather data insights before committing to broader expansion.

In-Show Mentions:

• Learn more about Patch Party Club’s journey on Temu
• Explore Temu's seller services and marketplace solutions

Associated Links:

• Check out Future Commerce on YouTube
• Check out Future Commerce Plus for exclusive content and save on merch and print
• Subscribe to Insiders and The Senses to read more about what we are witnessing in the commerce world
• Listen to our other episodes of Future Commerce

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!

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Our Year In Cultural Commerce

Key takeaways:

• VISIONS 2025 brought together Dami Lee, Andrew Huang, and more creative pioneers to explore the future of culture through the lens of commerce and its effects on humans
• Spooky Commerce pushed our limits: Jolene the doll elevated spooky season to performance art
• Idealism struggles to scale under capitalism's efficiency demands
• Heritage isn't always precious—sometimes it needs critical interrogation
• Technology transforms humanity whether we contemplate it or not
• Marketing success occurs beyond the attribution window we measure
• Rory Sutherland’s conversation was our most-downloaded episode of 2025, for good reason. 
• "It's really hard to be idealistic in a capitalist society or period." — Brian Lange [00:13:12]
• "We're not measuring other forms of what makes things successful. Are we just letting technologists, efficiency ops and finance run the world? I don't think it leads to the greatest outcome where we're all happiest." — Phillip Jackson on Rory Sutherland's marketing critique [00:36:13]

In-Show Mentions:

• Listen to Dami Lee’s VISIONS presentation on architecture, the structure of our lives, rhizomes, and more.
• Listen to Kunle Campbell’s conversation with Phillip at K:LDN on capitalism vs. idealism and meaning.
• Listen to Ana Andjelic’s episode on the throughline that connects brand culture to operations, merchandise, on-the-ground events, and more.
• Listen to Andrew McLuhan’s 2-hour feature unpacking his grandfather Marshall McLuhan’s predictions and insights on media, technology, and what technological development will do to our future. 
• Listen to Nick Susi’s Halloween special on the true story behind the War of the Worlds mania (and the media war that drove it).
• Listen to Rory Sutherland’s episode on the fat tail of marketing and what cultural shifts marketers of tomorrow should be preparing for.

Associated Links:

• Check out Future Commerce on YouTube
• Check out Future Commerce Plus for exclusive content and save on merch and print
• Subscribe to Insiders and The Senses to read more about what we are witnessing in the commerce world
• Listen to our other episodes of Future Commerce

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!

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

For the season finale, Commerce CEO Travis Hess joins Phillip and Lindsay to explore what it means when "the customer is the channel." The conversation tackles designing for AI agents alongside humans, reaching customers across surfaces independent of purchase location, and balancing data-driven marketing with authentic storytelling. Travis shares why brands must embrace agentic commerce now, and the mindset shifts required for 2026, synthesizing the season's insights into actionable guidance.

The Customer is the Channel

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Omnimodal commerce shifts focus from channels to surfaces where customers engage across contexts.
• Design for agents, not just humans. Agentic intermediaries will shape future commerce experiences.
• "The customer is the channel" requires reaching consumers wherever they want to engage.
• Balance data-driven performance marketing with authentic human storytelling to preserve brand equity.
• [00:37:35] "Brands need to go where their customers want to engage them across different surfaces—whether they're buying through that channel or it's influencing purchase through a different channel you may or may not own."
• [00:39:15] "Brands need to design for agents, not just humans and agent intermediaries. They're the ones who are going to show up and ultimately win. It's not like the old days, where we just assumed humans were coming to our channels."
• ibution and surface and signal more than probably the traditional commerce side."
• [00:33:55] "There's nothing more important than the brand, than the narrative, than the story, than the equity that is there. That is the power. I very much see that being controlled still by humans and maybe informed by AI."

Associated Links:

• New Modes Research: How AI is Shaping New Commerce Contexts and Expectations
• Check out Future Commerce on YouTube
• Check out Future Commerce+ for exclusive content and save on merch and print
• Subscribe to Insiders and The Senses to read more about what we are witnessing in the commerce world
• Listen to our other episodes of Future Commerce

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!

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Our Vision:

• Walmart will emerge as America's front-line health system through accessibility and affordability
• Predicted losers in 2026: Target, Family Dollar, and middle-class brick-and-mortar retailers
• Self-sovereign health brands will win as consumers self-diagnose and optimize
• Prediction markets will replace traditional polls as the new pulse of public sentiment
• Autonomous vehicles will reach an inflection point with infrastructure support coming
• OpenAI will lose enterprise ground to Anthropic and Gemini as trust erodes
• Economic correction will trigger a political anti-AI platform for midterms
• Craft and analog work will become a cultural rebellion against synthetic content saturation

Key Quotes:

• "2026 is the year that consumers and companies are shifting from relying on institutions to relying on themselves." – Phillip [00:06:21]
• "John Furner was the head of Sam's Club. You know who Sam's Club had to compete with? Costco. This is the guy who had to build a business that was up against the best business in the world and was successful at it." – Brian [00:12:26]
• "Walmart is that front door for most Americans because you can diagnose your own health issues...It's going to be the point of most convenience for you. It's also gonna be the place that's most affordable." – Phillip [00:16:22]
• "The consumerization of health care is the trend of the year." – Brian [00:16:52]
• "Brands dependent on borrowed authority—any brand whose legitimacy depends on that credentialed expert or an editor or celebrity or institutional validation rather than measurable outcomes will suffer." – Phillip [00:37:38]
• "We have become the United Pottersvilles of America. The idea that communities are at the center of things is the fairy tale." – Brian [00:53:16]

Associated Links:

• Check out Future Commerce on YouTube
• Check out Future Commerce+ for exclusive content and save on merch and print
• Subscribe to Insiders and The Senses to read more about what we are witnessing in the commerce world
• Listen to our other episodes of Future Commerce

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!

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

It is no surprise that culture drove commerce’s biggest shifts.

Costco Reigns Supreme, Again

2025 Outcomes & Highlights:

• Mega-brand M&A dominated 2025 as regulatory shifts enabled massive retail restructuring (+10 pts to Phillip!)
• Costco expanded internationally while battling Trump administration on tariffs and DEI (+10 pts to Brian!)
• China-direct retail faced existential crisis as de minimis loophole closed (+10 pts to Brian!)
• Creator-led brand exits to holdcos marked parasocial commerce era (+10 pts to Phillip!)
• Gamestop survived (-10 pts to Phillip!)
• Google executed the comeback of the decade with Gemini's ascent (+10 pts to Brian!)

Associated Links:

• LORE - Future Commerce's 280-page book on brand worldbuilding
• Check out Future Commerce on YouTube
• Check out Future Commerce Plus for exclusive content and save on merch and print
• Subscribe to Insiders and The Senses to read more about what we are witnessing in the commerce world
• Listen to our other episodes of Future Commerce

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!

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The Foundational Basis Matters Most

Key takeaways:

• eCommerce sites have evolved from discovery engines to confirmation engines—customers arrive with pre-baked decisions seeking reassurance, not persuasion.
• Speed, clarity, and consistency are the new table stakes. Flashy features mean nothing if your site is slow, your checkout is clunky, or your shipping policy is unclear.
• Personalization should be engagement-based, not identity-based. Customers want relevance without creepiness—focus on their behavior in the moment, not invasive tracking.
• AI is an enabler, not the answer. Use it to understand cross-platform touchpoints and customer frustrations, not as a magic bullet for conversion.
   
• [00:04:06] "By the time they land on your site, they have pretty much created an idea of who you are, of what you offer, of what your product is. It's more on the choice confirmation bias...they don't want to be challenged. They just want to be reassured that they made the right decision." – Felipe Pose
• [00:14:00] "The role of the website has become more about clarity and reassurance, and not about communicating everything that you are, everything that you do, everything that you provide." – Felipe Pose
• [00:20:33] "I think that is one of the most powerful insights that we have gathered from many reports...they don't want to be really over targeted. They don't want identity based personalization. It's more based on what I want in this moment. What do I need from you? It's personalization based on engagement." – Felipe Pose
• [00:29:11] "If you are playing like a Jenga game...if you don't have a really strong foundation, if you don't have a site that is working correctly, a site that has some really slow pages, you have an unclear shipping policy...those are the things that will end up moving the needle the more." – Felipe Pose
• [00:32:46] "It's all about being prepared for the future and really understanding. Do I have everything I need today to be prepared for that? Because if you are on a really slow platform, something that is not scalable, you will not have a good experience today, even more so in 2026." – Felipe Pose

Associated Links:

• Check out Future Commerce on YouTube
• Check out Future Commerce+ for exclusive content and save on merch and print
• Subscribe to Insiders and The Senses to read more about what we are witnessing in the commerce world
• Listen to our other episodes of Future Commerce

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!

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Set Your Associates Free

Key takeaways:

• New Balance transforms NYC Marathon into 100-store chain for one weekend
• Offline capability: transactions continue when networks fail, sync when connectivity returns
• In-person acquisition yields stickier customers with higher lifetime value
• Retail ranks third most-attacked sector; mobile commerce increases threat surface
• Store associates need intuitive systems for high-pressure, temporary deployments
• "If they're able to pull this off in the middle of a parking lot, I'm probably a hell of a lot more likely to go in the store next time." – Jason James on how ephemeral retail builds store trust
• "A customer acquired through an in-person, in real life experience is stickier, has longer lifetime value, is ultimately more loyal than a customer that's acquired online." – Nikki Baird on the power of physical engagement
• "God forbid a retailer gets hit back at headquarters with ransomware and it takes down their core network. We can still transact." – Jason James on offline resilience
• "It's not just you put products on racks or on shelves and you wait for people to walk in the door. Events are coming into stores too." – Nikki Baird on stores as experience hubs

Associated Links:

• Learn about Aptos
• Check out Future Commerce on YouTube
• Check out Future Commerce Plus for exclusive content and save on merch and print
• Subscribe to Insiders and The Senses to read more about what we are witnessing in the commerce world
• Listen to our other episodes of Future Commerce

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!

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The Irreducible Human Meets Humanlike Intelligence

Key takeaways:

• Discovery has evolved from a one-shot search to multi-turn conversations
• Friction has value: Some purchases deserve complexity, others need speed
• Structured data becomes critical for agentic commerce success
• [00:32:56] "Let's make special what's actually worth being special. And then let's be okay with the fact that the rest of it gets streamlined."
• [00:49:57] "Structured data becomes the new SEO. Every brand is going to have to worry about whether they have clean, well-structured, and well-understandable schemas."
• [00:04:20] "Utility above being flashy. Go right for the heart of what makes a difference in the merchant's life every single day."
• [00:33:39] "Until these systems become emotion aware, it's highly unlikely that they are completely eradicating the entire idea of manual human intervention in commerce."

In-Show Mentions:

• Shopify Winter '26 Editions

Associated Links:

• Check out Future Commerce on YouTube
• Check out Future Commerce Plus for exclusive content and save on merch and print
• Subscribe to Insiders and The Senses to read more about what we are witnessing in the commerce world
• Listen to our other episodes of Future Commerce

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!

