Future Commerce

The Multiverse is Real “Brands are like cows because it’s very easy for them to understand how things affect them, but it's very hard to see how things in the world affect others.” -BrianTechnology can act as a containing—or limiting—factor. It can enable cost savings, but it can also be an enabler of more meaningful interactions.Shopify is looking to the future as a global empowerment of a merchant classDigital channels for legacy retailers boomed during the pandemic. Why? Default behaviors are latent. We will always regress to defaults, especially in a retail context. Best Buy is a great example of this; as are Lowes and Home Depot. Digital success was bolstered by physical defaults.For the first time in a decade, eCommerce is facing headwinds. Why? Because traditional brick and mortar retailers are experiencing tailwinds due to reopening. The roaring twenties will prove to be difficult for eCommerce businesses.Where is luxury headed? Luxury is the silence of money and not constantly being barraged with ads.Associated Links:Check out Brian’s Insiders piece: How Now Brand Cow: On Operational Efficiency in Ecommerce TechSubscribe to InsidersListen to our other episodes of Future Commerce!Our mini-series, Step by StepOur sister podcast, Stairway to CEO! Have any questions or comments about the show? Let us know on Futurecommerce.fm, or reach out to us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, or LinkedIn. We love hearing from our listeners!

The Internet is a Literal WebCongratulations to friend of the show, Ian Leslie, and to Industry West for ranking on 2PM’s DNVB list and for Adobe Experience Maker Awards. Phillip and Brian talk about the Adobe Experience Maker Awards, the rankings, and ask the question of how some brands are ranked so highly. Millennials didn’t invent meal prep delivery. Schwann foods, and catalog delivery — even the milkman — are all examples of modern reimagining of pre-existing retail models.In eCom news, Shopify continues to eat the world, bringing in another investment of Stripe, and launching payments buttons across Google Shopping and Facebook — without the need to be operating a Shopify store. The BNPL ecosystem has stratified into much clearer offerings, as Phillip lays out the roadmap for Afterpay, Affirm, and Klarna.“The world is reopening… New York City no longer has any covid restrictions. San Francisco opened up officially yesterday; the biggest cities are coming out of covid and physical retail is back. I feel like Afterpay is the big winner here in the latter half of the year, if I had to bet the way that people would be using this like everyone, every channel has to deal with the fact that physical retail is coming back.” - Phillip“The internet is held together by spider webs.” - BrianMost people’s first ecommerce purchase was probably a digital property. Paula’s Choice is the original direct to consumer brand, and predates what we know as the modern web. Launched in 1995 it was one of the first beauty brands online, and predated Google by 3 years. The first-ever secure online purchase was a copy of “Ten Summoner’s Tales”, a solo album by Sting. Associated Links:Insiders #088: Paula’s Choice: On Blind Spots and Phase CancellationIndustry West2PM DTC Power ListAdobe Experience Maker AwardsSubscribe to our weekly newsletter: futurecommerce.fm/subscribe Check out our latest research piece, Service is the New StorefrontHave any questions or comments about the show? Let us know on Futurecommerce.fm, or reach out to us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, or LinkedIn. We love hearing from our listeners!

Headless CheckoutDomm gives the story behind the creation of Fast, how a family member forgetting a password sparked an idea for easier checkouts across all platforms.“Our goal is to build a consumer network” -DommThe challenges faced as a leader and facing polarizing feedback.“It’s our job to protect consumer data, and consumer payments. This is typically the default relationship that consumers have with businesses, it’s a default trust.” “It's the logical place where those three need states and those three very broken things about the sort of stateless being of the web converge.” - Phillip Associated Links:Learn more about Fast here: https://www.fast.co/Get our latest report here: Service is the New StorefrontListen to more episodes of Future Commerce! 

