Future Commerce

🎶"I love you, you love me, Barney's filing bank-rupt-cy!" PLUS: who is the vegan-curious Subway customer? Listen now! Main Takeaways: Vice President of Global E-Commerce and Customer Experience at e.l.f Cosmetics, Ingrid Millman, is co-hosting with Brian and Phillip this week. Barneys New York has filed for bankruptcy but does this spell the end for the high-end department store model? The perception of luxury is shifting with younger generations and brands that don't change with the times will eventually phase out.  AriZona Iced Tea has partnered with a cannabis brand and the pairing could be a benchmark for the future of cannabis retail. Barneys Is Bankrupt: Tough Times for High-End Department Stores:  Barneys New York has filed for bankruptcy (no Phillip, not the dinosaur)  and Ingrid captures up all of our inner feelings by saying that the Sex and the City characters within all of us are saddened by the news.  Brian has surprisingly never seen Sex and the City, so Ingrid makes him take a Buzzfeed quiz which yields surprising results.  There is a rapid expansion of markets that don't make sense for the Barneys brand that has succeeded at being a single store in New York.  Ingrid states that it is a tough time for high-end department stores and brings up how other big names in high-end department stores (like Henri Bendel) have been closing. Discovery on Instagram: Are Department Stores Dead?: Brian rebuttals by saying there have been many luxury stores that have been very successful in taking their business online. "The department store was traditionally the place where discovery happened, but now discovery happens on Instagram." With the advent of social media and the tailoring of advertisements that accompanies it, Instagram knows more about you than a department store ever would.  Brian guesses that Barneys Warehouse could have been a contributing factor in Barneys' demise because a lot of what Barneys sold was sold at a discount at Barneys Warehouse.  The Cannibalization of High-End Pricing: What is the Cost of Discounting?: Phillip points out that the concept of doubling down on your high-end inventory before you make the addition of discount products to your brand has never been talked about on the show before. A recent article mentioned that the Nordstrom family wants to increase its ownership of Nordstrom beyond 50% as a result of their plummeting sales.  There are a lot of luxury brands that cannibalize their full price sales by selling through discount outlets such as Nordstrom Rack. Phillip states that casualization in the workplace and a shift in the perception of luxury are contributing factors to the failing high-end department model.  The Flash Sale Model: Disillusionment Through Discount: Ingrid attributes the financial recession around 2008 as the advent of flash sale type brands such as Giltand these discounted luxury goods removed some of the enchantment that was associated with luxury goods.  The older generations are typically buying the traditionally high-end brands and if those brands do not take notice of the buying habits of younger consumers, they will being to age out.  Phillip identifies Barneys as a cultural icon that he would have previously considered too big to fail, but it will have to change dramatically to stay around.  Brian points out the continuing trend of brands that are struggling even though they are trying to innovate such as Walgreens having to close hundreds of stores.  The Competitive Edge: Battling Against Giants: CVS has announced a paid offering called Carepass that promises discounts, free shipping, and prescription delivery for about half the price of Amazon Prime. (Funny how this announcement lines up with Walgreen's announcing their store closings...) Brian predicts that we will begin to see more offerings like this from different brands popping up to compete with Amazon. Disney+, ESPN+, and Hulu will be bundled for $12.99 and Phillip points out that we've come full circle and are back to where we started: with basic cable. Phillip is excited to try something aside from Netflix because he only watches The Office.  Mountains of Digital Waste: The Ruins of Digital Civilization:  Ingrid is very into all of the cooking shows on Netflix such as The Great British Bakeoff, Chef's Table, and The Final Table. Brian states that he wishes you could just buy the equipment that was being shown on the cooking shows while watching. (Or the shoes right off of Carrie's feet. RIght, Brian?) Streaming Service Linear Commerce is the ability to purchase products directly from digital media as it is being displayed in various programs. Phillip recently heard about "the mountains of digital waste" we create that we use for a moment and then never again, but it will exist forever in data houses that require fossil fuels to be powered.  Recycle Commerce: Single-Use Plastics As Sustainable Currency?:  Brian gets excited about being able to swap plastic bottles for a train ticket in Rome as part of a 12-month program called "Ricicli + Viaggi," or Recycle + Travel that aims to reduce the usage of single-use plastics.  