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The New Game Is Intelligibility

Key takeaways:

• 27% of millennials trust AI recommendations more than humans, yet abandon carts when forced to create accounts: the trust paradox.
• Merchants must shift from channel management to model management: optimizing for how AI interprets your brand, not controlling distribution.
• Answer engine optimization isn't gaming algorithms. It's ensuring your brand shows up with authority when AI agents search on behalf of consumers.
• Three-party commerce is here: consumer, brand, and AI intermediary. The customer is the channel, and data is the new storefront.
• [00:01:42] "Our customers are having to shift their mindset from channel management to model management... The old game was distribution. The new game is intelligibility. And brands that win are gonna be the ones that understand the model and understand how they can adapt their message to the new modes of interacting with consumers." – Lindsay Trinkle
• [00:41:02] "Customers are the channel and the data is the storefront. And so what we need to be able to do is make sure that we understand at each interaction point when you show up with your brand. How is your data representing you?" – Sharon Gee

Associated Links:

• New Modes Research: How AI is Shaping New Commerce Contexts and Expectations
• Learn more about Commerce
• Check out Future Commerce on YouTube
• Check out Future Commerce+ for exclusive content and save on merch and print
• Subscribe to Insiders and The Senses to read more about what we are witnessing in the commerce world
• Listen to our other episodes of Future Commerce

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!

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Why Shop When You Can Play?

Key takeaways:

• Gen Z seeks human connection and community, not just product transactions
• Coach studied consumers in their homes to understand life, not just buying behaviors
• Experience per square foot matters as much as sales per square foot
• Using the same holiday tree for five years reduced waste while building brand consistency
• Physical and digital spaces should converge, not replicate each other
• "Putting bags on shelves was no longer an option because everybody during the pandemic, including my mom who is 89, can buy online. They're coming to the stores and they want more." - Giovanni Zaccariello [00:06:37]
• "The next few years are going to be years of what I call experience maximalism where literally new things are going to be mundane because consumers are so much more connected now on social, and they see what's going on." - Giovanni Zaccariello [00:44:50]
• "It's about the consumer talking to us instead of Coach talking to the consumer. It's a much deeper dialogue." - Giovanni Zaccariello [00:45:46]
• "When things don't work, we don't just move on. We've created this honest feedback loop where we learn from things. If we don't learn, what's the point of testing and learning?" - Giovanni Zaccariello [00:41:17]

Associated Links:

• Explore Coach Play concepts
• Coach coffee shops
• Check out Future Commerce on YouTube
• Check out Future Commerce Plus for exclusive content and save on merch and print
• Subscribe to Insiders and The Senses to read more about what we are witnessing in the commerce world
• Listen to our other episodes of Future Commerce

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!

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The Retail Super Bowl Delivered, Again

Key takeaways:

• Black Friday generated $43B globally with 837M transactions across Adyen's platform
• US contactless payments jumped 23% YOY and mobile wallet usage doubled to 30%
• Denmark saw a 6.1X increase in transaction volume on Black Friday, and Spain 4.5X—Black Friday is officially a global phenomenon
• Peak shopping hit at 1 pm in-store and noon online (digestion first, deals second)
• 46% of US consumers abandon checkout without their preferred payment method

Associated Links:

• Check out Adyen’s BFCM data here
• See our full recap of BFCM results
• Check out Future Commerce on YouTube
• Check out Future Commerce Plus for exclusive content and save on merch and print
• Subscribe to Insiders and The Senses to read more about what we are witnessing in the commerce world
• Listen to our other episodes of Future Commerce

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!

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Phillip Jackson and Lindsay Trinkle sit down with Melissa Minkow, Global Director of Retail Strategy and Insights at CI&T, to unpack findings from her Retail Tech Reality Check research. Together, they dissect how different platforms serve distinct purposes in the buyer's journey, why "omnichannel" is more relevant than ever, and what happens when everything becomes shoppable but commerce itself becomes invisible.

In this episode, we explore how the expanded digital ecosystem is fundamentally reprogramming how consumers engage with content, community, and commerce. With 74% of US consumers now using AI tools in their path to purchase, brands can no longer control the narrative—instead, they must embed themselves intentionally into customer-led conversations across multiple contexts.

Commerce Is Invisible; Context Isn’t

Key takeaways:

• Each social platform serves a distinct purpose: Facebook for purchasing, YouTube for discovery, Reddit for research. Context matters more than channel ubiquity.
• The invisible transaction wins: TikTok succeeds because it's entertainment-first. The less commerce feels like commerce, the more consumers buy.
• Attribution is broken: Traditional linear models can't capture circular, contextual journeys. Focus on conversion, repeat purchase, and brand awareness—the only metrics you can trust.
• Search remains unsolved: Basic functionality like filtering furniture by dimensions is still missing. Data quality and search methodology are foundational competitive advantages.
• Micro-influencers drive outsized impact: 45 passionate referrals matter more than 45,000 followers. The persona of the referrer (picky, experimental, passionate) outweighs reach.
• AI will reshape holiday 2025: Gifting anxiety makes AI particularly valuable. Consumers use it to avoid looking stupid and navigate uncertain return processes.

In-Show Mentions:

• Melissa Minkow - Global Director of Retail Strategy and Insights, CI&T
• CI&T Retail Tech Reality Check Research
• New Modes Research

Associated Links:

• Check out Future Commerce on YouTube
• Check out Future Commerce+ for exclusive content and save on merch and print
• Subscribe to Insiders and The Senses to read more about what we are witnessing in the commerce world
• Listen to our other episodes of Future Commerce

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!

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

PLUS: Get Plus! Use code BLACKFRIDAY for a year of Future Commerce Plus at our lowest rate ever. 

Black Friday Isn’t Dying, and Neither Is Kris Jenner! 

Key takeaways:

• Buy Nothing chooses to wage its trademark battle during the SNAP benefits pause.
• As long as digital channels and Kris Jenner continue to thrive, Black Friday will never die.
• Mariah Carey’s “It’s Time” video is sponsored by Sephora. Finally!
• The new media ecosystem demands we live in the immediacy of the moment. Media cycle half-lives grow shorter by the day.
• “Mel Gibson was for Boomers what Johnny Depp was for Gen X, and I get the same feeling about Timothee Chalamet for this generation.” –– Brian Lange
• “Any gift you give or receive is actually a flaming fireball in the sky of your identity.” –– Brian Lange
• “Let he who is without screen time cast the first stone.” –– Phillip Jackson
• “Buy Nothing groups disintermediate the knife fight.” –– Phillip Jackson, Craigslist knife fight survivor

Associated Links:

• Get a year of Future Commerce Plus for $50 with code BLACKFRIDAY
• Check out Future Commerce on YouTube
• Check out Future Commerce Plus for exclusive content and save on merch and print
• Subscribe to Insiders and The Senses to read more about what we are witnessing in the commerce world
• Listen to our other episodes of Future Commerce

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!

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

But what happens when commerce isn't just something you do; it's something that you are?

We kick off season 5 of Decoded with behavioral scientist and customer experience expert Ken Hughes, who joins us in exploring how shopping has evolved from an activity into an identity, particularly among Gen Z and Millennials. We unpack Ken’s “Blue Dot Consumer” theory and introduce the "Shopping Consciousness Spectrum," and examine how it influences not just how we live as individuals, but how we operate as brands.

The Always-On Consumer of Today Builds the B2M (Business-to-Machine) Reality of Tomorrow.

Key takeaways:

• 48% of consumers maintain perpetual mental shopping lists; for millennials, it's 2 in 3. Commerce has become a cognitive state.
• Gen Z is twice as likely as Boomers to wake with commerce on their minds: Different generations, fundamentally different relationships.
• The trust paradox: consumers share intimate details with AI but abandon carts when asked to create accounts or commit.
• 2026 success requires understanding perpetual consideration. Be present throughout the journey, not just during traditional shopping windows.

In-Show Mentions:

• Ken Hughes - Customer Experience Expert & Behavioral Science Specialist
• Get Taylormaking by Ken Hughes
• New Modes Research: How AI is Shaping New Commerce Contexts and Expectations
• Learn more about Commerce

Associated Links:

• Check out Future Commerce on YouTube
• Check out Future Commerce Plus for exclusive content and save on merch and print
• Subscribe to Insiders and The Senses to read more about what we are witnessing in the commerce world
• Listen to our other episodes of Future Commerce

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!

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Freedom Comes Automated

Key takeaways:

• 80% of companies expect AI transformation; only 18% achieve transformative results in marketing
• Change management matters more than technology capability for successful AI adoption
• Experimentation and rapid iteration beat planning perfection
• New metrics and performance indicators are needed to measure AI optimization benefits 
• Vendor education and partnership bridge talent gaps without the need to hire data scientists
• "The real gap is change management. Most teams are still running on old rhythms that make transformation feel hard or impossible." - Shai Frank [00:07:35]
• "Instead of trying to perfect the post-purchase journey for eight months, let's try a few options, see what works, and course correct as a result of that." - Shai Frank [00:17:39]
• "The challenge now is making sure that every customer is served with the right content variation that makes sense for them." - Shai Frank [00:38:01]
• "In this case, it was like an 80% optimization benefit, which means 80% of your incremental sales from this campaign are because you did it with AI." - Shai Frank [00:46:24]

In-Show Mentions:

• Optimove + Forrester Report
• Learn more about Optimove’s Positionless Marketing platform
• Decoded Season 4: Positionless Marketing

Associated Links:

• Check out Future Commerce on YouTube
• Check out Future Commerce Plus for exclusive content and save on merch and print
• Subscribe to Insiders and The Senses to read more about what we are witnessing in the commerce world
• Listen to our other episodes of Future Commerce

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!

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The Data Doesn’t Lie

Key Takeaways:

• Shoppers expect to spend $1,595 this season as economic concerns peak
• 57% expect the economy to weaken, the most pessimistic outlook recorded since 1997
• Black Friday remains vital despite two decades of obituaries
• 24% of budgets are spent by October due to the Prime Day effect
• Private label gains ground as brand loyalty fundamentally shifts

Key Quotes:

• [00:02:10.14] Lupine Skelly: "57% of people are saying they expect the economy to weaken in the year ahead, and that's the highest we've seen since we started tracking that question in 1997. To put that in context, 2008 was probably the next highest at 54%—that was around the Great Recession. So [there’s] a lot of uncertainty out there."
• [00:04:42.72] Lupine Skelly: "I feel like people have been trying to kill off Black Friday for 20 years. Is Black Friday dead? It's not dead."
• [00:13:17.91] Lupine Skelly: "In our study, 42% of consumers are saying they're going to use gen AI to find the perfect gift. And even more are saying they're going to use it to find the best deals."
• [00:25:49.24] Lupine Skelly: "Retail is always battling for share of wallet, but I think we're at a very different time period. Gaming, gambling—there's some big juggernauts taking what might have been the money you used to go to the mall years ago."

Associated Links:

• Dig deeper into Deloitte data and insights here
• Check out Future Commerce on YouTube
• Check out Future Commerce+ for exclusive content and save on merch and print
• Subscribe to Insiders and The Senses to read more about what we are witnessing in the commerce world
• Listen to our other episodes of Future Commerce

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!

