Future Commerce

Founded in 2015 by Sunny Chadha and his wife, Seema, Venus ET Fleur takes a modern approach to floral design. Inspired by beautiful Parisian hat boxes and featuring Eternity Roses, which are real roses that last a year, the brand hit 20 million dollars in revenue in its first three years and has grown to over half a million followers on Instagram. In this episode, Sunny shares with us his entrepreneurial journey from growing up in New Jersey and working for his father's electronic company, to a disappointing Valentine's Day that sparked the idea for his company. Sunny talks with us about how Instagram posts from the Kardashians affected the business, why he believes in vision boards, and what it's like to run a business with your spouse. ###In This Episode You’ll Hear About: How growing up in New Jersey/New York with an entrepreneurial father laid the groundwork for both he and his brother to become entrepreneurs as well How he learned to be adaptive and find the good in change after his mom became an entrepreneur following a major shift in his home life Why he left college to work with his dad to learn what real life business experience would teach him How he and his brother learned even more about business through a popular brunch spot and nightclub they started in Manhattan in 2013 and then through a commercial lending business they started with their friend and roommate Why a disappointing Valentine’s Day turned into a pretty awesome business idea that Sunny and Seema quickly started to develop, even in the midst of their very new relationship with each other How they used social media to grow their business, which included some posts from the Kardashians that brought in more traffic than they expected and the brilliant idea Sunny had to navigate that in the moment What led to the development of the Eternity Rose and why that has become the next big thing in florals Ways they continue to innovate, add product offerings, educate their customers and offer new and beautiful ways to have florals in homes, offices, and really anywhere What advice Sunny has for keeping the morale strong within the team culture, hiring people you trust, and creating vision boards to keep your eyes fixed on the future of your brand ###To Find Out More: VenusETFleur.com ###Quotes: “Through life you go through things like that, and as long as you look at it to sort of bring out the positive, it's always going to teach you something good. There's always going to be something that you take out of it to develop yourself.” “We were able to do something very, very foreign to us, but it kind of taught us that as long as we work hard at it, we have the right team, the right support, the right hard workers, we can do it.” “I love getting opinions from people that are close to me, but also the more opinions, the more complicated your decision becomes.” “I think not getting too much sort of cloudiness in your thoughts and just like still staying true to what you're thinking and what your gut tells you.” “That's one of the beautiful things about a business is like if it feels right, do it. You're the one that's going to be doing all the work. So make sure you just sign off on it yourself and just hit the ground running as fast as you can.” “It was like this feeling of like this is going to be different. This is going to be new. And this is going to be something that is going to be big.” “Once we were able to inject the perfect version, being our Eternity Rose, into the florals...that lifted that restriction on geography for me. And I was able to continue to try and grow as fast as we could. So that was a big thing.” “I think development everywhere is what keeps me going. It keeps me really sort of on my toes. Like, what can we keep doing? How can we continue to grow?” “We started to introduce these new product categories to where we educated customers on where else you can utilize florals within your space.” “You can plan for demand and you can buy inventory, but you also have to make sure that you have enough people that can package and design and so on. And then also customer service. As we grow, all the sides of the business grow and it's important for people to remember all those other parts of the business as well.” “I think it's very important for couples out there that are looking to get into business together to make sure from the beginning that you have that alignment and understanding.” “You want to move quickly. So a lot of people might just be like, "Hey, we'll figure it out as we go," but then as you go and those things become pain problems, it can also negatively impact the business, but more so even the personal relationship.” “We need to have that work/personal life balance, which is very, very important for sure. And I always recommend that.” “I think team building and really understanding who those people are is super important.” “It's something that I'd say is not just to hope to get to the goal and then look back at the journey. Also embrace it as you go through the journey.”

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 earn their loyalty. How do the big brands do it? How can a startup compete? Find out in our next season of Step by Step, coming next week.