Ingrid has a conspiracy theory and is worried that this program will have an opposite effect and make people buy more plastic bottles because they will be able to use them to get train tickets.  S'well recently announced food storage containers and Phillip thinks that they are really pretty.  Brian loves the idea of sustainable currency and wonders why we can't factor other things in such as adding a carbon offset value to everything we purchase. (Credit to Phillip for that idea.) Weed and Iced Tea: The Pairing You Never New You Wanted:  Brian has been champing at the bit to talk about AriZona Iced Tea's venture into the world of weed with their partnership with Dixie Brands, Inc. AriZona Iced Tea and Adidas recently collaborated on a shoe that was initially sold for $0.99, caused such a crowd that the NYPD had to shut down the launch, and then later started being sold for upwards of $700.00 per pair.  There are lots of interesting collaborations between cannabis companies and "nostalgia brands" such as the recent pairing between Green Growth Brands and Abercrombie & Fitch.  Beyond Meat: Major Food Chains Are Exploring Meatless Options:  Subway is going to be testing out plant-based Meatball Marinara sandwiches at select locations.  Subway is not alone in their shift towards meatless options as Del Taco, Burger King, Tim Hortons, and Little Caesar's are all going to have Beyond Meat or Impossible Burger options.  Ingrid brings up that there are tons of people that are interested in reducing the amount of meat they consume or going meatless but they live in areas where those options are not readily available. (Brian lovingly dubs these areas "Meatless Deserts".) Phillip brings up a Twitter thread from Charlie Bilello that chronicles the rise of Beyond Meat and the numbers are incredibly indicative towards the success of meatless products.  Both Brian and Ingrid share some love for Oatly and how their marketing is making oat milk look like the coolest thing ever.  Brands Mentioned in this Episode: Barney's New York Henri Bendel (R.I.P.) Barneys Warehouse Nordstom Gilt Walgreens CVS S'well AriZona Iced Tea Dixie Brands, Inc. Adidas Green Growth Brands Abercrombie & Fitch Subway  Oatly As always: We want to hear what our listeners think! Where do you see the high-end department store model in five years? Is cannabis a sustainable business model when it comes to partnering with non-cannabis brands? Let us know in the content section on Futurecommerce.fm, or reach out to us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, or Linkedin. Have any questions or comments about the show? You can reach out to us at info@futurecommerce.fm or any of our social channels; we love hearing from our listeners! Retail Tech is moving fast, but Future Commerce is moving faster. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

When brands like Outdoor Voices launch a new content platform it gets us thinking about retail-brands-turned-content-creators and begs the question: who is the winner in the attention economy? Do brands have what it takes to create engaging and timely content? Listen now! ##Main Takeaways: In today's brand economy, everyone is expected to be a storyteller and have content play a large part in their retail strategy.  Brian and Phillip use their own experience as a guide and describe the qualities it takes to be a successful content creator.  In some cases, content is dictating how product is being created so brands that master their content game are becoming majorly successful. Strategy is an integral part of achieving your goals and it takes a specific skillset to combine strategy with brand development. ###The State of Content: Everyone Has to Be a Storyteller: Outdoor Voices is launching a storytelling marketing platform called The Recreationalist that is positioned around showcasing the fun in outdoor activities as opposed to most outdoor brands that focus on performance. Brian states that we are at the peak content level period where every brand needs to be a storyteller and everything is content.  The way we are consuming content has changed dramatically in the past ten years and we are more willing to put our focus on content that is current and innovative.  Creating content consistently is a large commitment that extends past just being employed at a company. ###The Lasting Content Creator: Avoiding Creative Burnout in A Demanding Climate: Given their standing as "authorities" on the subject, Brian and Phillip describe the perfect combination of qualities that allows someone to be a consistent content creator. (Strangely it sounds like they're reading their own biographies. Imagine that.) You can't have a strategy without a goal, and everyone on your team should know what that strategy is and have a clear direction on how to achieve it.  Creating content in a particular media takes a different skill set that might sometimes conflict with your ability to be a successful retailer.  