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

When Centuries of Heritage Meet the eCom Product Page

Key takeaways:

• Meaningful constraints drive better creative outcomes. Removing all friction from digital experiences leaves us wondering why we don't feel anything.
• AI dramatically increases individual productivity, but human oversight remains essential for tone preservation, fact-checking, and maintaining brand authenticity.
• Successful brands act as cultural ambassadors, translating something unique through their channels while balancing best practices with distinctive identity.
• The fractional work revolution emerges at the intersection of AI-enhanced productivity, volatile job markets, and businesses seeking expertise without long-term commitment.
• Most AI implementations fail because teams don't understand the technology's actual capabilities and limitations before deploying it.
• [00:06:14] "We removed all the friction, and we wonder why we don't feel anything." - Oleksii, quoting Phillip Jackson
• [00:11:40] "In order to build a personal brand, you need a person to be behind that brand." - Oleksii
• [00:28:48] "AI adoption is this huge spike on the top and then very long tail afterwards." - Oleksii

Associated Links:

• Read Oleskii on Insiders
• Check out Future Commerce on YouTube
• Check out Future Commerce+ for exclusive content and save on merch and print
• Subscribe to Insiders and The Senses to read more about what we are witnessing in the commerce world
• Listen to our other episodes of Future Commerce

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!

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Behind the Curtain of Inherited Myth

Key takeaways:

• Structured narratives outlast formless truth in collective memory.
• Brands now weaponize conflict and controversy for attention economics.
• Everything is becoming participatory, co-created, and infinite fan fiction.
• "The War of the Worlds is not actually a war between humans and aliens. It's really this war between mediums." — Nick Susi
• "We've entered the phase of the attention economy where the game is attention at any and all costs." — Nick Susi
• "People don't want to share the thing. They want to share their experience of the thing." — W. David Marx (referenced)
• "Awareness does not decrease manipulation necessarily." –– Brian
• "We've become much more aware of the act of storytelling as a culture, like we see the artifice of storytelling and we appreciate the act of it itself." –– Phillip

In-Show Mentions:

• The War of the Worlds performance piece and publication by Nick Susi
• Order The War of the Worlds Did Not Take Place on Metalabel
• Blank Space by W. David Marx
• Insiders #196: Time After Time by Brian Lange

Associated Links:

• Check out Future Commerce on YouTube
• Check out Future Commerce+ for exclusive content and save on merch and print
• Subscribe to Insiders and The Senses to read more about what we are witnessing in the commerce world
• Listen to our other episodes of Future Commerce

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!

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Katherine’s God Isn’t A Whiner

Key takeaways:

• AI companions fail when they gaslight users and demand emotional labor constantly
• Internet culture documentation requires trust without judgment to reveal authentic subcultures
• Social platforms fragment as users crave stories over gossip and embodied over digital
• The erosion of digital proof drives a turn toward mysticism and magic
• Content exhaustion pushes creators toward dynamic formats and offline experiences

In-Show Mentions:

• Katherine’s response to the Friend AI pendant
• E-girl 001 publication
• Katherine's call-in show exploring paranormal and internet culture
• Reggie James on spiritual technology

Associated Links:

• Check out Future Commerce on YouTube
• Check out Future Commerce+ for exclusive content and save on merch and print
• Subscribe to Insiders and The Senses to read more about what we are witnessing in the commerce world
• Listen to our other episodes of Future Commerce

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!

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

October: When Pop-Ups Pop Off

Key takeaways:

• Halloween is retail's second-largest holiday and is expected to generate more than $13B in consumer spending this year Universal's Horror Nights operates 48 nights, up from 3 in 1991
• Spirit Halloween's 1,500 pop-ups generate over $1B in dead retail spaces
• Horror reflects cultural anxieties through interactive commerce
• Premium ticketing doubles daily revenue for a  single venue

In-Show Mentions:

• Insiders #210: Spooky Commerce – What Halloween Shopping Trends Tell Us About Modern Culture
• Halloween Horror Nights Wiki
• Forbes: Universal's Halloween Revenue Analysis (2023)
• National Retail Federation Halloween Spending Report

Associated Links:

• Check out Future Commerce on YouTube
• Check out Future Commerce+ for exclusive content and save on merch and print
• Subscribe to Insiders and The Senses to read more about what we are witnessing in the commerce world
• Listen to our other episodes of Future Commerce

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!

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Plus, we dig into how the platform's "taste graph" of 500 billion human-curated pins predicts trends a year in advance, and what brands can expect to drive Spooky Season sales. 

Where Shopping Is Calming Again

Key takeaways:

• Gen Z chooses Pinterest for visual search and identity discovery over doomscrolling platforms
• Men comprise over one-third of users, redefining masculinity through wellness and parenting content
• Pinterest's trend predictions are 80% accurate, forecasting cultural shifts nearly a year ahead
• Pinners are 7x more likely to purchase saved products than unsaved items
• Performance Plus campaigns deliver 15%+ increases in return on ad spend for brands
• [00:09:48] "Pinterest is providing an antidote for Gen Z to the intensity and kind of doomscrolling experience that they're having on other social platforms... Gen Z are coming to Pinterest specifically to discover who they are through this act of curation." - Julie Towns
• [00:19:43] "We predict trends almost a year out because we have these trendsetters, trend spotters who are doing the pre-curation months and years in advance... our trends often last two times longer than the trends you see on other social platforms." - Julie Towns
• [00:15:28] "Men are really redefining masculinity, and they're doing that through self-discovery... searches for things like Pilates workouts are up over 300%, father and child activities up almost 400%." - Julie Towns

In-Show Mentions:

• Future Commerce's New Modes Report (77% of AI-using shoppers include Pinterest in their journey)
• Pinterest Fall Trend Report (uncommon Halloween costumes up 200%, Pilates searches up 300%)
• Insiders #210: Spooky Commerce - What Halloween Shopping Trends Tell Us About Modern Culture
• Marshall McLuhan on the Future Commerce Podcast

Associated Links:

• Check out Future Commerce on YouTube
• Check out Future Commerce+ for exclusive content and save on merch and print
• Subscribe to Insiders and The Senses to read more about what we are witnessing in the commerce world
• Listen to our other episodes of Future Commerce

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!

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Stat Chasers Never Win

Key takeaways:

• Brand relevance makes you less interchangeable with competitors in the market
• The marketing funnel has collapsed—social media now operates across all stages
• Innovation thrives under constraints; limited resources drive creative solutions
• True brand equity isn't measured on a 30-day dashboard; free yourself from over-measuring creative campaigns
• Customers deserve brands that enable participation, not just transactions
• [00:12:28] "You can stat chase or you can build strategies that help you win as a team. The outcomes will be different depending on your approach." – Rene Federico
• [00:33:06] "Consumers don't shop your org chart, they shop your brand. Business models don't shop—customers do." – Rene Federico
• [00:45:31] "When you get someone to buy something, that is an exertion of power. It means somewhere in their conscience, you've been able to affect a choice. We're in a moment where the customer is the hero of the story." – Rene Federico

In-Show Mentions:

• "That's So Primark" campaign
• Herald Square flagship opening Spring 2026

Associated Links:

• Check out Future Commerce on YouTube
• Check out Future Commerce+ for exclusive content and save on merch and print
• Subscribe to Insiders and The Senses to read more about what we are witnessing in the commerce world
• Listen to our other episodes of Future Commerce

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!

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The Cherry-Picker’s Dilemma

Key takeaways:

• Meet the three customer archetypes: Full-price buyers who purchase regardless of promotions, cherry pickers who chase deep discounts and rarely return, and "charm customers" who respond to modest 10%-15% discounts and show the highest retention rates over time. (The fourth archetype: Brian)
• Transparency as a competitive advantage: Brands that communicate their promotional calendar early (like telling customers in October "this is the only Black Friday promotion you'll see from us") build trust while competitors exhaust and frustrate their audiences.
• Post-holiday retention begins at checkout: Collecting gift-giving data and offering time-sensitive follow-up promotions can transform one-time gift purchasers into repeat customers. The key is creating urgency without devaluing the brand.
• Communication requires quality, not quantity: Dodging customer fatigue is worth the awareness risk.  Dialing back from daily to weekly emails might be the better move for companies this year.
• Strategic budget allocation matters more than discount depth: Want to boost long-term profitability and brand equity? Give your VIP customers high-value discounts and experiences, not low-tier cherry-pickers who are unlikely to stick around. From the Episode:
• Optimove’s 2025 Holiday Shopping Report
• New Modes: 2025 Update
• Learn more about this episode’s sponsors, Optimove, Aptos, and Future Commerce Plus. 

Associated Links:

• Check out Future Commerce on YouTube
• Check out Future Commerce Plus for exclusive content and save on merch and print
• Subscribe to Insiders and The Senses to read more about what we are witnessing in the commerce world
• Listen to our other episodes of Future Commerce

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!

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

• 🆕 Access to our newest analysis feature for members, Field Notes, our retail space analysis briefing. Featuring brands like Swatch, Printemps, and Skims. 
• Access to our new Word of Mouth Index with Fairing, a brand new member benefit
• Save 15% on Future Commerce print journals and merch
• Exclusive invites to physical events, dinners, and priority invites to industry events (SXSW, Art Basel, VISIONS)
• Ad-free episodes and bonus content!

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Peak Format & Innovation Slump

Key takeaways:

• "Black Friday is every day" has killed the magic of seasonal shopping - constant sales and price monitoring tools have transformed holiday anticipation into year-round algorithmic optimization, stripping away the communal excitement of traditional retail events
• We're trapped in efficiency over joy - consumers secretly crave the experiential magic of shopping but have locked themselves into frictionless "couch commerce" that prioritizes speed over satisfaction, leaving us operationally optimized but emotionally empty
• In-person retail needs to maintain its experiential advantage - many stores have become fulfillment centers where online order carts block aisles and associates are too busy pulling digital orders to provide the human connection that should differentiate physical retail
• Home Depot's efficiency wake-up call - Anne Marie Campbell revealed how using sales associates to fulfill online orders degraded in-store service, which inspired the retailer to create a separate team just for fulfilling online orders and ultimately protect the quality of service and experience 
• “Creators are basically the new Black Friday.” – Phillip
• “It feels like we’ve come to the end of product…People used to be crazy about TVs as an innovation product. Now, there’s no interest at all. You can get an 80” HDTV for $500. We’ve peaked at the end of format for a lot of these products.” – Brian
• “‘We’re here on earth to fart around.’ – Kurt Vonnegut” – Brian Lange

In-Show Mentions:

• Read our Shoptalk Fall recap on Insiders
• New Modes 2025 Report
• Salish Matter at the American Dream Mall

Associated Links:

• Check out Future Commerce on YouTube
• Check out Future Commerce+ for exclusive content and save on merch and print
• Subscribe to Insiders and The Senses to read more about what we are witnessing in the commerce world
• Listen to our other episodes of Future Commerce

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!

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

P.S. Listen to part two of this conversation on Unpacking the Digital Shelf. Catch Digital Shelf Institute’s report, Reinventing the Organization for Omnichannel Success.

“It Depends.” (And “Culture Means Everything”)

Key takeaways:

• Stop asking where ecommerce sits - The right question is how to fundamentally change how organizations work to match how consumers actually shop across all channels
• Commerce leaders must become orchestrators - Future success requires professionals who can coordinate across sales, marketing, supply chain, and customer experience rather than operating in functional silos
• AI enables strategic thinking - By automating remedial tasks like content creation and competitive analysis, AI frees up human talent for higher-value strategic work and cross-functional collaboration
• Chief Growth Officers represent true omnichannel leadership - Unlike Chief Digital Officers (which were transitional roles), CGOs who own the entire consumer journey represent the permanent future of commerce organization
• Joint business planning must integrate all functions - Brands showing up as one unified company to retail partners will become essential for maintaining competitive advantage and accessing new opportunities
• [00:16:39] "We shouldn't be asking, ‘where does ecommerce sit?’ We should be asking, ‘how are we fundamentally changing how we work to match the way that the consumer shops?’" -- Lauren
• [00:12:01] "Instead of being a digital marketer and like a traditional marketer, you're just a marketer who understands digital in store and every single other channel, including social commerce that you're seeing your consumer shop at." -- Lauren
• [00:23:47] "The true definition of omnichannel is having a leader who is accountable for the entire consumer journey. That's what a Chief Growth Officer is." -- Lauren
• [00:42:46] "Because commerce is culture." -- Lauren

Associated Links:

• Check out Future Commerce on YouTube
• Check out Future Commerce+ for exclusive content and save on merch and print
• Subscribe to Insiders and The Senses to read more about what we are witnessing in the commerce world
• Listen to our other episodes of Future Commerce

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!