“It’s like shipping inception”Are we in a Shipping Inception or are 3PLs and 4PLs really that complicated? Identifying where your customers are is key in choosing the right 3PL solution for warehousing and shipping. “Despite the Amazon narrative, not everyone needs everything in 30 seconds… I think it's critically important for brands to manage customer expectations, meaning if you don't have the infrastructure to do two day delivery, then don't promise to do delivery.” - NimaHaving a 3PL like Whiplash can help smaller businesses scale and keep shipping costs lower.“I really am confident that retail is going to see a rebirth... We're getting a lot more brands asking how can you support these smaller shops, maybe two or three per quarter over the next year?” - RyanAssociated Links:Get connected with Shippo!Check out Whiplash.Listen to our other Step by Step seasonsFind our Future Commerce episodes on our website.Have any questions or comments about the show? Contact us at Futurecommerce.fm, or reach out to us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, or LinkedIn.

The Post-Purchase ExperienceConsumer expectations are almost unfair for smaller businesses. But that doesn’t mean brands can’t continue to provide a great post-purchase experience. Many brands have turned to 3PLs to help meet the demand of fast shipping and to keep shipping costs lower. “Brands have to be more transparent with customers. They need to give customers a choice around what services they offer and the price. A lot of brands are starting to use 3PLs to meet the customer demand, which means they're storing inventory somewhere else throughout the country to get shorter deliveries. Brands need to communicate with shoppers after the purchase in a way that conveys the brand message differently than just an email saying your order has been shipped.” - Matt CrawfordIt’s more than just shipping, it’s about creating a memorable post-purchase experience. It’s about connecting the “front office” with the “back of house.” “I think of the post purchase because I try to make it a marketer's problem, not a person in the warehouse problem.” - Matt“When you improve shipping and you offer different options around shipping, it's almost like having additional products on your site.” - BrianAssociated Links:Get connected with Shippo!Listen to our other Step by Step seasonsFind our Future Commerce episodes here: https://futurecommerce.fm/future-commerce-podcastHave any questions or comments about the show? Contact us at Futurecommerce.fm, or reach out to us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, or LinkedIn.

A Different Innovation “Shipping is a growth engine. The entire web is possible, all eCommerce is possible because you could ship stuff. The question is, how do you master that in a way that is intentional as a brand or as a marketplace?” - James As the largest resale marketplace, the mechanics of Flyp are run differently. Flyp works to connect owners with sellers, creating a different experience. In the process they use bulk shipping to diversify the engagement in the marketplace. “We have an entire matching system that is designed to essentially incentivize pro sellers to behave and to perform better with their customers. A lot of our analytics are done around the efficiency of distribution that our resellers are offering to their customers on Flyp.” - JamesShipping is constantly changing and Shippo is changing with it, providing new ways to execute and build fast. “One of the benefits of having Shippo is they've got this really cool feature where you give the information that you need and then you can pick the one that works for you, and we are able to leverage that in different ways.” - DaniAssociated Links:Get connected with Shippo!Find Flyp here: https://www.joinflyp.com/Listen to our other Step by Step seasonsFind our Future Commerce episodes on our website.Have any questions or comments about the show? Let us know on Futurecommerce.fm, or reach out to us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, or LinkedIn.

Not a Cookie Cutter MethodWith the rise of shipageddon, shipping has become about getting products to the customer as safe and quickly as possible.Due to the different mentalities and thought processes of shopping during COVID, many customers choose different methods causing businesses to shift their concerns of shipping.“It's not just a cookie cutter thing where you're doing clothes or a hat or a shirt where you just throw it in a box. What we found is with the batch function on Shippo, we’re able to copy a certain order numbers into the search bar up top, search those and batch print those out, saving us a tremendous amount of time.” -Keith Austria “So many of us buy things online and really don't think about what the business challenges are around operations that make it all work.” -Phillip JacksonAssociated Links:Get connected with Shippo!Check out Decorware. Listen to our other Step by Step seasons.Find our Future Commerce episodes on our website. Have any questions or comments about the show? Let us know on Futurecommerce.fm, or reach out to us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, or LinkedIn.

