Future Commerce

Liyia Wu, founder and CEO of ShopShops, joins the show today to discuss ShopShops, the future of online shopping, and how ShopShops is creating the space for the next generation of content creators and influencers. ShopShops and Consumer Behavior “I believe the future of shopping is definitely live and video.” - Liyia Wu Liyia states that they call themselves “Retail First” or “Retailtaimerce”, which is retail, entertainment, and commerce all in one as a platform that serves three sides of the market. ShopShops tries to mimic the offline shopping experience for the online world: the sense of discovery via the physical spaces and environments. Because of video calls, conferences, and the rise of live streaming and video forms on TikTok and Instagram, Liyia sees a user change behavior that’s acknowledging what video can offer. Instead of a one-to-one experience, live streaming becomes one-to-hundreds. During livestream shopping or livestream entertainment, consumers start seeing relatedness to the person presenting and to other consumers in live chat features. ShopShops’s influencers come from backgrounds of stylists, fashion designers, makeup artists themselves: “They very much have their own way to express their opinion about beauty.” - Liyia Wu Just as Instagram and TikTok brought consumers in for entertainment purposes, ShopShops wants to focus on shopping - bringing consumers in to be entertained and learn something through that. Entering the U.S. Market and Monetization ShopShops is starting their expansion into the Western market by focusing on the vendor/seller side, having them start English versions of their live streams themselves in-store. By the end of the year, ShopShops wants to open up the platform to more individual sellers who are willing to be hosts and curate their own content for the platform. Currently, ShopShops charges a platform fixed fee based on seller’s transactions and in connecting hosts with retailers, they collect affiliate fees. ShopShops currently curates which retailers and brands are platformed. Because of cross-border limitations in shipping and fulfillment, there’s a higher level of curation in the Chinese market. However, for their expansion into the U.S. market, ShopShops is open minded. ShopShops shares insight, industry insights, cross-border insights, and analyzed data with their creators. This helps them identify and retain their customers. On ShopShops’s female-focused audience: “I think women and men shop differently. Women shop for entertainment. Men shop for a purpose…” - Liyia Wu ShopShops sees millennials as their primary focus in moving Westward - because of their mobile savviness, their quick adoption for what’s new, and their spending power. Links Find ShopShops on the Apple Store and if you’re interested in being a curator and content creator, find ShopShops Host. Visit ShopShops’s website. Check out Liyia Wu on the Modern Retail Podcast: ShopShops founder Liyia Wu on making digital QVC for China’s livestreaming generation If 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!

The Internet & Net Neutrality Danny works for the CEO of MediaMath on internal and external policy, as well as projects related to data partnerships and issues around privacy and competition. After leaving the Obama administration, Danny started at MediaMath answering the question of what is wrong with advertising. “There are significantly more actors than in that supply chain than I was aware of beforehand.” - Danny Sepulveda on transparency, misinformation, and disinformation in advertising. Danny says that when it comes to Shopify and other brand’s recent decisions on censorship: “It’s a policy thing and it’s a private thing.” “We need to have a much larger and more inclusive conversation about what we want the future of the Internet to look like, who we want to make value and judgement decisions for the Internet, and whether or not it’s fulfilling its original promise.” - Danny Sepulveda “When we talk about network neutrality, it is a concept which has historically been rooted on the idea of gatekeeper access to a commons, to the platform of the Internet.” - Danny Sepulveda Danny explains that the Biden campaign committed to a restoration of Title 2 authority over Internet service providers, which would restore Title 2 provisions that provide net neutrality at the Internet service provider level - and Danny believes that a Democratic FCC will revisit this. Danny on why Democrats support network neutrality: “It was to ensure that large entities could not snuff out small entities or that big voices could not silence small voices.” Antitrust, Communication Tools, & the Near-Future There have been many lawsuits of antitrust towards Facebook and Google. “I think ensuring that you have competitive markets through antitrust law is necessary but insufficient to ensure that people and societies feel safe with the media ecosystem that we’re living in and dependent upon.” - Danny Sepulveda Danny says that there are scenarios that aren’t questions of competition, but questions of culture and society that require tools outside of antitrust to solve. Danny states that privacy and content moderation falls into those categories. “I would argue that almost all forms of media and communications start out as a tool.” - Danny Sepulveda on media companies being used for collective thought and communication. “These media and communications and these companies, like every private activity that has come before them, will have to be subject to communal oversight and communal regulation or acceptable in order to gain acceptance… We’re scared because we don’t really have any faith in the idea that a large corporation is going to act in the public interest.” - Danny Sepulveda Danny personally knows some of the individuals that the Biden administration is bringing into the picture for net neutrality: “They’re the most talented, most capable, most honorable people I’ve ever worked with in my life. I’m very hopeful for the next four years.” “We are at a very interesting point in the development of the relationship between marketers and media and what kind of media is financed and how and subject to what rules and where it will provide the greatest ROI. Those are huge developments that are being driven.” - Danny Sepulveda Links Check out Danny Sepulveda’s other appearances on Future Commerce: Episode #106: Are We Being Fairly Compensated For Our Data? Episode #63: Deep Fakes Episode #55: Don’t Underestimate What Can Happen in Just 1 Year Episode #54: Microsoft Paint, but for Augmented Reality Episode #49: Public Policy and Net Neutrality Check out MediaMath, where Danny regularly writes blogs. If 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!