If you're going to get into the content game, get in with both feet and don't just try to do it halfway. ###The Shifting Tide: Content is King: In the attention economy, most brands are competing for the same groups of content consumers so these brands must stand out from their competitors.  Brian recently heard a VP of Product at a large furniture retailer say that it's better to create content, see how that content performs, and then create a product that fits that content.  "People want to quantify that you're spending has a direct return but when you're creating content, what you're spending on is brand." Aggregating the listeners or consumers of your content is a challenge because they are coming from such disparate places across all channels. ###What's On the Horizon?: A Sneak Peek at the Future of Future Commerce: Phillip is excited to announce that Gladly is now a sponsor of the show and to check out last week's episode with Charlie Cole and Joseph Ansanelli. (Welcome to the family!) In the most recent issue of Chips + Dips, aperitif culture was examined and Phillip suggests that Future Commerce could be your retail aperitif. (That was a stretch...) Brian thinks that the world is ready for a canned Gin & Tonic and has an entire five-year strategy for this plan.  (Well this episode derailed fast.) Phillip teases that Ishani Gujral from Madrona Venture Labs will be making an appearance on the show soon to talk about how they approach ideation and how they help founders launch new companies. Brands Mentioned in this Episode: Outdoor Voices Gladly Madrona Venture Labs As always: We want to hear what our listeners think! How can you use content to identify a trajectory for your message and brand? Is outsourcing a content creator a good expenditure of funds? Let us know in the content section on Futurecommerce.fm, or reach out to us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, or Linkedin. Have any questions or comments about the show? You can reach out to us at info@futurecommerce.fm or any of our social channels; we love hearing from our listeners! Retail Tech is moving fast, but Future Commerce is moving faster. 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 https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

How do modern brands create joyful customer experiences that last a lifetime? Charlie Cole, Chief Digital Officer of luxury travel brand Tumi, Joseph Ansanelli, CEO of customer support platform Gladly join us to talk about how to know your customer, how to anticipate their needs, and how to stand out in a sea of startup DTC players. Listen now! Main Takeaways: Charlie Cole (Chief Digital Officer, TUMI) and Joseph Ansanelli (CEO and Co-Founder, Gladly) join Brian and Phillip as their special guests on today's episode. Most brands today focus on custom acquisition as opposed to focusing on the lifetime value of their customers. Brands like TUMI are adapting their customer service to include new mediums of communication to meet customers where they want to be met. Non-transactional experiences that exist in a single moment are what retailers are striving to capture digitally to create lasting memories and brand affiliation. How Gladly Got Started: A Brief History: Joseph starts by discussing how it was clear that the way in which consumers today engage, communicate, and transact has radically changed in the past decade and how this affected how companies interacted with consumers. Gladly set out to not only transform the way people do commerce but also how a brand services, engages with and markets to its consumers. As Joseph was coming up with Gladly, Charlie was one of the first people that he reached out to as Charlie was pushing the boundaries of what you could do in the direct-to-consumer world. 'Given his professional history, TUMI was Charlie's attempt to work for a larger company and was known for making amazing things in a remarkably customer-centric way. Charlie recounts how Joseph's initial pitch of Gladly made a lot of sense and was better than anything else on the market and how it fit with their goal of modernizing the customer experience. The Slippery Slope of Personalization: Customizing Customer Experience With Big Data: Charlie mentions that many data points are collected from customers, some voluntarily and some that customers might not even know that they are volunteering. How do brands use this data to enhance the customer experience? Customer "value" is usually interpreted as a revenue number as opposed to quantifying a positive retail experience. Gladly allows brands to understand the entire customer journey and leverages that data to help the customer as much as possible. Conversion rate is such a small part of the customer journey, and it bugs Charlie when eCommerce companies brag about it. Treating Customer Like Humans: The Value of Connection: "The best marketing is customer service, and if you treat people as people, it will pay dividends down the road." Joseph brings up that one of Gladly's goals is to enable brands to meet customers in places where those customers want to be reached. TUMI's phone number is now text message enabled, meaning that customers can elect to communicate via SMS as