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

When NASA Tech Meets Kitchen Table Startup

Key Takeaways:

• Intuition Over Analytics: HigherDOSE allocates 15% to 20% of its budget towards experimental campaigns, balancing performance metrics with gut-driven brand decisions like Manhattan truck wraps
• Science Meets Spirit: The brand combines NASA-developed technologies with frequency-based wellness, hiring team members who have both data analysis skills and Reiki training
• Premium Democratization: At-home biohacking devices prove more cost-effective than recurring spa treatments, making exclusive wellness technologies accessible for daily use
• Post-Data Wellness: Consumers’ shift from tracking-obsessed biohacking toward intuitive, feeling-based self-care reflects a broader cultural movement that the brand embraces 
• [15:24] "We take a much more intuitive approach to wellness. I think the masculine biohacking world is very much about tracking your statistics and measurement... But we are trying more and more to relearn this type of methodology so it’s a lot more in tune with what we need." -- Ingrid
• [42:02] "The beauty of HigherDOSE is that we are actually where science meets the woo, right? There is tons and tons of scientific evidence that's been studied about the technologies that we sell." -- Ingrid
• [27:25] "It's funny to take a premium––really, frankly, elitist––brand and call it democratizing. But I agree. I think there's a lot of democratizing qualities about HigherDOSE." -- Ingrid
• [30:05] "When user-generated content started becoming popular, I was very deep in my premium luxury fashion and beauty headspace, where I was a late adopter. And I called it LGC, loser-generated content." -- Ingrid

Associated Links:

• Check out Future Commerce on YouTube
• Check out Future Commerce+ for exclusive content and save on merch and print
• Subscribe to Insiders and The Senses to read more about what we are witnessing in the commerce world
• Listen to our other episodes of Future Commerce

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!

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Key takeaways:

• Loyalty has evolved from transactional to operational - Modern consumers demand authentic brand experiences over points and discounts, rewarding companies that consistently deliver on their stated values
• The supply chain is the overlooked frontier - While everyone focuses on AI shopping assistants, the transformative opportunity lies in agentic order routing, returns processing, and risk scoring
• Inventory visibility remains the ultimate blocker - Real-time visibility across distribution centers, stores, and supplier networks is still the foundational challenge preventing true omnichannel success
• "There are people that are buying now that aren't humans... That's just a weird statement when you say that out loud." - Steve Norris
• "We're moving from this transactional loyalty to more of this operational loyalty... which is like a brand's ability to be able to flawlessly execute on their position and their story." - Steve Norris
• "I used to hand-code web pages in Notepad.exe... I think we're in the notepad.exe stage of AI." - Phillip Jackson

Associated Links:

• Learn more about Logicbroker
• Check out Future Commerce on YouTube
• Check out Future Commerce+ for exclusive content and save on merch and print
• Subscribe to Insiders and The Senses to read more about what we are witnessing in the commerce world
• Listen to our other episodes of Future Commerce

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!

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

If You’re Just Following the Data, You’re Following the Past

Key takeaways:

• The marketer's identity crisis: Evolving from channel specialists to customer relationship managers orchestrating holistic experiences.
• Scale meets personalization: Castore manages 32 Klaviyo instances while maintaining intimate relationships through strategic automation.
• Attribution's cultural revolution: How brands are moving beyond "either/or" to "both/and" so they can measure immediate performance while building long-term value.
• Channel affinity intelligence: AI identifies not just preferred channels, but optimal timing to eliminate fatigue.
• "There's not many brands that you would get tattooed on yourself. But if you're a sports fan, if you're a supporter of a national team or a football club... that means you really care about the experience you have with that brand." - Ben Jackson on Castore's passionate customer base
• "Rather than our reliance being quite heavy on sending out a load of email blasts to try and tick revenue targets... Let's tell those stories. Let's give the customer who we know is already incredibly passionate a reason to be loyal." - Max Holland (Castore) on content-driven relationship building
• "If you're just following the data, you're following the past. If you're following the competition, you're following what everybody else has done, and it's really difficult to differentiate if you're gonna do that." - Ben Jackson on creative marketing philosophy
• "Some of the impact you have as a marketer today, typically you take credit for the success in that moment. But some of it is about building that brand, building that customer experience... that doesn't just last for that point of one transaction. It kind of lasts over years." - Ben Jackson on long-term value thinking

In-Show Mentions:

• Castore - Athletic wear brand managing 32 Klaviyo instances for partner teams and clubs
• Rory Sutherland - Behavioral economist discussing explore/exploit marketing philosophy
• K London - Klaviyo's European conference with 1,500 attendees and waiting list

Associated Links:

• Check out Future Commerce on YouTube
• Check out Future Commerce+ for exclusive content and save on merch and print
• Subscribe to Insiders and The Senses to read more about what we are witnessing in the commerce world
• Listen to our other episodes of Future Commerce

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!

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The Genius Behind That Viral Dress

Key takeaways:

• Community over conversion - Building authentic customer relationships drives long-term success more than short-term sales optimization
• Cultural instinct beats data - When responding to viral moments and cultural trends, intuition often signals opportunities before data can catch up
• Choice trumps speed - Customers value optionality in how, when, and where they receive products more than just fast delivery
• Localized curation wins - Store-specific assortments based on neighborhood demographics and customer needs drive expansion success
• Cross-category trend application - Scaling cultural moments across diverse product categories (from eccentric lamps to dog sweaters) maximizes trend participation
• [00:03:13] "[Our merchant teams] are ahead of the curve, predicting trends. And if I may be so bold, they're influencing trends." - Candan
• [00:05:53] "It’s symbiotic. Our goal is to give customers what they want. But I think …sometimes they don't know yet what they want." - Candan
• [00:20:04] "Connection over conversion. You build the connection, everything else will come." - Candan
• [00:16:41] "I don't think that the most important thing is speed. I think the most important thing is choice." - Candan
• [00:19:43] "We're also at a time where people are much more savvy than we give them credit for." - Phillip

In-Show Mentions:

• Listen to Mindy Massey, Anthropologie Global Director of Stores, on the latest season of Step By Step.

Associated Links:

• Check out Future Commerce on YouTube
• Check out Future Commerce+ for exclusive content and save on merch and print
• Subscribe to Insiders and The Senses to read more about what we are witnessing in the commerce world
• Listen to our other episodes of Future Commerce

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!

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

• 🆕 Access to our newest analysis feature for members, Field Notes, our retail space analysis briefing. Featuring brands like Swatch, Printemps, and Skims. 
• Access to our new Word of Mouth Index with Fairing, a brand new member benefit
• Save 15% on Future Commerce print journals and merch
• Exclusive invites to physical events, dinners, and priority invites to industry events (SXSW, Art Basel, VISIONS)
• Ad-free episodes and bonus content!

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Key Takeaways:

• Return on Experience (ROE) trumps immediate conversion: Great retail experiences build trust and engagement over multiple visits rather than forcing day-one purchases. Customers may visit four or ten times before converting, especially for luxury or investment pieces.
• Know your brand story—and tell it consistently: The most successful stores have crystal-clear brand identity. Swatch excels because they know exactly who they are across generations, while other brands confuse customers by mixing messages or defaulting to celebrity associations.
• Sensorial brands must commit fully: Stores like Rituals in Dublin create immersive experiences (offering green tea, trial sinks, strong scents) that keep customers engaged, while half-measures feel clinical and forgettable like many current luxury retailers.
• Physical retail is about experimentation, not just sales: Pop-ups and flagship stores serve as brand laboratories where companies test market reception, gather customer data, and create shareable moments—even when immediate sales aren't the primary goal.
• "People buy stuff, they buy things, but they pay for an experience." - Kate Fannin
• "If you like their stuff, go online"—the worst possible thing someone could say about a store experience. - Kate Fannin on SKIMS
• "I wish marketing would change their name to engagement because that's really what companies and brands and stores should be focused on." - Kate Fannin

In-Show Mentions:

• Field Notes: Future Commerce's new premium retail analysis product measuring in-store return on experience
• SKIMS flagship store: Clinical Fifth Avenue showroom experience
• Swatch Times Square: Interactive, multigenerational retail experience with hands-on elements

Associated Links:

• Check out Future Commerce on YouTube
• Check out Future Commerce+ for exclusive content and save on merch and print
• Subscribe to Insiders and The Senses to read more about what we are witnessing in the commerce world
• Listen to our other episodes of Future Commerce
• Kate Fannin Consulting: katefanninconsulting.com

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!

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Customers Are Already Telling You the Answer

Key takeaways:

• Next-gen brands prioritize channel agnosticism over DTC exclusivity - Success comes from meeting customers where they are, whether that's TikTok Shop, Nordstrom, or intimate retail experiences designed for vulnerable conversations.
• Cultural barrier-breaking requires authentic celebrity partnerships - Kristen Bell's decade-long customer relationship with Knix created campaign authenticity that audiences could immediately sense, proving that real relationships trump transactional endorsements.
• Product innovation emerges from customer vulnerability - Knix's best product developments, from ultra-thin technology to natural fiber collections, stem directly from customer feedback about their most personal needs and experiences.
• Physical retail serves emotional commerce needs - In categories requiring trust and education, stores become "vulnerability corners" where trained staff facilitate intimate conversations that e-commerce cannot replicate.
• Mission-driven marketing survives economic pressure - As consumer spending tightens, brands with clear purpose and authentic intention will outperform those focused solely on transactions.

Key Quotes:

• "DTC is no longer a differentiator. It's just table stakes. These brands are no longer defined by how they sell their product, but why they sell, and how they integrate into a customer's life." - Nicole Tapscott [00:08:35]
• "The best campaigns are based on a true insight and great representation... someone that really represents that message in a real authentic way." - Nicole Tapscott [00:15:51]
• "Listen to the customer. They're usually telling you the answer... The if you build it, they will come mentality of former businesses does not work. You actually have to build it where they want it." - Nicole Tapscott [00:51:16]

Associated Links:

• Check out Future Commerce on YouTube
• Check out Future Commerce+ for exclusive content and save on merch and print
• Subscribe to Insiders and The Senses to read more about what we are witnessing in the commerce world
• Listen to our other episodes of Future Commerce

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!