Today, Brian and Phillip talk about the extension of 2020 into 2021, corporate leadership, and personal data. Corporate Leadership, Shopify, and Your Personal Data Anything related to Donald Trump is effectively not what Shopify wants to promote. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Snapchat have all suspended Donald Trump’s account across their services. This brings to question businesses and their corporate leadership stepping forward. Elon Musk has surpassed Jeff Bezos as the world’s richest man. Musk found ways of implementing what the future could be—compared to Bezos, who just found the most efficient way to do things. eCommerce, being all around us, is in a unique position. Comparing it to the time when viruses weren’t on Macs because they were less popular than PCs, Shopify has seen an amount of stores as fraudulent/risky. Just as Macs were on the rise and were ripe for fraud, so is the world of e-Commerce. In 2020, you’re responsible for managing your own data—with whom and what your data is used for. Many retailers are becoming advertisers in and of themselves using this data—like Amazon, who brought in more ad revenue in 2020 through its own ad network than Twitter has brought in revenue in its entire existence. Stealth Luxury “Every brand is either a marketplace today or will have to adapt to become one.” - Phillip Jackson As marketplaces (or curators), brands all interweave and interact with other brands and their stories. Bottega Veneta deleted all of its social accounts—a deliberate move to build their brand identity of luxury. In a noise-filled world, silent spaces (like flying first class) can feel more luxurious. From the GQ article on Bottega Veneta: “[The move] is the ultimate act of stealth luxury. It will now be a brand that travels strictly by word of mouth.” Tied into this, Parade Underwear has taken a new spin on influencer marketing, in delivering free underwear to Instagram users with fewer than a thousand followers in exchange for posting. There’s a separation in the market for luxuries vs price-centered items. Amazon and other marketplaces are saturated with knockoff brands so Brian predicts that the brands that are going to see the most success in the 2020s are brands that are marketed for broad markets and brands that are extreme luxury. The middle ground of “premium mediocre” brands is thinning. Links Check out our sponsors for today’s episode. Vertex is tax solution for businesses of all sizes, and MarketerHire, a platform for hiring teams of expert marketers for you. The New York Post: One in five Shopify stores reportedly pose a risk to shoppers Future Commerce Insiders #066: Your 2020 Body is a Dataland GQ: Why Did Bottega Veneta Delete Its Social Media Accounts? If 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!

Lee Hnetinka, Founder and CEO of FastAF joins the podcast to talk about how FastAF is not only revolutionizing delivery but also offering its members a thoughtful, curated selection of products as a fresh take on the DTC marketplace.FastAF Now & 2021 ScalingFastAF is a two-hour delivery app to get premium essentials delivered, working with the likes of Aesop, Bala Bangles, and Vybes. FastAF is currently available in Los Angeles and New York.Currently, FastAF has micro-fulfilment centers to deliver their inventory from. In 2021, they’re planning on expanding cities and expanding geo-coverage within their existing cities.Lee launched Darkstore because of the lack of marketplaces for classic premium brands. There are marketplaces for groceries and basics, but not for premium products that customers have high affinities for.“These platforms were built for two-day delivery, not two-hour delivery.” - Lee Hnetinka on Shopify partnerships.“Two day is, not to be cliche, too old. It is not what is the norm today. Consumers have higher expectations of two hour or faster with food, with movies, with renting a home, getting a car at the tap of a button.” - Lee HnetinkaOn marketplaces and DTC brands moving to Amazon: “That’s where we came in and said the brands of tomorrow are not going to sell on Amazon. They don’t want to because of competitive reasons. They don’t want to because they [wouldn’t] have a customer relationship with the customer… [We saw] that it was not in line with the values of today’s customer and today’s brands. So that’s where FastAF came in.” - Lee HnetinkaCuration, Marketplaces, & EfficiencyHappy Valley Tool is a tool built to pull Google Maps data and Uber drive data to pull gradients over maps so they know street-level statistics of where to build their next Darkstore.Consumers don’t really know what they want until they’re provided with it: “We needed to show to both brands and consumers what [two hour delivery] looks like in order to have them become believers.” - Lee HnetinkaLee doesn’t see FastAF as a competitor of Amazon. “You can’t replicate the Amazon experience without billions of products. So we have to forge our own path.” - Phillip JacksonBecause of its careful curation, FastAF is leading to consumers finding new brands, thus becoming a discovery platform.On launching FastAF virtually with social help through influencer marketing: “[If asked a few years ago], could you launch a city entirely virtual? I would tell you no, but I would tell you we did… it’s been the right decision.” - Lee HnetinkaAfter consumers are exposed to more efficient deliveries and services, reverting back to inefficient ways is unseeable.LinksFind the FastAF app!Check out Future Commerce Insiders #036: Freaky Friday If 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!