opposed to being locked into a phone call. Brian brings up how Ingrid Milman (in her most recent appearance on the show) said that customer relationship is an even higher priority than the brand story. The Bigger Problem: How Retail Has Evolved to Backseat Customers: Charlie completely agrees with Ingrid's comment and says that one of the problems that we have as retailers is that most of our incentives are based on the acquisition of customers. Most talks at conferences are based on how to boost acquisition metrics and are rarely focused on improving customer experience. Joseph agrees that the primary goal should be to make lifelong customers and to get the industry-wide narrative to change, we have change incentives and what we measure as points of success. He also brings up that KPIs for customer service should also be updated to reflect the number of people spoken to as opposed to speed or efficiency because people are at the core of customer service. "It's less about how long things go, and more about how well things go." Finding Your Company's North Star: Using Qualitative Data to Boost Lifetime Value: Phillip asks Charlie and Joseph if we as a community of retailers think we are capturing customers, but in reality, are only capturing transactions. When you think of enduring brands, they understand that it is not about the transaction and is really about the long term relationship. Companies like Apple and Harley Davidson are the pinnacles of great brands that have customers whose love for the brand goes beyond the product to the point of people even getting tattoos of the logo on their bodies. In Charlie's first couple months at TUMI, one of the first things they had to do was revamp their marketings as everything was evaluated on a last-click basis. If you can qualitatively identify your company's North Star, it will help to steer away from transactional-based evaluations. Digital Empathy: Consumer Communication Through Modern Channels: Charlie and Joseph are asked if brands are concerned about how their voice is coming across in voice and chat. TUMI provides chat and SMS and knows that consumers want to communicate through these channels, and you can easily to deliver empathetic communication through text because we all desire to communicate in that way. Brands tend to be deathly afraid of customer service going off script, especially when communicating through SMS. Brian brings up the story from the "Late-Stage Capitalism" episode in which his father made some amazing connections with employees from Costco and agrees that giving customer representatives the space to get to know their customers, that's when you start to see the benefits of lifetime value. "Give people data to help them, don't give people data to program them". Predictions for the Future: Evolving Data Capture: Phillip asks where we are headed and what we can expect of the next few years as reality brands are planning for the future. Charlie foresees a world in which you never look at a screen to know the status of your orders thanks to the advances in voice technology. Seventy-five years ago, shop owners knew who their customers were and developed personal relationships with them, and Joseph wants to be able to enable relationships like this in a remote, online world. There's a sense that the spoken word intent of a single, actionable expression of need is the future of voice technology. The tricky (but fun) part for brands will be capturing the experiences of in-person shopping that people didn't know they needed and delivering those memorable experiences in a digital and marketable format. Brands Mentioned in this Episode: TUMI Gladly Apple Harley Davidson Costco e.l.f cosmetics As always: We want to hear what our listeners think! How can brands envision a future where customers want to interact with them in mediums of the customers' choices? Let us know in the content section on Futurecommerce.fm, or reach out to us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, or Linkedin. Have any questions or comments about the show? You can reach out to us at info@futurecommerce.fm or any of our social channels; we love hearing from our listeners! Retail Tech is moving fast, but Future Commerce is moving faster. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

We ask the question - is social activism by brands virtue-signaling or tone-deaf marketing? Listen now! Main Takeaways: Woke-washing has become more and more prevalent in today's economy, where social awareness is a major selling point. Are there ways to be socially conscious without completely being dedicated to a cause or movement? Woke gatekeepers are the first to point out how brands are deviating from their message, even if those brands are putting in the extra work to remain socially conscious. Is it possible for a discount store to also be ethically sourced? The Woke Debaucle: Setting the Record Straight: To set the record straight, Phillip and Brian clarify that they indeed know what "woke" means (do they though?) despite coming off as a Baby Boomer and Gen Xer, respectively. Just a short while