Today we talk with Ferris Jumah, CEO of Surge.AI, about big data, AI technology in consumer insights, and the evolution of purchasing funnels. The New DIY DIY used to have a connotation of poor quality or poor craftsmanship but today, it’s more indicative of participation. Online marketplaces are booming with consumers and creators having more meaningful connections with items that could otherwise be more easily purchased. Partnering with Gladly, we’ve created a new report: The New DIY: Creators, Crafts and Commerce. “There is a cycle of inspiration that leads to education online, that leads to participation, which ultimately shapes the purchases that a person makes, which leads them back to inspire others into that same virtuous cycle.” - Phillip Jackson The Consumer Insights Data Scientist and Surge.AI Feris started out in CPG and retail, then ending up working at LinkedIn and joining the startup world. “I’ve always been super focused on growth and [asking] how do we use data to generate actionable insights to help a business grow and to help businesses grow faster?” - Ferris Jumah Surge is a real-time market research platform that helps brands quickly identify and target new audiences on search and social platforms. Surge helps businesses understand what those new audiences want and what they’re engaging with—and then ideates, creates, and distributes content for those audiences. Surge was birthed from Ferris’s frustration with how long and expensive the process was of researching new audiences and figuring out how to market to them. “Having fresh information is the biggest competitive advantage a company can have… your future audience is always evolving and digital channels [are changing] really quickly.” - Ferris Jumah Robot Work vs. Human Work Ferris says that in order to keep up with the ever changing data, businesses need AI—what he calls ‘robot work.’ “That’s robot work. [Surge] exists to create those robots for you so we can give you time back to do human work.” - Ferris Jumah Surveys and panels are a useful tool for consumer and market research, but they don’t scale very well. Surveys and panels are reactive but there’s a lot of consumer behavior that is subconscious and free of biases that wouldn’t be found through classic consumer research. The hypothesis for our report, The New DIY, was that the pandemic has accelerated the trend of DIY, which was an already existing consumer trend—and that trend is mapped in a cycle of inspiration, education, and participation. Surge helped to research the trends, provide real data, and tamp down on our own personal biases. New vs. Old Purchasing Funnels “We’re all familiar with the classic funnel… it’s just an analog to thinking about how people shop in the real world and trying to translate that to digital. And it’s not at all relevant anymore.” - Ferris Jumah Ferris talks about reframing how we see the commerce funnel—not as a digital version of real world shopping, but as an amalgamation of the right audiences, the right searches, and the right content all at the right time. “The new funnel is all about what’s happening on social, what people are searching for, and tying all of that together [to keep] track of it… You don't want to be reading about [the current trend] in an article because by then, you’re late to the party.” - Ferris Jumah Ferris explains that search is now contextual because of its increasing number of channels. What used to be searched on Google might now be searched for on social, on marketplaces, or YouTube. Robot Work vs. Human Work (Pt. 2) Everything begins with ‘human work,’ in ideation and knowing a general lay of the land. Surge helps take that original input and give instant feedback on whether it’s trending, if there’s a related idea or more interesting idea, and giving that data back to be fuel for more ‘human work.’ An example of this would be a recent DTC office product brand wanting to focus on whiteboard sales because of their current demand. Surge was able to quickly identify that the communities most engaged with whiteboards as a product, particularly on social, are the workout/athletic community and the homeschooling community. Given this data, Surge is able to give even more niche data such as the growing popularity of search trends with whiteboards: ‘portability’ or ‘reflective’. Links Check out Surge.AI Check out our new report with Gladly: The New DIY Check out our essay that was powered by insights by Surge, The New Formal Check out Vertex Cloud Check out Omnisend 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 