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Curating the Re-Sale Lifecycle

Key takeaways:

• Community over transactions: Rebag shifted from viewing customers as individual transactions to building "a sense of community" where customers feel they "own the company" through membership and engagement models. - Geronimo [08:30]
• No channel separation: "There really is no separation between e-commerce and the physical stores" because customers naturally move between digital and physical touchpoints in their shopping journey. - Geronimo [05:31]
• Person-first data collection: Rather than focusing on brands and colors, Rebag captures customers' "internal self, their core beliefs" and lifestyles to create meaningful connections before any transaction occurs. - Geronimo [17:44]
• Curated solutions, not overwhelming options: When you have too much to offer, "we have to first get to know that customer, collect that data from them to then evaluate" which services will be most impactful, like "a concierge" at a resort. - Geronimo [23:29]

In-Show Mentions:

• Charles Gorra (CEO and Founder, Rebag)
• Elizabeth Lane (Chief Marketing Officer, Rebag)
• Partnership with Macy's Inc. and Bloomingdale's

Associated Links:

• Learn more about Endear
• Check out Future Commerce on YouTube
• Check out Future Commerce+ for exclusive content and save on merch and print
• Subscribe to Insiders and The Senses to read more about what we are witnessing in the commerce world
• Listen to our other episodes of Future Commerce

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!

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

“I Believe In Stores”

Key takeaways:

• Authenticity over automation: Akira actively combats formulaic retail interactions, training stylists to engage genuinely rather than asking "Can I help you find anything?" which Eric calls "nails on a chalkboard." - Eric [07:12]
• Micro-wins build macro loyalty: Individual moments—like finding the perfect jeans after 90 minutes—create lasting relationships that compound over years. "That's authenticity. And that is micro wins leading to building a business." - Eric [21:03]
• Technology enables, doesn't replace: Tools like texting and client data enhance personal relationships rather than scaling impersonal outreach. The focus remains "the one on one relationship, the personal connection." - Eric [16:14]
• Character comes first: When hiring, Eric prioritizes "energy, intelligence and integrity," with integrity being "first and foremost" because authentic relationships require genuine people. - Eric [09:14]

Associated Links:

• Learn more about Endear
• Check out Future Commerce on YouTube
• Check out Future Commerce+ for exclusive content and save on merch and print
• Subscribe to Insiders and The Senses to read more about what we are witnessing in the commerce world
• Listen to our other episodes of Future Commerce

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!

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The Multi-Gen Effect

Key takeaways:

• Amplification over transformation: Anthropologie didn't reinvent their service strategy—they amplified 33 years of authentic relationship-building with better tools and deeper community integration. "I would say more than transformation. It's been like amplification... Our service strategy has always been built on a foundation of genuine connection." - Mindy [02:52]
• Wide lanes, strong guardrails: Success requires high accountability and clear brand standards while giving local teams wide creative latitude to serve their specific communities. "We do provide guardrails. But the lanes are kind of wide open for a localized approach." - Mindy [06:41]
• Authenticity drives KPIs, not vice versa: The brand prioritizes genuine relationships over metrics, trusting that real connections naturally generate better business outcomes. "The authenticity of the relationships is what drives the KPIs versus the KPIs driving the relationships." - Mindy [09:26]
• Ordinary to extraordinary: Every element of the operation embraces the philosophy of transforming simple materials into unexpected beauty. "So much of our heritage is steeped in making the ordinary extraordinary. You find something really simple and you make it super innovative." - Mindy [13:36]

In-Show Mentions:

• Tricia Smith (CEO, Anthropologie)
• Rockefeller Center store holiday display

Associated Links:

• Learn more about Endear
• Check out Future Commerce on YouTube
• Check out Future Commerce+ for exclusive content and save on merch and print
• Subscribe to Insiders and The Senses to read more about what we are witnessing in the commerce world
• Listen to our other episodes of Future Commerce

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!

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Know Thyself, Choose Better

Key takeaways:

• Pure idealism faces scalability challenges: Growing wellness brands often must compromise their founding principles to reach broader audiences and achieve economies of scale, as demonstrated by Whole Foods' evolution from commune cooperative to mainstream retailer.
• Identity exchange drives commerce decisions: Every purchase represents an identity transaction where consumers either align with authentic values or fall prey to manufactured personas pushed by predatory marketing tactics.
• Self-knowledge enables intentional consumption: Understanding your personal predispositions (Kunle recommends DNA tests, blood work, meditation, or breathwork) allows for more conscious brand alignment and purchasing decisions.
• Consciousness awakening shifts market dynamics: Social media influencers educating consumers about ingredient transparency and wellness principles are forcing traditional retailers like Tesco to create accelerator programs for "Better For You" brands.

Key Quotes:

• [00:01:56]: "Culture is communication, it's community. It's the zeitgeist... At the core, if you go deeper into culture, I think the value system is very, very fundamental." – Kunle Campbell 
• [00:06:22]: "In order to change the world, like at scale, you're going to have to make some compromises... Pure idealism is not enough in a capitalist system." – Kunle Campbell 
• [00:19:25]: "Marketing clutter says, 'this is an identity. Claim it. Take it,' and then you lose your inner person." – Kunle Campbell 
• [00:26:35]: "Don't lose self... There are brands out there that would sort of merge with your own unique wants and needs based on what you need for yourself." – Kunle Campbell 

In-Show Mentions:

• John Mackey's "The Whole Story" book and Whole Foods' evolution
• Joe Dispenza meditation methodology and body scanning techniques
• Tesco's Better For You brand accelerator program

Associated Links:

• Check out Future Commerce on YouTube
• Check out Future Commerce+ for exclusive content and save on merch and print
• Subscribe to Insiders and The Senses to read more about what we are witnessing in the commerce world
• Listen to our other episodes of Future Commerce

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!

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

One Year Closer to the Digital Afterlife

Key takeaways:

• The ChatGPT Expert Problem: AI is enabling a new class of "nouveau experts" who cite disparate cultural theorists like Freddie DeBoer and Peter Turchin to sound authoritative, creating sophisticated-sounding but potentially hollow analysis
• Peak Inflexibility: Modern life is increasingly controlled by inflexible systems that eliminate human judgment and serendipity, from cell phone stores that can't override basic functions to restaurants requiring months-advance reservations
• One-Round Game Marketing: Brands like American Eagle are adopting political-style "one-round game" tactics, where temporary controversy and outrage generate attention without long-term brand damage, as demonstrated by Sydney Sweeney's "good genes" campaign
• The Post-Internet Brain: We're outsourcing memory, emotions, and even nostalgia to algorithms, with AI potentially eliminating the need to ask questions by providing contextual information before we realize we want it
• [00:25:55] Brian: "I believe that there is a set of business leaders out there that see ChatGPT as a way to make decisions about their business... they're sending it to an entity that effectively is confirmation bias."
• [00:24:27] Phillip: "What we found in our primary research is that TikTok doesn't show up for direct like spear fishing—that's Amazon. It doesn't show up for inspiration like window shopping—that's Instagram. And it doesn't show up for entertainment or learning—that's YouTube."
• [00:54:49] Brian: "Someday we're not going to call it the internet anymore, actually. Because it's actually an extension of our brains. It's a way for us to store information."
• [01:13:54] Phillip: "A blonde woman talking about her good genes. You’re telling me that not one person thought about this? This is perfectly engineered for outrage."

In-Show Mentions:

• Jack Conte on X: TikTok vs. YouTube as search engines
• Alex Greifeld on X: “One round game marketing”

Associated Links:

• Check out Future Commerce on YouTube
• Check out Future Commerce Plus for exclusive content and save on merch and print
• Subscribe to Insiders and The Senses to read more about what we are witnessing in the commerce world
• Listen to other episodes of Future Commerce

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!

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Rory Sutherland, chairman of Ogilvy and the poet of persuasion, joins us live from Klaviyo London to challenge marketing's obsession with thin-tailed attribution. Brands are facing an existential crisis in an increasingly brandless, chat-interface powered world, but Sutherland believes that current measurement models are not designed to allow marketers to test, fail, learn, and grow, systematically destroying breakthrough potential.

Key takeaways:

• Technology evolves from option to obligation: Parking apps that liberated us from coin machines now trap those without smartphones, while McDonald's screen-only outlets eliminate human flexibility
• Marketing is fat-tailed, business is not thin-tailed: "10% of what you do delivers 130% of the value, but you don't know what the 10% is in advance." But marketing’s current measurement system is designed for us to fail. Attribution models punish necessary failures and do not credit long-term breakthroughs
• Interface changes redistribute power overnight: When fundamental interaction modes shift from typing to voice and stores to apps, established advantages can disappear instantly, creating opportunities for complete market disruption
• Brand value is multifarious, not monolithic: Fame, trust signals, and decision-making heuristics remain valuable even as chat interfaces challenge traditional brand expression. "People will come and find you rather than you having to find them." – Rory Sutherland
• [00:06:13] "Interface change is always disruptive, because if you change the interface within which people choose and act, you fundamentally change behavior." - Rory Sutherland
• [00:20:25] "There's a concern I always have about technology, which is the extent to which a lot of technology arrives as an option and ends up as an obligation." - Rory Sutherland
• [00:42:47] "There's a danger that what [AI is] doing is enshrining groupthink. It's taking groupthink and effectively engraving it." - Rory Sutherland

Links & In-Show Mentions:

• Learn more about Ogilvy
• Check out Future Commerce on YouTube
• Check out Future Commerce+ for exclusive content and save on merch and print
• Subscribe to Insiders and The Senses to read more about what we are witnessing in the commerce world
• Listen to our other episodes of Future Commerce

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!

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

From the stage of VISIONS Summit at MoMA, Dami Lee reveals why the most chaotic spaces often teach us the most about what it means to be human. 

As a licensed architect turned YouTube storyteller with over 200 million views, she's discovered that making architecture approachable isn't about simplifying complexity, it's about finding the human stories embedded in our built environment. Through her exploration of places like Kowloon Walled City, Dami demonstrates how the most profound spaces emerge not from master plans but from organic human adaptation, creating connections and meaning through what philosophers call "rhizomic growth."

When a Deeper Connection Is Better Than a Wider One

Key takeaways:

• Human framing trumps technical perfection: No matter how many hours spent making content beautiful or technically accurate, none of it matters without taking time to make it human and frame architecture from a human angle.
• Personal investment drives authentic storytelling: Topics perform best when team members have genuine personal connections to the subject matter, leading to deeper research and more compelling narratives.
• Rhizomic processes create unexpected connections: Non-linear, seemingly inefficient creative processes allow for serendipitous discoveries and cross-categorical insights that wouldn't emerge through structured approaches.
• Extremes ignite curiosity: Audiences gravitate toward architectural stories that push boundaries—like the world's densest city—because extremes reveal fundamental truths about human behavior and adaptation.

Associated Links:

• Check out Dami Lee on YouTube
• Check out Future Commerce on YouTube
• Check out Future Commerce+ for exclusive content and save on merch and print
• Subscribe to Insiders and The Senses to read more about what we are witnessing in the commerce world
• Listen to our other episodes of Future Commerce

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!

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

• 🆕 Access to our newest analysis feature for members, Field Notes, our retail space analysis briefing. Featuring brands like Swatch, Printemps, and Skims. 
• Access to our new Word of Mouth Index with Fairing, a brand new member benefit
• Save 15% on Future Commerce print journals and merch
• Exclusive invites to physical events, dinners, and priority invites to industry events (SXSW, Art Basel, VISIONS)
• Ad-free episodes and bonus content!

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Grab a pen and get ready to take some notes because Melissa Gonzalez and her firm, MG2 Advisory, have cracked the Gen-Z code through groundbreaking new research. But make no mistake, this isn’t more one-size-fits all data about a large, and highly nuanced, cohort. This is granular research that unpacks the social, behavioral, and psychological forces impacting how different Gen Z personas shop. 

This week, we’re learning how brands can leverage powerful tools that Gen Z is already wielding to level up their physical retail experiences: nostalgia, authenticity, sustainability, and co-creation. Listen now to get Melissa’s data-driven blueprint for designing meaningful brand experiences. 