after the episode on woke commerce dropped, there was an article posted on woke-washing. Phillip thinks that there is something about this particular time of year that leads to brands using patriotism and socially conscious messaging as part of their marketing. There was another article recently that said that woke-washing is beginning to infect the advertising industry due to brands running purpose-driven campaigns, but failing to take real action. Real-World Examples: How Do You Do "Woke" Right? "If you are highlighting something that you do to your customers for a specific cause or issue and highlight that yourself as part of your marketing, that is not very woke." Brian and Phillip refer back to Patagonia, whose customers and typical customer persona does not always match up to Patagonia's political views. Patagonia is an excellent example of a company that would rather lose some business in pursuing something right and just as opposed to just focusing on financial gain. Phillip bets that there are very few businesses that can claim that they genuinely favor social or environmental benefits as opposed to money. Levels of Wokeness: Is It All or Nothing?: Brian questions if a brand needs to be dedicated entirely to a social cause to be authentic. Phillip refers to the opening line of the woke-washing article that brings up "razor company talking about #MeToo and a burger chain tackling depression". Do you think Burger King was commenting on mental health with their Real Meal Campaign and did this make them woke? Brian proposes changing the terminology to "social awareness commerce." (And there were cringes to be had by all from this statement.) Phillip brings up Emily Singer's newsletter called Chips + Dips that talks about really cool things in the direct-to-consumer world, but more specifically DIP:011 that talks about Everlane being a great example of a socially conscious brand. Brian brings up Krochet Kids as an example of a great, ethically sourced brand. Combatting the Critiques: How To Deal With Woke Gatekeepers: It needs to be clear that you care about the communities that you are involved in. Phillip asks the listeners: "If you set out to be socially conscious as a strategy, is that inherently undoing the good you are trying to accomplish?" (That's a great question.) Phillip brings up a recent article in the New York Times by Allbirds that is content that is truly about birds in partnership with the National Audobon Society. Brian uncomfortably combines Gary Vaynerchuk and woke in the same sentence and cements his place as a Gen Xer (which wasn't a secret). The Halo Effect: Discount Stores in a Strong Economy: Brian questions what a "woke dollar store" would look like. (Oh boy. There will be a link included at the end so you can send in your hate mail.) Is there a way for a discount store that sources its goods from areas of the world that have unfair labor practices to also be sustainable created and produced? While they may not sell fresh fruit at dollar stores, the next best thing would probably be Aldi. Phillip brings up Dress Barn as an example of a discount store that is struggling in an economy in which people can afford better goods. Brian mentions Brandless as a brand that fulfills both the discount requirements as well as being ethically sourced. Phillip also finds and briefly goes over the Dollar Tree Sustainability Report. Brands Mentioned in this Episode: Patagonia Gillette Burger King Everlane Krochet Kids Allbirds Aldi Dress Barn Brandless As always: We want to hear what our listeners think! Can a brand make small contributions to social change, or do they have to be fully invested in a cause to be authentic? Let us know in the content section on Futurecommerce.fm, or reach out to us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, or Linkedin. Have any questions or comments about the show? You can reach out to us at info@futurecommerce.fm or any of our social channels; we love hearing from our listeners! Have hatemail after all that "woke" discussion? Send it to or . Retail Tech is moving fast, but Future Commerce is moving faster. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Phillip and Brian get into the implications of multi-generational branding, the ever-changing face of retail interactions, and discuss how empowering employees is key to boosting customer retention. Listen now! Main Takeaways: Retail experiences that go above and beyond the normal call of duty can lead to brand loyalty that spans several generations.  Retail used to be based upon in-person interactions with shopkeepers and store owners, but how do we bring these interactions into the digital age? Multi-Generational loyalty can be achieved by empowering employees to create memorable interactions with customers.  How do you make employee benefits as flexible and beneficial as possible for the complicated lives of your employees? Beyond the Sales Floor: The Multi-Generational Nature of Retail Relationships: Brian recounts two Costco associates that spent a lot of time talking with Brian's father and how their relationship transcends a typical retail relationship in which the front end retail associate considers his customer his friend.  