2017 to 2020, Sucharita the SoothsayerIn 2017, on FC Ep 2432041, Sucharita said “In the future, brands should be thinking about how they can become marketplaces,” which has come to be true in eCommerce today.In 2020, Sucharita says that divergence is the broad theme of the year: divergence in political thought, essential businesses vs. nonessential businesses, employed vs unemployed, etc.There will be recovery for businesses affected by this divergence, but it might be a longer recovery than what’s ideal.Retail in 2021: Efficiency vs. TraditionRetail was hit the hardest in 2020. Merchants had to pivot their businesses drastically in order to keep up because of the pandemic: curbside pickup, inventory visibility across channels, etc.“[This] showed the possibility of how fast things can move when [businesses] set their mind to it and everyone’s aligned.” - Sucharita KodaliSucharita worries that retail businesses will see this from a different perspective. Instead of seeing the opportunity of quickly changing direction and focus, they’ll see 2020 as a dodged bullet and go back to business as usual (slow decision making, hesitance in change and exploring possibilities) in 2021.CIO and CDO positions in organizations were prioritized this year because that’s where innovation was required. Sucharita hopes this change will stick, allowing businesses to move fast and do things differently.Working from home was tied in with these changes—Sucharita suspects that 20% of businesses will stick with this change and 80% will revert to pre-pandemic ways. Sucharita says this 20/80 rule will probably be true with consumer behaviour affected by the pandemic, as well.Sucharita says that DIY home improvement retailers, mass merchants, and grocery stores did exceptionally well during the pandemic.Restaurants, department stores, and apparel stores have had a decrease in demand during the pandemic. Though they might have a pent-up demand waiting for them once the pandemic ends, Sucharita doesn’t think that pent-up demand will make up for all that was lost.Shifting Our Public SpacesMalls were considered public places, though they were commercial spaces, for the better part of three decades. Because of the pandemic, the commons has moved online and businesses are being affected by their ESG values - environmental, social, governmental.For example, Starbucks implemented social distancing before any state or federal government had any action forcing them to do so.“Corporations can be ambassadors and capital markets will fund them if they’re doing the right thing that resonates with what the general populace believes is ‘good for society’,” - Phillip JacksonRetail Roadmap for 2021“I can imagine that over time, [we will] start to see more creativity… whether it’s leveraging business development partnerships or thinking more creatively about how they fulfill things, now is the time that these companies have the opportunity to experiment and there is an appetite to try new and different things.” - Sucharita KodaliRetailers in the past year have started to invest in advertising and media networks: “They are monetizing their eyeballs, their foot traffic, and they’re looking at themselves as media properties.” - Sucharita KodaliSucharita predicts that we will see a lot of creativity in the physical spaces that were previously occupied by retail.Phillip and Brian suspect that outdoor spaces will see creative redirections as well, or we’ll all be wearing personal yurts.LinksFind Sucharita Kodali on Twitter or LinkedIn.Check out Sucharita’s other appearances on Future Commerce:Episode #132: “Tracksmith: Unapologetically Premium”Episode #77: “Zucchini in a Cucumber Pile”Episode #41: “Technology, for Technology’s Sake”Forrester: Ted Schadler’s “The Pandemic Recession Demands a Digital Response”Slate: The Post Pandemic Style If 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!

