Future Commerce

The podcast discusses the success of the KITH loyalty launch, the debauchery during the eCom boom cycle, and the impact of Apple Vision Pro on Commerce. They also explore the psychology of loyalty programs, the importance of exclusive products, and the future of buying and technology in commerce. The hosts emphasize the need to adapt to changing mediums and explore the role of content.

There are some compelling storylines to follow already in 2024, and Phillip and Brian have some hot takes on X creator payments and deepfakes, why “boring” seems to cut through the noise now, and some excitement about Vision PRO. Also, are we to the point now where innovation means working with the algorithm versus working around the algorithm? Listen now for this and more.A Boring Membership for EverythingKey takeaways:- Deepfakes are becoming more prevalent, creating opportunities for both entertainment and deception.- Shop Pay is helping Shopify build a strong moat in e-commerce by offering a seamless payment experience across various platforms.- Applebee's Date Night Pass may have been sold out quickly, but was a genius marketing move that was an earned PR campaign at best. Read Phillip’s critique in The Senses.- Memberships can still be successful, provided they offer real value to customers and are sustainable long-term.{00:10:54} - “If you spend over $4,000 on something unnecessary for your job or to complete anything in your life, it is a purely experiential purchase. This is just the greatest advertising play in the history of advertising. It is the most natural place for high-end brands, luxury brands, brands that are going to sell experiences that are not commodity-based to put experiences in front of people who are prequalified.” - Brian{00:20:34} - “The old methodology of making people pay for things and then gathering stats about how much they're willing to pay for something is a better indication of how much desire or loyalty they had to that thing, as opposed to just a quick peek at it or a quick chuckle.” - Brian{00:26:31} - “It's an interesting sign of the times that deepfakes are such a part of the public discourse. It's only gonna ramp up as we have a political season in a fight. - Phillip{00:31:06} - “Shop Pay is an unbelievable moat and has all of the consumer penetration that everybody in the one-click payment infrastructure wanted.” - Phillip{00:48:56} - “There are crafty ways to put together membership programs that people will wanna buy. But you need to be really careful with them, and don't do things that aren't sustainable like so many membership companies have done in the past. Make things that are smart for your best buyers and make it actually a B2B thing. Your best consumers will appreciate it, and you can reward them and lock them in.” - BrianAssociated Links:Check out Future Commerce + for exclusive content and save on merch and printThe MUSES Journal is here! Grab your copy of our latest annual journal today at musesjournal.comHave you checked out our YouTube channel yet?Subscribe to Insiders and The Senses to read more about what we are witnessing in the commerce worldListen to our other episodes of Future CommerceHave any questions or comments about the show? Let us know on futurecommerce.com, or reach out to us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, or LinkedIn. We love hearing from our listeners!

Our Predictions episode was packed with many great insights and discussion points, but the guys had even more to discuss regarding what 2024 has in store. PLUS: Rite Aid gets a hefty penalty from the FTC, healthcare trends, “Trendcore” and “trendwashing”, and what Phillip and Brian are reading right now.Product is Content{00:08:41} - “The terminally online people are the ones who are constantly trying to gain recognition by glomming onto other people's visible success, and Yotpo just didn't have that kind of brand affinity in social media.” - Phillip{00:28:41} - “2024 is just gonna be another really rough year in health care because we've been saying forever that a lot of the technology does exist to bring some of these technologies to homes. It could be, but the problem is adoption by the ecosystem and by consumers. And that's not gonna hit in 2024. Sorry.” - Brian{00:35:50} - “The Rite Aid issue {is} a great example of this where people are actually genuinely relying on technology that ultimately is able to fail in ways that no one understands. As technology becomes more and more of a black box, it's going to be harder and harder to identify what the cause of something actually is.” - Brian{00:39:23} - “If you look at the Hailey Bieber dress can trend because Hailey Bieber in a red dress becomes a meme, and Shein produces it within a week, and then people are buying it within another week, and then it turns on social media as a result within a couple weeks. So the meme half-life of about a month is able to reach mass cultural and commerce adoption, and then necessarily dies to whatever is next.” - Phillip{00:42:39} - “People who have made phenomenal monetary investments in the last cycle get left out of the next two cycles, and that's how you get old.” - PhillipAssociated Links:Check out Future Commerce Plus for exclusive content and save on merch and printThe MUSES Journal is here! Grab your copy of our latest annual journal today at musesjournal.comHave you checked out our YouTube channel yet?Subscribe to Insiders and The Senses to read more about what we are witnessing in the commerce worldListen to our other episodes of Future CommerceHave any questions or comments about the show? Let us know on futurecommerce.com, or reach out to us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, or LinkedIn. We love hearing from our listeners!