This relationship is an example of peak clienteling in which the relationships that Brian's father built with the Costco employees led to Brian having a strong affiliation witch Costco: a textbook example of multigenerational retail.  Phillip mentions up a conversation he had on a Merchant to Merchant episode with Birdwell Beach Britches (say that five times fast), a company that has been around for so long that they have become a generational outpost for Venice Beach. Brian brings up a past episode with Michelle Cordeiro Grant in which she spoke about catering towards multi-generational shopping trips. Brands are having to be more community-oriented and it makes sense that if you have a great experience with a brand, you will want to share that brand with your family. Retail of the Past: The Malls Before Starcourt: In the past, there were shops in towns with owners that lived in those towns and were part of the community. (Did you catch the Stranger Things reference in the section title?) The relationships forged in these small-town shops lasted for generations and if you were able to recreate the brand loyalty of these old school relationships, then you would be monstrously successful.  Brian brings up a recent New York Times Article in which the author enjoyed working in retail, but was ashamed to admit that they worked in retail at all. "Investing in your own employees as much as you invest in your customers is a huge topic that we should be spending a lot more time talking about." Building Connections: Old Fashioned Relationships in a Digital World: If we focus on multi-generational retail experiences that create real connections akin to those that existed in the past, then we might be able to foster relationships that strengthen brand loyalty. Ultimately, the challenge is to bring the interactions of a pre-digital retail world into the modern era and create relationships.  If you are a luxury retailer, the challenges are only compounded because everyone has a different definition of luxury and the personal retail interactions have to be even more personalized.  It's a conversational challenge to empower retail associates to have meaningful interactions, but companies like Half Price Books are empowering their employees by allowing them to curate their own assortments.  Hiring good people and then giving them the freedom to address their customers directly in a place that they feel empowered is a key factor in creating lasting relationships. Empowering Employees: The Key to Positive Retail Experiences: Phillip brings up an article about Target boosting employee benefits and points out that if you want people to stay at a job for a long period of time, then you have to cater to their lives and treat them as part of your community, This sort of positive and flexible company culture trickles all the way down to customer interactions and leads to better retail experiences.  On the other end of the spectrum, Phillip brings up Late Stage Capitalism that pretty much boils down to as the horrible things that capitalism forces people to do in order to survive. (Delightful.) The longer that retail brands exist, the more they have to provide to shareholders and the more they have to increase their earnings, and eventually, this leads to underpaid employees. Phillip thinks that maybe the brands that continue to thrive by prioritizing employee values are the ones that remain privately held. As always: We want to hear what our listeners think! How can you create an environment that fosters memorable retail interactions? How do you build a strategy that uses technology that plays into actual community building? Let us know in the content section on Futurecommerce.fm, or reach out to us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram or Linkedin. Have any questions or comments about the show? You can reach out to us at info@futurecommerce.fm or any of our social channels, we love hearing from our listeners! Retail Tech is moving fast, but Future Commerce is moving faster. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Our 2019 theme of clienteling for digital commerce continues with an interview with Claudine Bianchi, CMO at Zoovu, a Guided Commerce service which connects customer needs to products and services from retail brands. Listen now! Show Notes: Main Takeaways: Future Commerce has declared 2019 the year of "clienteling" and personalized experiences for consumers. Zoovu is helping (mostly) B2C companies create curated product search selections for their customers. Amazon brands that work with Zoovu are seeing incredible returns at 3X pre-Zoovu sales. The future of retail and commerce is a world in which the ability to hyper-personalize experiences for customers is accessible to business worldwide. Zoovu is Bringing The Sales Associate Experience Online: Claudine Bianchi, CMO at zoovu, is on the podcast today, explaining how zoovu helps connect customer needs to actual products. Zoovu is an AI-conversational marketing platform