Multiplayer This, Co-Creator That

Key takeaways:

• Values vs. Value Tension: 94% of Gen Z shops with values in mind (authenticity, transparency, humility, sustainability), but economics still drive final decisions
• Co-Creation Imperative: Three out of four Gen Z consumers want to be collaborators in the brand journey, extending beyond product customization to store design, layout, and programming
• Nostalgia as Currency: Y2K and 2000s aesthetics dominate Gen Z's desire for nostalgic comfort, with apparel and fashion brands leading the charge through vintage-inspired experiences and activations
• Technology Extends Instinct: Successful retail tech either reduces friction through operational efficiency or creates deeper immersion. Anything in between feels like novelty and lacks authenticity
• [00:09:15] "The reason why it doesn't always win their wallet share is because economics still matter. But if there's a great desire for it... if a brand or retailer can get it right and enable it, there's a big opportunity there because they're helping consumers live those aspirational values." – Melissa
• [00:14:59] "Three out of four... want to be co-creators and collaborators in the brand journey. Store design, product customization... but you don't see it often in store design, I think... there's a real opportunity because you're getting validation buy in." – Melissa
• [00:28:30] "You have to have a team... you have to always understand the zeitgeist and how generations are evolving... because it's not a one-size-fits-all answer that's going to remain static." – Melissa
• [00:38:36] "What about it is going to feel more ethereal and more immersive... What are you giving people? Why are they getting out of their house? Why are they getting out of their phone? Why do they feel like they have to engage with this physical experience?" – Melissa

In-Show Mentions:

• New 2025 Gen Z Research
• Our Upcoming Webinar with MG2 Advisory
• The Pop-Up Paradigm book
• Retail Refined podcast
• MG2 Advisory

Associated Links:

• Check out Future Commerce on YouTube
• Check out Future Commerce+ for exclusive content and save on merch and print
• Subscribe to Insiders and The Senses to read more about what we are witnessing in the commerce world
• Listen to our other episodes of Future Commerce

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!

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

• 🆕 Access to our newest analysis feature for members, Field Notes, our retail space analysis briefing. Featuring brands like Swatch, Printemps, and Skims. 
• Access to our new Word of Mouth Index with Fairing, a brand new member benefit
• Save 15% on Future Commerce print journals and merch
• Exclusive invites to physical events, dinners, and priority invites to industry events (SXSW, Art Basel, VISIONS)
• Ad-free episodes and bonus content!

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

French Riviera Dreams vs. Silicon Valley Anxiety

Key takeaways:

• Cannes Lions 2025 operated as three distinct conferences simultaneously, reflecting the industry's cultural fragmentation between traditional creativity, advertising channels and platforms, and bougie networking events.
• AI seemingly dominated every conversation, with industry professionals making dark jokes about replacement theory.
• Retail media networks and tech platforms have fundamentally altered the festival's ecosystem and vibe, creating productive tension between creative celebration and commercial necessity.
• Post-festival controversies surrounding AI usage highlight our industry's evolving discourse over the role of authenticity and efficiency in creative work.
• “If you took away all of the tech companies and platforms and big agencies from the beach, what would Cannes Lions be reduced to? I don't know if it would even make enough money to sustain still having that award ceremony in 2025." – Michael Miraflor
• "It was inevitable that every other conversation that you would have would become one about AI replacement theory to a certain extent. Or, you know, jokes about how this year feels like we're all on the Titanic." – Michael Miraflor
• "I find it interesting that a lot of the criticism comes from people who have jobs in creativity that I think are quite elite jobs. In my field, I feel like we're all quite lucky to be where we are…We can be critical, and I think my job has been to be critical... But I also think that we all have some element of privilege to be able to do that kind of work." – Phillip Jackson

In-Show Mentions:

• The Cannes Lions AI Controversies
• MrBeast thumbnail app controversy

Associated Links:

• Check out Future Commerce on YouTube
• Check out Future Commerce+ for exclusive content and save on merch and print
• Subscribe to Insiders and The Senses to read more about what we are witnessing in the commerce world
• Listen to our other episodes of Future Commerce

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!

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

It’s been three years since the episode’s first airing, but the content still resonates. This could largely be attributed to many “digitally native darlings” still struggling to maintain their positioning in a crowded market. One possible exception could be Warby Parker, a brand that has successfully evolved into an omnichannel, omnipresent brand, effectively retaining the high product quality, service, and experience that many shoppers have come to love. 

When we discuss the struggles of DTC brands, what comes to mind for you?

DTC Groupthink and Brand Criticism… Three Years Later

Key takeaways:

• “The Uncorkening” is a latent criticism that was stymied by the loudest voices in an ecosystem who didn’t feel that they had permission to speak up, has now been unleashed
• DTC models (particularly VC-backed IPO exits) have proven unsuccessful. The original promise was that DTC would remove middlemen and form a direct connection with the consumer; meanwhile, eCommerce is nothing but middlemen.  
• Many products don't live up to the hype. Another factor of The Uncorkening in DTC is that the loudest voices and advocates for DTC have often silenced criticism by playing a trump card—to critique a small brand is to criticize the founder behind the brand.
• The loudest DTC voices have quieted. As capital outcomes wither for those who had built their reputations on the examination of the DTC space, the loudest voices were silenced. Due in large part to The Great Resignation and the inaccessibility of capital in the current state of the markets, many of the most visible DTC acolytes have moved on to new projects or industries.
• What will The Uncorkening make us not want to buy next?

In-Show Mentions:

• Nate Poulin’s tweet outlining 12 DTC IPOs
• Immi ratings and reviews (since this essay’s launch, Immi’s score has increased to 3.4) 

Associated Links:

• Check out Future Commerce on YouTube
• Check out Future Commerce+ for exclusive content and save on merch and print
• Subscribe to Insiders and The Senses to read more about what we are witnessing in the commerce world
• Listen to our other episodes of Future Commerce

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!

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

If episodes 1-4 were the philosophy, today, we bring you the playbook. Ready to set your marketing department free? Listen to the Decoded season 4 finale now. 

The Total Football Effect

Key takeaways:

• Small, cautious steps often fail where comprehensive transformation succeeds.
• Anonymous surveys revealed FDJ’s teams were dissatisfied with assembly-line processes and hungry for broader responsibilities.
• AI enables faster delivery, leading to more opportunities for internal praise and success – and big boosts to team morale.
• Expertise still matters, but it's about expanding capabilities rather than rigid specialization.

In-Show Mentions:

• Learn more about FDJ United (Française des Jeux)

Associated Links:

• Learn more about Optimove’s platforms
• Learn more about Positionless Marketing
• Check out Future Commerce on YouTube
• Check out Future Commerce+ for exclusive content and save on merch and print
• Subscribe to Insiders and The Senses to read more about what we are witnessing in the commerce world
• Listen to our other episodes of Future Commerce

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!

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

What happens when you bury the essence of an entire civilization fifty feet underground? Live from VISIONS Summit: NYC, Future Commerce co-founder Phillip Jackson takes us on an archaeological journey through time capsules—from the monuments of the Westinghouse's World's Fair to NASA's Golden Record floating through space. Through the lens of these cultural artifacts, we explore a provocative thesis: that commerce is culture, and in five thousand years, only brands will survive to tell our story.

What We Buy Buys Us Back

Key Takeaways:

• Commerce is culture: What we buy literally buys us back, shaping who we become as individuals and societies
• Brands as time capsules: Companies like Westinghouse and Panasonic have created some of history's most comprehensive cultural documents through their time capsule projects, and brands are the most central figures in these critical containers
• The psychology of consumption: Repeated exposure through performance marketing mirrors the spreading activation theory that drives curiosity and attitude formation
• Cultural permanence: In an era of synthetic reality and AI, time capsules may represent the last authentic artifacts of human civilization

In-Show Mentions:

• More from VISIONS Summit: NYC
• Westinghouse Time Capsules (1938 & 1968) - World's Fair, Flushing Meadows, Queens
• Time Capsule location in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park
• Panasonic (Matsushita Electric) Time Capsule EXPO '70
• NASA's Voyager Golden Record Project
• The "Story of the Westinghouse Time Capsule" book
• Voyager Golden Record contents and images
• The supermarket image on the Voyager Golden Record

Associated Links:

• Check out Future Commerce on YouTube
• Check out Future Commerce+ for exclusive content and save on merch and print
• Subscribe to Insiders and The Senses to read more about what we are witnessing in the commerce world
• Listen to our other episodes of Future Commerce

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!

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

When Walmart entered immersive digital experiences, it wasn’t chasing hype—it was rethinking how the brand shows up in everyday digital life. In this rewind from August 2024, Justin Breton, Director of Brand Experiences, shares how Walmart Realm launched as a gamified marketplace blending culture, commerce, and creativity.

Since then, Walmart has scaled its virtual ambitions with “Walmart Discovered” on Roblox, real-world commerce in gaming, and the debut of “Walmart Unlimited.” What began as an experiment is now central to Walmart’s immersive commerce strategy.

CTRL+ALT+CART

Key takeaways:

• Walmart Realm was never about conversions; it was about discovery. Today, Walmart's investments in platforms like Roblox and Spatial have validated that focus, with real-world commerce now integrated directly into those ecosystems.
• Justin avoided the term "metaverse," even when it was a buzzword. Instead, his team focused on familiarity and ritual, and that framing holds up. The strategy now connects digital shoppers with creators, brands, and immersive experiences they already love.
• Walmart has scaled its creator-driven experiences, including collaborations with Drew Barrymore and Netflix, helping drive co-created virtual spaces that reflect real-world partnerships.
• The early embrace of immersive storytelling now informs Walmart’s content commerce and livestreaming efforts, with shoppable moments and branded narrative arcs that feel more like cultural touchpoints than retail plays.
• With new initiatives like Walmart Unlimited and its expanded Spatial footprint, Walmart is setting the stage for a generation of consumers who see shopping as play, story, and community.
• Justin joined the lineup of speakers at VISIONS Summit: NYC this summer. Subscribe to our newsletters and check out our recap on Insiders to catch highlights from the event.

Associated Links:

• Explore Walmart Realm
• Check out Future Commerce on YouTube
• Check out Future Commerce+ for exclusive content and save on merch and print
• Subscribe to Insiders and The Senses to read more about what we are witnessing in the commerce world
• Listen to our other episodes of Future Commerce

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!

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Listen to decode how technology and ambition together can strip away organizational friction, empower self-sufficient marketers, and dramatically improve customer experience. It’s not about removing roles—it’s about removing blockers.

Key Takeaways

1. Positionless marketing is more cultural than structural. It’s not about tearing down departments—it’s about cultivating people who take initiative without waiting for permission. That mindset, modeled after Israeli military culture, is what truly drives speed and creativity.
2. "Big-headedness" is a feature, not a flaw. Shai introduces the idea of “big-headed” employees—those who embrace ambition without being told—as essential to modern teams. In fast-paced orgs, initiative is a strategic asset.
3. Creative execution is no longer gated. With tools like Optimove's Canvas and embedded brand controls, marketers can produce polished, on-brand campaigns without relying entirely on designers or developers.
4. CRM is shifting from broadcast to orchestration. Instead of blasting segments, marketers can now trigger context-aware journeys that consider history, behavior, and optimal timing—raising the bar for customer experience.
5. AI isn’t about acceleration alone—it’s about ambition. When friction is removed from creative and technical processes, teams don’t just move faster—they aim higher.