we talk with Ferris Jumah, CEO of Surge.AI, about big data, AI technology in consumer insights, and the evolution of purchasing funnels. The New DIY DIY used to have a connotation of poor quality or poor craftsmanship but today, it’s more indicative of participation. Online marketplaces are booming with consumers and creators having more meaningful connections with items that could otherwise be more easily purchased. Partnering with Gladly, we’ve created a new report: The New DIY: Creators, Crafts and Commerce. “There is a cycle of inspiration that leads to education online, that leads to participation, which ultimately shapes the purchases that a person makes, which leads them back to inspire others into that same virtuous cycle.” - Phillip Jackson The Consumer Insights Data Scientist and Surge.AI Feris started out in CPG and retail, then ending up working at LinkedIn and joining the startup world. “I’ve always been super focused on growth and [asking] how do we use data to generate actionable insights to help a business grow and to help businesses grow faster?” - Ferris Jumah Surge is a real-time market research platform that helps brands quickly identify and target new audiences on search and social platforms. Surge helps businesses understand what those new audiences want and what they’re engaging with—and then ideates, creates, and distributes content for those audiences. Surge was birthed from Ferris’s frustration with how long and expensive the process was of researching new audiences and figuring out how to market to them. “Having fresh information is the biggest competitive advantage a company can have… your future audience is always evolving and digital channels [are changing] really quickly.” - Ferris Jumah Robot Work vs. Human Work Ferris says that in order to keep up with the ever changing data, businesses need AI—what he calls ‘robot work.’ “That’s robot work. [Surge] exists to create those robots for you so we can give you time back to do human work.” - Ferris Jumah Surveys and panels are a useful tool for consumer and market research, but they don’t scale very well. Surveys and panels are reactive but there’s a lot of consumer behavior that is subconscious and free of biases that wouldn’t be found through classic consumer research. The hypothesis for our report, The New DIY, was that the pandemic has accelerated the trend of DIY, which was an already existing consumer trend—and that trend is mapped in a cycle of inspiration, education, and participation. Surge helped to research the trends, provide real data, and tamp down on our own personal biases. New vs. Old Purchasing Funnels “We’re all familiar with the classic funnel… it’s just an analog to thinking about how people shop in the real world and trying to translate that to digital. And it’s not at all relevant anymore.” - Ferris Jumah Ferris talks about reframing how we see the commerce funnel—not as a digital version of real world shopping, but as an amalgamation of the right audiences, the right searches, and the right content all at the right time. “The new funnel is all about what’s happening on social, what people are searching for, and tying all of that together [to keep] track of it… You don't want to be reading about [the current trend] in an article because by then, you’re late to the party.” - Ferris Jumah Ferris explains that search is now contextual because of its increasing number of channels. What used to be searched on Google might now be searched for on social, on marketplaces, or YouTube. Robot Work vs. Human Work (Pt. 2) Everything begins with ‘human work,’ in ideation and knowing a general lay of the land. Surge helps take that original input and give instant feedback on whether it’s trending, if there’s a related idea or more interesting idea, and giving that data back to be fuel for more ‘human work.’ An example of this would be a recent DTC office product brand wanting to focus on whiteboard sales because of their current demand. Surge was able to quickly identify that the communities most engaged with whiteboards as a product, particularly on social, are the workout/athletic community and the homeschooling community. Given this data, Surge is able to give even more niche data such as the growing popularity of search trends with whiteboards: ‘portability’ or ‘reflective’. Links Check out Surge.AI Check out our new report with Gladly: The New DIY Check out our essay that was powered by insights by Surge, The New Formal Check out Vertex Cloud Check out Omnisend 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!