that can replicate the in-store sales associate experience for online shopping experiences. So what is Zoovu's mission, and how can it help retailers and brands connect with their customers? Well, according to Claudine, Zoovu is working to solve "choice paralysis" for the customers of B2C brands and retailers. For example, one brand that Zoovu works with is Clairol, a haircare brand, and through using Zoovu, Clairol is to able to help customers choose the hair care product that is best for their individual hair type. Data-Driven Personas: Separating The Experts & Beginners: "What Zoovu does is through a series of questions it narrows down choices and actually connects you with the products that are most likely to satisfy your requirements." One of the coolest parts of Zoovu is that the platform uses anonymous data to craft personas and then curates products for customers based on answers to questions asked. Claudine says that cameras are a great example of this, because even though there may be aspiring photographers and expert level photographers shopping for cameras, they all have the same goal, to take great photographs. So as opposed to every-camera-ever Zoovu will make targeted suggestions that will fit the specifications the user is looking for. Phillip says that five years ago, a lot of marketers were turning to more sophisticated platforms because they were tired of overly broad email campaigns. "It's like going into the store, without having to go into the store." Do You Even Zoovu: ROI Metrics for Brands: Phillip asks Claudine what she thinks the next step of the shopping experience is, and what are the metrics that brands that are listed on Amazon that work with Zoovu use to determine ROI? Claudine says that Zoovu works with over 80 brands on Amazon and that those brands are seeing 3x the sales pre-Zoovu, which is incredible. Some of those brands, according to Claudine, are seeing conversion rates of 107%, because what brands can accomplish when they have the correct data is incredible. "Some of the key metrics are conversion rates, increasing sales, decreasing return rates, increase in average order value up upwards of 70-80%. Everyone's Welcome to Zoovu With Zoovu: So Zoovu integrates with a multitude of platforms including Magento, Shopify, SalesForce, Adobe, and many others. Claudine also explains the actual AI (machine learning) powering Zoovu: "We've been looking at e-commerce and sales patterns for the past ten years, and we've been able to develop the types of algorithms that will help determine the questions we ask next." So where can retailers and brands looking to Zoovu go to find out more? Claudine says that the Zoovu website is a great place to find out more, as there are live samples to demonstrate the power of the platform, a pretty robust blog, and plenty of ways to contact the Zoovu team. Claudine's predictions for the next five years of retail and commerce: "We're going to see a lot more adoption of technology into the retail and buying experience everything from AR to promote our products and to support service those products. The online experience is going to get a lot more personalized and targeted. So that consumers will see products they want to want to see, and for how much they want to pay. We're going to see this vast customization on the global level where it's not just the major players. Anyone with a website will be able to reach people who they never were able to reach before. And consumers will have unprecedented access to products that they didn't know existed". As always: we want to hear from our listeners! Do you currently use Zoovu? How are you engaging with your customers? Are you asking the right questions and using that data to power your customer experience? Let us know in the comment section on Futurecommerce.fm, 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 Monday Update is back: "Re-commerce" players like StockX and TheRealReal have huge news this week in our continued coverage of Secondhand Commerce. Listen now! Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Ingrid Milman is back, and she has some really exciting news to share with our audience! Some retailers are opening more stores, and somehow, Brian has never been to a Burlington. Plus- So many legacy brands are overusing terms like "data-driven," and both Glossier and Lively have figured out (in different ways) how to create communities around both their products and their customers! Listen Now! Show Notes: Main Takeaways: Ingrid Milman is guest hosting this week, and she's got some pretty big news to share: she's joining e.l.f cosmetics as their new Vice President of E-commerce and Customer Experience! Isn't everyone pretty much exhausted of the buzzword bingo from legacy brands? Glossier and Lively are both really fantastic at building a community around their customers. In-store + online traffic can help retailers figure out where to put their stores, how to design their stores, and what to sell in their stores. Back to Buzzword Bingo For Brands: Utilize Data With Care: First thing's first: The entire team at