Key Quotes

• “Being small-headed means you’re just an order-taker. A big-headed person says, ‘You asked for A and B, but I saw it also needed C and D, so I did that—and prepped for E.’ That’s what we look for.” – Pini Yakuel
• “Who said the first message should be the one you send? We don’t want to serve the first—we want to serve the best.” – Shai Frank
• “If it used to take eight weeks to get a campaign out, now it might take two days. That frees up time to actually be creative.” – Shai Frank
• “If you don’t create good customer experiences, people will leave. This isn’t a moral imperative—it’s survival.” – Shai Frank

Associated Links:

• Learn more about Optimove’s platforms
• Learn more about Positionless Marketing
• Check out Future Commerce on YouTube
• Check out Future Commerce+ for exclusive content and save on merch and print
• Subscribe to Insiders and The Senses to read more about what we are witnessing in the commerce world
• Listen to our other episodes of Future Commerce

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!

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Drawing on her background in investigative journalism, which has covered everyone from Donald Trump to mommy bloggers, Piazza reveals how traditional values have become the latest form of performance marketing.

Nostalgia As a Business Model

Key takeaways:

• "Everyone is lying to you. They're creating a magazine; they're creating a TV show. Most of this is not their real life. When you look at it like it's actually media and not a glimpse into someone's window, I think then you can let go of some of the guilt and the shame, but you're still going to buy the shit." - Jo Piazza [10:40]
• "The funniest thing about trad wives is they're encouraging all of these women to quit their jobs and rely on a man. I'm like, where are all these rich men that just want to make enough money to support a family? The average male income is something around $60,000 and the average American household spends $70,000. So the math does not add up in this equation." - Jo Piazza [19:12]
• "You can now rent entire houses for your influencer content. You can rent out a house with the beautiful kitchen and the pristine countertops. You can even rent a bathroom that's beautiful for your get-ready-with-me routine. And then [you can] shoot all of your content in it for one day. It's not your actual freaking house, but no one knows that." - Jo Piazza [13:31]
• "We're all brands. We're all trying to create something online. I'm very honest about this. I want people to buy my damn books. And so that means I have to post on social media." - Jo Piazza [26:35]

Associated Links:

• Order Everyone Is Lying to You by Jo Piazza
• Check out Future Commerce on YouTube
• Check out Future Commerce+ for exclusive content and save on merch and print
• Subscribe to Insiders and The Senses to read more about what we are witnessing in the commerce world
• Listen to our other episodes of Future Commerce

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!

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Author and data analyst Neil Hoyne and Pini Yakuel explore how behavioral rigidity, not technical limitations, holds most companies back. Drawing from principles in Neil Hoyne’s book, Converted, they argue for a shift toward systems that favor adaptability, exploration, and proximity to the customer. Because in a world shaped by AI, the real competitive edge is not just speed—it’s staying meaningfully connected to the people you serve.

Key Takeaways

1. When roles become identities, organizations lose flexibility. Over-specialization makes it harder for teams to respond to evolving customer needs.
2. Behavioral defaults—not tech—often slow teams down. Loyalty to familiar workflows or team structures can block innovation, even when tools are available.
3. AI works best when aligned with real customer strategy. It’s not a shortcut or a strategy in itself—it’s a multiplier for what actually matters.
4. Customer-centricity requires outcome-driven teams. Structuring around internal functions, rather than external impact, leads to misaligned incentives.
5. Small shifts in ownership create big changes in experience. Empowering teams to work across silos—even partially—brings them closer to the customer, and closer to results.

Key Quotes

• [00:13:50] “Marketing teams don’t just bake bread—they are bread. It’s not just what they do; it’s who they’ve become. So when the shift happens—when the customer wants cupcakes instead—they miss it entirely. Because they weren’t watching the customer. They were defending the bread.” – Neil Hoyne
• [00:21:13] “If your strategy is ‘use AI better than the competition,’ you don’t have a strategy.” – Neil Hoyne
• [00:25:46] “Accelerate what already works. Tactics are multipliers, not miracles.” – Pini
• [00:46:47] “Positionless isn’t binary. Can you let a team own 10% of something, start to finish?” – Pini Yakuel
• [00:51:39] “We’ve gone too far into specialization. It’s time to bring back the craftsman.” – Neil Hoyne

Associated Links:

• Learn more about Optimove’s platforms
• Learn more about Positionless Marketing
• Read Converted by Neil Hoyne
• Check out Future Commerce on YouTube
• Check out Future Commerce+ for exclusive content and save on merch and print
• Subscribe to Insiders and The Senses to read more about what we are witnessing in the commerce world
• Listen to our other episodes of Future Commerce

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!

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Maybe AI Can Make Us More Human

Key takeaways:

• AI democratization beats top-down mandates: True Classic's most successful AI implementations emerged organically from employees identifying their own repetitive tasks, then building weekend solutions that eliminated Monday-morning drudgery
• The three-pillar AI framework: An approach that includes Generative (content creation), Operational (workflow automation), and Insights (proactive business intelligence) provides a comprehensive structure for organizational AI adoption
• Century-scale vision transcends tactics: Brands seeking longevity must graduate from channel arbitrage to culture creation. By moving beyond riding existing cultural waves to generating entirely new categories, they can win and keep customers for years
• Empathy becomes a competitive advantage: As AI handles data analysis, human intuition and emotional intelligence become the irreplaceable differentiators in brand strategy and customer connection
• [00:17:20] “AI isn’t going to eliminate our jobs. It’s going to push our brains to the absolute limits. We’ll have to use our imagination more than we ever have.” – Brian Lange
• [00:17:49] “It’s going to make us more empathetic… As marketers, we’ve obsessed over the data. AI lets us return to thinking about the customer—their life stage, their needs, their emotions.” – Bryan Cano
• [00:27:09] “Just how Apple made technology accessible, we want to do the same for style and confidence. We want it to be effortless.” – Bryan Cano

Associated Links:

• Learn more about True Classic
• Learn more about Triple Whale
• Check out Future Commerce on YouTube
• Check out Future Commerce+ for exclusive content and save on merch and print
• Subscribe to Insiders and The Senses to read more about what we are witnessing in the commerce world
• Listen to our other episodes of Future Commerce

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!

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Key Takeaways

1. AI is now the default creative and analytical partner—prompting, planning, and predicting across workflows.
2. The boundary between job functions is vanishing. Designers analyze data, data scientists shape stories. You no longer need to be a specialist to do specialized tasks.
3. Context collapse is real. But AI is rapidly learning how to avoid it.
4. Generalists who can flex across roles (with help from AI) are the new MVPs.
5. Curiosity beats credentials. The only requirement is a mindset that’s open, iterative, and unbothered by a little ambiguity.

Key Quotes

• “It gives you back hours and hours and hours of time... and it’s $100 a month. That’s ridiculous.” – Pini Yakuel
• “I used to look for excuses to use AI. Now it’s part of my all-day, every-day routine.” – Phillip
• “You can’t be creative if you can’t lie. And now the computer can lie.” – Pini Yakuel
• “Instead of having positions, we’ll have roles. You might be 80% designer—but you’ll need to do data too.” – Pini Yakuel
• “Hire for attitude, not skill. New skills can always be acquired if you have the right mindset.” – Pini Yakuel

Associated Links:

• Learn more about Optimove’s platforms
• Learn more about Positionless Marketing
• Check out Future Commerce on YouTube
• Check out Future Commerce+ for exclusive content and save on merch and print
• Subscribe to Insiders and The Senses to read more about what we are witnessing in the commerce world
• Listen to our other episodes of Future Commerce

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

• Access to our new Word of Mouth Index with Fairing, a brand new member benefit
• Save 15% on Future Commerce print journals and merch
• Exclusive invites to physical events, dinners, and priority invites to industry events (SXSW, Art Basel, VISIONS)
• Ad-free episodes and bonus content!

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Emily Segal (K-HOLE, Nemesis) presents groundbreaking research on the post-peak vibe era, exploring what comes next when brands can no longer hide behind mood boards and atmospheric storytelling. From “strawberry girl summer” to “rodent boyfriend energy,” we've reached the absurdist endpoint of vibe-driven commerce…but what emerges from the wreckage of algorithmic sentiment monitoring?

The Death of Vibes and What Comes Next

Key takeaways:

• Post-Peak Vibe Reality: We've moved beyond brands as storytellers to brands as frequency emitters, where TikTok and Spotify algorithms understand our emotional states better than therapists, creating a landscape of "slop"—low-grade AI material that looks the part but doesn't feel authentic.
• The Algorithmic Gaze: Vibes aren't just cultural phenomena—they're how we see the world through machine learning's eyes. When we catch a vibe, we're processing information like an auto-encoding algorithm, making certain perceptual elements more obvious while obscuring others.
• Heritage as Just Another Vibe: Even attempts to escape contemporary vibe culture through "authentic" heritage branding ultimately become vibes themselves. There's no outside to the constant vibe machine, and stealth wealth still leaves traces of exposure.
• Three Paths Beyond Vibes: The future belongs to brands that are either impossibly dense with human labor (too substantial to reduce to vibes), exceptionally simple (pure speculative energy), or deliberately incoherent (escaping algorithmic detection entirely, like dazzle camouflage for brands).

Join the visionaries forming tomorrow’s culture through commerce at VISIONS Summit: NYC. Step into the future for 50% OFF with discount code AFTERVIBES.

Associated Links:

• Check out Future Commerce on YouTube
• Check out Future Commerce+ for exclusive content and save on merch and print
• Subscribe to Insiders and The Senses to read more about what we are witnessing in the commerce world
• Listen to our other episodes of Future Commerce
• Emily Siegel's Substack: nemesisglobal.substack.com
• Register for Vision Summit NYC with code "aftervibes" for 50% off at FutureCommerce.com/visions

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!

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Key Takeaways

1. Positionless marketing is a mindset — It's about autonomy, adaptability, and eliminating bottlenecks, not just rearranging the org chart.
2. Modern teams thrive when roles are fluid — Inspired by positionless basketball, today’s marketers succeed through cross-functionality and creative flexibility, not rigid specialization.
3. Gen AI is the new creative exoskeleton — Like an Iron Man suit, AI tools enhance marketers’ abilities, enabling faster, smarter, and more creative execution.
4. Speed is the native language of startups — Startups operate positionlessly by necessity, while legacy orgs must dismantle silos and empower self-service to keep up.
5. Positionless isn’t chaos—it’s craftsmanship — The best managers focus less on blocking and tackling, and more on elevating outcomes by distributing capability and unlocking human potential at scale.

Key Quotes

• [00:12:25] “Let’s look at the Renaissance man... the celebration of the wide gamut of human talent — that’s what this could be.” – Pini
• [00:24:53] “It’s not that departments will disappear. It’s that the type of work they do will start to change.” – Pini
• [00:26:23] “Almost every person in our exec team started their job at Optimove by writing SQL.” – Pini
• [00:30:12] “A team should be small enough to be fed by two pizzas — and fully autonomous.” – Pini (on the Bezos principle)
• [00:34:07] “You’re already positionless — that’s why you get to focus on what actually matters: the work.” – Pini, on Phillip’s agile team setup

Associated Links:

• Learn more about Optimove’s platforms
• Learn more about Positionless Marketing
• Check out Future Commerce on YouTube
• Check out Future Commerce+ for exclusive content and save on merch and print
• Subscribe to Insiders and The Senses to read more about what we are witnessing in the commerce world
• Listen to our other episodes of Future Commerce

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!