Customer support and burnout often co-exist in an organization. How do you prevent burnout and have sustainable CX, while running one of the most prestigious brands in the world? Jeffrey Newman, Manager of Customer Care at Porsche shares how he keeps it all in balance. Listen now!

Customer Experience is about anticipating needs. For Native shoes, leading with their values helps them to do just that. Their brand promise - to live lightly - is woven into every interaction they have with a customer. To do this, they're using blended teams to help blur the lines between online interactions and offline interactions, creating a seamless, even channel-less, view of interacting with the customer. Listen now!

How do you scale truly personal customer experiences? One-to-one CX takes time, talent, and experience. But when you train your customers to be your frontline CX team, that's where the magic happens. In this episode of Step by Step, CEO and Founder of women's swimwear brand, Andie, unpacks how they use technology to scale their brand promise while making every interaction personal.

Step by Step continues with Episode 2! "Selling is Good Service" says Kate Showalter. She should know - Kate is the Senior Director for Customer Service at Crate and Barrel, overseeing global CX for the storied retailer. Since COVID under Kate's direction, Crate and Barrel has nimbly transitioned their once store-bound frontline sales operation to a fully-digital-capable organization. In this episode we'll learn how she did it, and how you can too, Step by Step.

Welcome to Step by Step Season 3 by Future Commerce, presented by Gladly. This season of Step by Step is all about customer experience. Consumers have reimagined the customer experience, and they expect far more from a service interaction than issue resolution. The service experience is now as important, if not more important, than the product experience. As customer expectations are evolving faster than ever, customers are rapidly moving toward brands that are engaging the way they want to engage, and away from brands that are not. Companies that can keep up with these ever-changing consumer expectations will be the ones driving long term revenue and winning over customers for life.

Who is Michelle Grant? Michelle got her start studying the retail industry in 2015 with Euromonitor, focusing on overall global strategy. She started this year at Salesforce in their Strategy Insights group with a focus on technology in retail and consumer goods. Michelle just launched Becoming Retail with Rob Garth—a content series focusing on executive interviews to understand the digital transformations behind brands; how they’re enacting digital change, what they’re learning, what their barriers are, etc. “It’s really getting to know the people behind these changes that we’re seeing in the news, essentially.” - Michelle Grant Michelle points out the major change in the last 5 years—a shift from a product mindset in retail to customer centricity. “If content is king, then channel is queen. It’s essential.” - Brian Lange In Becoming Retail and via Salesforce’s blog, Michelle is pushing out content about customer centricity. Shipageddon 2020 Michelle points out that Salesforce has already seen the logistics system operate at capacity or overcapacity because of the unexpected spike in demand. Fourth quarter during holiday is usually peak season for digital commerce anyway, but it’s expected to be much higher in 2020 than any other year. “Your performance comes back to reflect on the brand, not necessarily on the environment in which the package is being shipped.” - Phillip Jackson on brand’s performances during holiday season 2020. “Retailers are definitely hedging their bets by getting more third party quick last-mile delivery providers on-boarded for the holiday season.” - Michelle Grant on DoorDash, Postmates, Uber, and Instacart. “I think people are more forgiving in the scrappiness of their local retailers.” - Michelle Grant on small, local businesses and their inability to meet the same delivery demands as larger businesses. “You’re not necessarily [shopping locally] for the convenience. You’re doing it to keep that business alive in your community and people working there and spending money within the community… Consumers have a much higher threshold for inconvenience when they opt to shop at smaller stores than the big box retailers or Amazon.” - Michelle Grant Prime Day and Live-stream Expansion With Prime Day 2020, Amazon had a 71% increase of customer base over last year. But other retailers also grew by 21% during the same period, so this wave of digital transaction benefited businesses outside of just Amazon. Amazon and other online retailers have pushed into nurturing the digital shopping experience into an entertainment experience. Twitch, owned by Amazon, has moved beyond gaming and has now become a popular space for live streaming—especially in the beauty industry. On Twitch: “We’ll see if they’re successful in enabling other types of live streaming communities to build up around different categories. And if they’re able to help those communities monetize through commerce.” - Michelle Grant “If you slept on Tik Tok, don’t sleep on Twitch, because this is going to prove itself out.” - Phillip Jackson Tik Tok just partnered with Shopify to make Tik Tok a shoppable platform. Future Tech and Channel Investments in Retail “I think first point of order for all retailers is to get their fulfillment as efficient as possible.” - Michelle Grant on future supply chain investments Walmart has been testing new front-end innovations for their stores to be more efficient with fulfillment. Michelle predicts that 2021 will see new store formats due to the pandemic, fewer stores overall because of the rise of digital commerce, and in general, more digital initiatives from retailers. Links Check out Michelle and Rob Garth’s content series, Becoming Retail. Check out Salesforce’s blog. Find Michelle Grant on Twitter! 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!