Hot Sauces & Future Commerce v2: Conspiracy TheoryThe Killers have released a hot sauce collab, each named after one of their albums.Phillip used to listen to conspiracy theory radio as a child and was exposed to conspiracies about the X-Files being a vehicle to desensitize us to alien life.Elements of Disney’s The Mandalorian could be seen as a conspiracy theory: Baby Yoda, being cute in his vehicle by The Mandalorian’s side, could be allowing us to normalize putting our children in pandemic-proof bubbles.What Is Mixy?“It’s a place to get your brand out in front of new people.” - Daniel DixonMixy is a marketplace that helps DTC brands get their brand discovered by new consumers and incentivize those consumers by saving them money.Daniel came from the DTC world from an omnichannel sports nutrition brand. Mixy came from working inside of a brand and working as a consultant for brands—trying to solve the problem of encouraging consumers to try new brands.Mixy provides consumers with five $20 gift cards under the stipulation that they can’t spend it all in the same place, which encourages them to try new brands.Mixy solves challenges in DTC by bringing like-minded brands together and benefits customers in the form of discount without brands actually discounting.Mixy is bringing bundling, which has been done in the digital product space, to physical products.The Future for MixyAs for now, Mixy is only integrated with Shopify and would like to expand to new platforms.“When [consumers] think of gift cards, they think of Nike or Amazon… They’re not thinking of gift cards for great small to medium sized DTC brands.” - Daniel Dixon on how Mixy is getting consumers comfortable with using gift cards for smaller brands.Mixy is looking into expanding their product selection, currently adding one brand every week. These brands are curated and fit together to be mutually beneficial to brands and consumers.LinksCheck out Season Four of Step by Step, where we talk about competing with big brands as a smaller DTC brand.Read Phillip’s article on dead celebrities: Insiders #059: “Virtual Influencers Killed The Dead Celebrity”.Check out Future Commerce Episode 29: “Body Data is the Next Revolution”Subscribe to our new weekly newsletter, The Senses. If 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!

Show Notes: If you’re like us, you’ve done an insane amount of jigsaw puzzles in your quarantining. After getting into jigsaw puzzles, Kaylin was tired of staring at stock photos and watercolor scenery and longed to look at beautiful pieces of art while completing puzzles. Thus, the idea for JIGGY was born. Kaylin partners with emerging female artists to create beautiful, artful puzzles for both her customers to enjoy and her artists to make an income. Everything from the puzzle itself, to the packaging, is thoughtfully curated for a totally immersive experience. JIGGY launched in November 2019 and it’s almost as if they looked into a crystal ball and knew that the demand would go up in March… Previously, Kaylin was the director of Marketing at Skimm, so you could say she had a bit of experience in building community. She brought that experience into building community around JIGGY: “I really led with what I knew, which was our story, my story, our artists, their stories. And so starting with the more kind of narrative channels being email and set up on Omnisend made it easy to just set up.” KEY TAKEAWAYS JIGGY has seen great success in helping develop analog experiences for individuals. Kaylin began building community through storytelling, email marketing with Omnisend and leveraging partnerships with artists to gain affiliate traction. Respect the inbox. When JIGGY sends out an email, it’s because they have something of value to share. Pay attention to your customer and what they’re interested in. Kaylin walks through some easy first steps in automating your community engagement. How JIGGY is an authentically missional, community-driven brand. NOTABLE QUOTES “I don't need to send an email for the sake of it. I'm going to send an email when we have something to say or something to share that I feel would actually be valuable for our community. And just "Respect the inbox," I think is my overall philosophy on email. And being that it is me still writing them, it is very personal and we do send them.” “We did a customer survey recently, and about half of our customers had never bought a jigsaw puzzle before JIGGY. So we really are reaching this new audience who's curious and interested. But puzzles weren't a part of their lives before, or just art fans and they want to support female artists and think it's cool to kind of have a hand in constructing it and putting it together.” Learn more about Kaylin and JIGGY on their website, Instagram, or Twitter. Connect with us at Futurecommerce.fm, or follow us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, or LinkedIn. Have any questions or comments about the show? You can reach out to us at Hello@futurecommerce.fm or any of our social channels; we love hearing from our listeners!

In episode 3 of Step by Step Season 4, James Le Compte tells us a story of conservation and preservation, and how they have created a luxury brand around an otherwise commonplace confection — chocolate. We dive deep into the psychology of brand storytelling, how you can tell those stories in every channel, and how you can bring tools along to inspire the customer in their purchase journey. Listen now!

How does a small-but-mighty team compete with big global brands? Bahzad Trinos tells us exactly how his passion — his obsession — for denim has helped the brand Naked and Famous rise to the top of innovation and admiration from those in-the-know. The denim brand is pushing the limits of what is possible, creating new and exciting opportunities for engagement with the customer. From marketing automation to absurd product innovation, Bahzad teaches us how they're doing more with less, and converting more shoppers into customers, Step by Step.

It’s tougher than ever to attract an online shopper. It feels like everywhere you turn, you have to spend money to acquire a customer, and then spend MORE money to buy their loyalty. How do the big brands do it? How can a startup compete? There are so many channels for customers today and making sense of acquiring, converting, and reactivating these customers is more complicated than ever. Customers are no longer as loyal as they once were and float between brands, and channels, more fluidly than ever. In our fourth season of Step by Step we'll ask the question, "How can a DTC brand compete with established brands?".