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The Skechering of Commerce

Key takeaways:

• The recent wave of M&A is less about scale, and more about strategic repositioning.
• Ghost Nutrition’s licensing phase-out may challenge the brand’s original cultural cachet.
• City Furniture proves sustainability investments can directly boost profitability.
• Weight-loss trends like Ozempic are subtly altering fashion preferences and product demand.
• Context—not trend—is becoming the driving force in personal style and shopping decisions.
• [00:01:41] Phillip: "Everything is an ad unit. That’s the new wild future we have for you."
• [00:05:15] Brian: "Skechers was also acquired this month... $9.4 billion."
• [00:27:04] Phillip: "If you want your Ghost Nutrition stuff, you better stock up."
• [00:47:00] Brian: "Context is taking dominance again ... That’s our next move in fashion."

Associated Links:

• Check out Future Commerce on YouTube
• Check out Future Commerce Plus for exclusive content and save on merch and print
• Subscribe to Insiders and The Senses to read more about what we are witnessing in the commerce world
• Listen to our other episodes of Future Commerce

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!

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Wooden nickels, gilded sovereigns, and a juke-joint cash drawer. We peel back the layers of Ryan Coogler’s SINNERS to show how currency turns into control—and why plantation scrip still echoes in today’s loyalty points. Get the full breakdown and bonus notes with Future Commerce Plus.

Join the Membership: futurecommerce.com/plus and save $10 on your first month with code AFTERDARK

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

High Church, Low Inventory

Key takeaways:

• The Commerce of Catholicism – Pope transitions now drive digital engagement, pilgrimage surges, and resale markets. Welcome to the Vatican's Shopify moment.
• Tariffs as Theater – The recent 90-day tariff reprieve reveals how uncertainty fuels deal-making and could permanently reshape global economic alliances.
• Contentification of the Sacred – From Conclave to meme lore, the papacy is now part of the entertainment-industrial complex, raising questions about the role of narrative and brand in modern faith.
• DIY is the New Luxury – Phillip’s journey from $300 Instagram pants to $6 Goodwill masterpieces signals a cultural shift: recession-core meets personal branding.
• Slop is Dead (Maybe) – Brian drops a bold claim: participatory lo-fi media has peaked. What’s next? Meaningful myth, meta-modern storytelling, and high-context digital ritual.
• [00:06:27] “Once you hit the limit with your product, you start to look at category expansion. You have to ask the ‘why’ questions.” – Brian
• [00:52:45] “The way we relate to culture is through the commerce experience of it—when an American lens is applied.” – Phillip

In-Show Mentions:

• The Senses: I Vatican’t Believe These Prices
• Insiders: Language Games

Associated Links:

• Check out Future Commerce on YouTube
• Check out Future Commerce+ for exclusive content and save on merch and print
• Subscribe to Insiders and The Senses to read more about what we are witnessing in the commerce world
• Listen to our other episodes of Future Commerce

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!

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

• Access to our new Word of Mouth Index with Fairing, a brand new member benefit
• Save 15% on Future Commerce print journals and merch
• Exclusive invites to physical events, dinners, and priority invites to industry events (SXSW, Art Basel, VISIONS)
• Ad-free episodes and bonus content!

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The Y2K Bug Zapped Us Into Postmodernism

Key takeaways:

• Trends that feel like youth trends are actually just internet trends.  Their effects are now felt across generations, not siloed age groups.
• There has been a shift from modernism to postmodernism, and in turn, sincerity to ironic insincerity.
• Boy Meets World: 25 years after its series finale airs, we reflect on its sitcom era as a marker of TV’s transition from modernism and sincerity to postmodernism and ironic insincerity. 
• Kendra Scott taps into Gen Alpha.
• eBay returns to Brian’s radar and then sponsors the 2025 Met Gala. Coincidence?
• “Understanding the society in which you live, and the cultural moment taking place, is taken for granted a lot.” – Phillip
• “The Y2K bug was actually just the end of sincerity.” – Brian
• “We’ve leaned so far into cheap goods for so long, there might be a memetic cycle happening now where we lean back into goods that are durable.” – Brian
• “Autonomous driving is extraordinarily disruptive—just like AI is for information, AVs are for how we live, plan cities, and think about ownership.” – Phillip

In-Show Mentions:

• The Guardian: Gen Z Is Turning to Voice Notes
• Dirt.fyi: The State of A24
• Titan Caskets: Grave Conversations
• Waymo Partners with Toyota

Associated Links:

• Check out Future Commerce on YouTube
• Join Future Commerce+ for exclusive content and save on merch and print
• Subscribe to Insiders and The Senses to read more about what we are witnessing in the commerce world
• Listen to our other episodes of Future Commerce

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!

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

It Was Big Hibiscus All Along

Key takeaways:

• 70% of B2B purchasers are Gen Z or Millennials.
• Tariffs are a real threat – Brands are bracing for supply chain disruption, with some using tariff warnings as marketing FOMO triggers.
• Future Commerce analyzes the overpriced festival craze on Insiders #190 and Insiders #191.
• The draw to Coachella? It’s not music, or $30 Dave’s Hot Chicken sandwiches. It’s vibes.
• The Slate Truck represents a broader cultural trend toward digital detox and reverse skeuomorphism, bringing real-world, tactile experiences back into the digital age.
• [00:04:07] “Digitalization came for B2C and we didn’t say anything. And now it’s here for B2B.” – Brian Lange
• [00:15:17] “The reckoning has been coming for a long time. Overconsumption isn’t just a consumer issue—it’s a systemic one. If the climate crisis didn’t spark change, what will?” – Phillip Jackson
• [00:16:57] “At what point will the cost of participation outweigh the value of participation to the point where it's like, well, what am I even doing this for?” – Alicia Esposito

In-Show Mentions:

• Insiders #191: City of Coachella: Population: In Debt 
• Insiders #190: Is Coachella Buzz Brands’  Supply Chain Friend or Foe? 
• Politico: How Gen Z Became the Most Gullible Generation

Associated Links:

• Check out Future Commerce on YouTube
• Check out Future Commerce+ for exclusive content and save on merch and print
• Subscribe to Insiders and The Senses to read more about what we are witnessing in the commerce world
• Listen to our other episodes of Future Commerce

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!

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The Secret’s in the Sauce

Key takeaways:

• Kraft Heinz's real-time A1 ad proves responsive marketing now competes on cultural speed.
• “Therapy and companionship” is the top AI use case of 2025—raising serious questions about trust and emotional outsourcing.
• TikTok disinformation and fake Birkin bags signal a new era of aesthetic manipulation and consumer mimicry.
• Agentic AI use cases like coding and life management are accelerating due to new protocols like MCP.
• The interplay of commerce, identity, and AI isn’t theoretical—it’s already reshaping real-world buying behavior.

In-Show Mentions:

• Order LORE by Future Commerce
• Harvard Business Review’s 2025 GenAI Use Case Study
• Kraft Heinz x Mischief “For Educational Purposes Only” ad
• All-In Podcast tariff debate featuring David Sacks and Ezra Klein
• TikTok’s disinformation around luxury goods

Associated Links:

• Check out Future Commerce on YouTube
• Check out Future Commerce+ for exclusive content and save on merch and print
• Subscribe to Insiders and The Senses to read more about what we are witnessing in the commerce world
• Listen to our other episodes of Future Commerce

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!

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

A New Medium Is A New Culture

Key takeaways:

• “I quickly discovered that it’s easy to overwhelm people with too much information. It’s almost the worst thing you can do, because you lose them, and it can be hard to get them back.” – Andrew McLuhan
• “It’s much easier to teach people one thing at a time than it is to teach them ten things at once.” – Andrew McLuhan
• “‘A poem can’t mean something that it doesn’t mean to you.’ Which is kind of deep, but it’s not the cop out that you think it is.” – Andrew McLuhan, quoting T.S. Eliot
• “Marshall McLuhan saw that through human history we’ve been influenced and steered by the structure and nature of our innovations more than by what we’ve done with them. A new medium is a new culture.” – Andrew McLuhan
• “We don’t like finding out how we’re being used.” – Andrew McLuhan
• “Commerce is a form of media. It is manipulating people in some way and people are being shaped by it.” – Phillip

In-Show Mentions:

• How People Are Really Using Gen AI in 2025 – Harvard Business Review
• Other Harvard Business Review pieces:
  • Personalization Done Right
  • The Consumer Psychology of Adopting AI
• Eric McLuhan’s Taking Up McLuhan’s Cause – re-released
• The McLuhan Institute

Associated Links:

• Check out Future Commerce on YouTube
• Check out Future Commerce+ for exclusive content and to save on merch and print
• Subscribe to Insiders and The Senses to read more about what we are witnessing in the commerce world
• Listen to our other episodes of Future Commerce

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!

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Mind Over Mechanism

Key takeaways:

• Positionless is Power: The most innovative organizations won't be flatter—they'll be fluid. Roles dissolve; talent flows where it’s needed.
• AI Is the New Intern: It drafts, it preps, it gets you started—but the genius still has to come from you.
• Old Process ≠ New Potential: Layering AI on legacy workflows just speeds up your inefficiency.
• Control is a Creativity Killer: Let go of silos, turf wars, and micromanagement. The next gen of leaders will trust, not gatekeep.
• The Kids Are Alright—and in Charge: Within 10 years, new mindsets will lead. Curious, collaborative, and chaos-embracing.
• [00:04:48]: “Startups get stuff done because you're positionless. One day you're marketing, next day you're writing code. That’s how you beat the big guys—speed and fluidity.” – Pini Yakuel
• [00:08:03]: “We create the tools, and the tools create us.” – Nick Badminton
• [00:14:44]: “New tech + old process = expensive old process.” – Nick Badminton
• [00:11:50]: “Friction is what makes life life.” – Brian Lange

Associated Links:

• Check out Future Commerce on YouTube
• Check out Future Commerce+ for exclusive content and save on merch and print
• Subscribe to Insiders and The Senses to read more about what we are witnessing in the commerce world
• Listen to our other episodes of Future Commerce

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!

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Strive for Epic

Key takeaways:

• [12:25] Lewis Pugh shares how emotional drive and preparation fuel extraordinary feats—like swimming across the North Pole—and what brands can learn from that level of purpose.
• [20:29] “Epic” vs. “great”: Pugh discusses how to distinguish good work from game-changing campaigns.
• [33:42] Environmental justice, consumer justice, and the universal value of doing what's right—and what this really means for global brands today.
• [46:05] DAZN’s Ria Chin-You discusses managing CRM across 200+ markets with a team of nine—and the challenges of scaling personalization with limited resources.
• [50:48] Integrating GenAI into real-world workflows is still a challenge, especially for resource-strapped teams—but the potential is there.
• [58:24] Paul O’Shea explains Optimove’s vision for creating “super workers” through native AI integration and simplifying marketers’ jobs.
• [1:01:08] Cultural nuance is key—global messaging isn’t just about translation, it’s about resonance.
• [1:07:49] In fast-moving industries like sports, being agile isn’t optional. AI could be the key to real-time, reactive marketing at scale.
• “Practice until you can’t get it wrong, not until you get it right.” — Lewis Pugh
• “We need tools that help us scale personalization without sacrificing cultural authenticity.” — Ria Chin-You
• “AI isn’t replacing you, it’s your new teammate.” — Brian