It’s All About the MindsetMichelle McNamara joins the show to talk about the common pain points of shipping among merchants, and how the pandemic has impacted e-commerce with the shifts of consumer behavior. Shipping is not one size fits all, it's unique to every business. Shipping should be thought of as a key differentiator to add value to your business.  “Think of ways you can increase your order value without increasing the weight of the box by too much.” -Michelle Associated Links:Get connected with Shippo!Listen to our other Step by Step seasonsFind our Future Commerce episodes on our website. Have any questions or comments about the show? Contact us at Futurecommerce.fm, or reach out to us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, or LinkedIn.

The 16-Year Old CPG StartupKevin shares his incredible work at Nuun Energy and their growth of being acquired by Nestlé Health Science.Sustainability and ESG are at the forefront of product innovation for Nuun, but category innovation and form factor are top of mind in fast moving consumer goods and CPG, as well.When it comes to health and creating new connections, information is right at our fingertips. Having information right when we want it is evolving our purchasing behaviors. This evolution means that we can make better decisions around health.“I'm less worried about competitors coming in at this moment because I think it's going to continue to expand functional hydration — because it's a universal need that is bigger than the plant based revolution that's happening within food. I truly believe that.” -Kevin“Think about plant based milk alternatives, where it started. It was soy milk and a tetra pack in the center of a store. Commerce wasn't even really a factor then. Today, it's sold and surging within eCommerce, but also now positioned in the dairy case right beside the milk alternatives. What I foresee happening is it's going to be looked at less as functional hydration as an alternative; [instead] it's going to be toe to toe, side by side with the way people look at beverages now... It's going to be a substitute, much like you're seeing in dairy alternatives [versus] dairy itself.” - Kevin“We have the toolset to capture new data points that we can optimize for our personal bodies.” - Brian “Innovation is renovation. It's innovation for new need states” - Kevin Associated Links:Check out Nuun Energy here: https://nuunlife.com/Get our latest report here: Service is the New StorefrontFind our other episodes here: https://futurecommerce.fm/future-commerce-podcastIf you have any comments or questions about this episode, you can reach out to us at hello@futurecommerce.fm or any of our social channels. We love hearing from our listeners!

Fair Trade, Fair Labor, and Sustainable Chocolate is PossibleShipping chocolate is challenging enough, but sourcing and housing craft chocolate from global suppliers, and creating a marketplace for consumers who have very specific expectations around buying and consuming chocolate is harder still.The challenges of creating a great customer experience with shipping delays in the midst of COVID created issues in the logistics industry, and those had massive impacts on the quality of the product at the time of delivery. Some chocolate only arrived a month post-purchase, at which point it wasn’t consumable. This represents a problem in a luxury chocolate perishable category, when you’re at mercy of carriers and covid-related delays.“I don't think the mission makes us grow slower, but I think my focus and laser focus on becoming a profitable company, you know, kind of meters our growth. And because we're not funded, because it's like something that has been bootstrapped, we don't have the luxury of throwing thousands of dollars into ads or marketing and having that long cycle of seeing a return on our investment with customer acquisition.” —PashminaThe connection formed to chocolate as a kid reflects the outcome adults make in wanting to take the leap towards craft chocolate.“You have recipes and a whole ecosystem built around chocolate and the brands with those...so you're not just unseating a single experience, you're unseating experiences across multiple food ecosystems, which is another challenge and also an opportunity.” -BrianBar and Cocoa are MBE-certified as a minority-owned business, and supports minority and BIPOC growers and founders. Their focus on doubling their Made at Origin chocolates have allowed them to support more people who are growing cacao at the source. As Pashmina says, “rather than just for these countries importing beans, the chocolate is staying there and being sourced locally, made locally by local manufacturers, whether they own the farms, whether they're working directly with the farms there.” Associated Links:Check out Bar & Cocoa here: https://barandcocoa.com/Get our latest report here: Service is the New Storefront