The Vogue of eCommerce{00:10:02} - “Depending on where you sit in your economic pessimism, if you believe that the economy continues to rip in 2024, then Costco is a no-brainer choice. If you believe that the economy is going to see challenges in 2024, then Costco is still a safe choice.” - Phillip{00:22:05} - “The problem is a lot of these brands, Joanns and Michaels in particular, did a really bad job with digital enablement. And so it's gonna be a really hard road for them to come back around and have someone who's really far down the road of digital bring them along for the ride. It almost might be easier for a Pinterest to just run their own stuff from the ground up.” - Brian{00:52:52} - “This idea of real-world commerce is that you'll be able to transact in real dollars directly as if it were eCommerce in the platform for the first time for real-world goods. Not digital goods, not digital fashion, not credits for experiences, not whatever it is. It is an actual real-life transaction that gets fulfilled. And that seems to me to be a massive opportunity for brands that have been investing in that universe with a very young crowd that spends a stupid amount of money.” - Phillip{00:57:10} - “ Literary TikTok is a place that is creating a new generation of readers and making reading fun again and making people excited about being part of a conversation around reading. And in fact, Barnes and Noble, 20% growth year over year, store footprint is expanding. Who would have thought?” - Phillip{01:11:46} - “This is the challenger to Google that everybody said TikTok was going to be.” - Phillip{01:16:37} - “I feel extremely validated right now, and I'm gonna go ahead and take that victory lap here because it was like the opposite of every possible trend that you could have ever thought.” - Brian{01:51:18) - “If the prevailing culture is digitally obsessed, then the counterculture will be analog obsessed. It's inescapable because it's already happening.” - PhillipAssociated Links:The Siren x Wells Fargo Gene Therapy ChartDr. Nicole Paulk’s presentation at All-In SummitThe MUSES Journal is here! Grab your copy of our latest annual journal today at musesjournal.comHave you checked out our YouTube channel yet?Subscribe to Insiders and The Senses to read more about what we are witnessing in the commerce worldListen to our other episodes of Future CommerceHave any questions or comments about the show? Let us know on futurecommerce.com, or reach out to us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, or LinkedIn. We love hearing from our listeners!

Kicking off our 2024 season of the podcast, Phillip and Brian discuss the storylines of the upcoming NRF Big Show. PLUS: the spatial computing hype cycle is upon us, as is a new handheld device revolution. Listen now!The Year of Spatial Computing{00:09:54} - “Shopify has conquered down market, and so naturally, the most obvious place for growth is in the enterprise, and it's just where they have to go. And then, one of the reasons why Shopify struggled mightily trying to sell to the enterprise initially is because they didn't hire what I would consider to be truly enterprise-grade sellers, and they didn't give the toolbox to be able to sell.” - Brian{00:13:18} - “Even if you don't go to NRF, the halo around The Big Show is now big enough to incorporate all of these brands that survived the tech and SaaS recession over the last year and a half. The companies that have come out the other side are now stronger for it. Even the ones that have received some critique online.” - Phillip{00:26:55} - “I think what we see in an AI-centric future is not just a gesture. It's not just, "Hey, Siri." It's not just language, it's "And this doesn't require an Internet connection for it to work.’" - Phillip{00:35:36} - “Every AI use case, every one of them, even OpenAI, in the opening demo is a commerce-centered use case. It is "Order me an Uber." It is "Get me a pizza." It is "Put this on my shopping list." Commerce is such a requirement for human existence and our connection with each other that you have to have commerce at the center of these experiences.” - Phillip{00:46:43} - “In the current state of the world, you have to capture mimesis before you actually create product market fit.” - Phillip{00:47:57} - “There's a reckoning on multiple fronts with app stores, in that app stores are about to become democratized. And they cannot be the walled gardens they have been in for 15 years. App stores are about to get disrupted.” - PhillipAssociated Links:The MUSES Bundle is here! Grab your copy of our latest annual journal today at musesjournal.comHave you checked out our YouTube channel yet?Subscribe to Insiders and The Senses to read more about what we are witnessing in the commerce worldListen to our other episodes of Future CommerceHave any questions or comments about the show? Let us know on futurecommerce.com, or reach out to us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, or LinkedIn. We love hearing from our listeners!

LIVE from MUSES, join Phillip and Brian as they sit down with Boys Club podcast host Deana Burke and Context podcast host Blake Finucane for a lively discussion about technology, art, and culture and the resurgence of print in the digital age. 

Recorded live during MUSES, art curator Tam Gryn and performance artist Arantxa Araujo discuss the intersection of science and dance, the influence of ancient Muses on contemporary innovation, and offer insights into the creative process, the neuroscience of movement, and the historical inspiration behind the various forms of art featured during MUSES.

Michael Miraflor and Alexa Lombardo join the MUSES Live panel to explore the future of Consumer marketing roles and activations. Topics range from the “death of the CMO” position to Range Rover's activation at Art Basel Miami Beach; and how technology and vision may help solve the Loneliness Epidemic and the decline of the “Third Place.” Listen now!

This conversation features Chloë Ryan, CEO of Acrylic Robotics, a pioneer in using robots to create on-demand artwork for digital artists. She discusses how technology is transforming the art market, enabling emerging artists to sell their creations without traditional methods. The chat dives into innovative business models that reduce financial risks for artists and the complexities of intellectual property in the age of robotic production. Chloë also highlights the potential for collaborations between brands and digital artists to engage new audiences.

What happens when brands forecast poorly? They fail to compete in the marketplace, and they have to sell excess inventory at a loss. Taped live during Future Commerce’s MUSES activation during Art Basel, this panel comprises DTC competitive intelligence platform Next Big Shop’s co-founder David Hoffman and Resale.com’s co-founder Sachin Pawa. Together, they predict the challenges ahead for eCommerce in 2024. Listen now!