Future Commerce would like to congratulate Ingrid on her new role as the Vice President of E-commerce and Customer Experience at e.l.f Cosmetics! Ingrid says that the best part of e.l.f is that it's the perfect mix of value and prestige, and they are expanding their digital presence, especially as they move further into e-commerce. Ingrid points out that 2-3 years ago legacy brands were consistently hyper-focused on the term data-driven, focused too much on gathering the information, and not enough time connecting the data points into actionable insights that would be framed around how to introduce the customer to the brand properly. Brian points out two Future Commerce episodes that are reflective of this point: episode 96 with Chris Homer CTO of thredUP, and episode 103 with Rachel Swanson from Method + Mode, both of which are centered around the best uses for data. thredUP is doing precisely what Ingrid is talking about by building cross-functional teams that take ownership of the data being collected and utilized. And of course, Rachel Swanson (from Method + Mode) collected invaluable data for Future Commerce, giving our team real insight into what our listeners wanted from our show. Community Building Around Customers: Lively and Glossier Win Gold: One of the most critical challenges for brands (legacy or D2C) is developing relations with their customers that goes beyond just products, that allows these brands to reach their customers in a positive organic way. D2C brands seem to have a leg up on legacy brands when it comes to social media, especially, and they've changed the marketing game. Two brands that have done a fantastic job of developing communities around both their products and their customers: Lively and Glossier. Lively, who's CEO and Founder Michelle Cordeiro Grant (MCG) Future Commerce had the opportunity to interview at Shoptalk, has built an incredible community around their products and customers by hosting community events like "Founder Friday's" in which Female entrepreneurs can come to Michelle's office and ask her all the questions that founders have at the beginning. As Michelle told us during her interview, seven companies have been formed because of the community events that Lively puts on. And Ingrid points to Glossier as an example of a D2C company that has formed a community around its customers: Glossier even has a Slack channel for their top 100 superfans. Glossier uses this channel to announce new product launches, engage with these super-users (and let them engage with each other), and create a community around their products. Some Retailers Are Openings Stores: You'll Never Guess Who: There's been plenty of store closings going on, with many experts pointing to the Retail Apocalypse as the source, but some retailers are opening more stores. Two pretty shocking things: 1) Burlington is opening 50 new stores, and 2) Brian has never been inside of a Burlington. Brian says that Burlington hasn't over-retailed and that's why they have been able to expand. Brian says that he has a new theory about companies that have gone out of business: many of these companies on this CBI Insights list aren't relevant anymore. Ingrid points out that a lot of these companies just got "fat and happy" and in-so didn't bother to innovate. Simplicity Is a Great Way to Display Your Value Proposition to Customers: Ingrid makes a great point that many newer D2C brands have figured out that simplicity is a great way to display their value proposition to their customers. Harry's is an excellent example of this: "we have a razor, it's good, you should buy it," it's uncomplicated and makes the customer feel at ease with the brand's simplicity. Mattress firm is awful at retailing, Walmart is much better at it. Ingrid's recommendations for retailers: Make sure you're not over-retailing (competing with yourself) and make sure you're offering simplicity and solving an actual problem for a customer, and that you're able to inspire your customers. Brian says you have to have a clear value proposition for the customer that makes them feel connected back to the brand. In-Store Data Can Tell Retailers What Their Customers Want: As we've spoken about on the show before, Walmart is killing the retail game, and they're using actionable in-store data to do it. It was announced recently that Walmart is closing some stores, but they're opening 46 new stores. Brian says that as retailers get better as using data, they can get a much better picture of where stores should exist, how they should look, and what the experience in-store should be. Outdoor Voices is an excellent example of this, they are updating their stores based on their in-store and online data, which is precisely the right thing to do: combining in-store and online data is essential for retailers. Ingrid says that Google is a great example of a company doing this right: They've created maps based on footsteps for qualified customers: because they have all of that data. As always: We want to hear what our listeners think! Do you think legacy brands are doing a poor job keeping up with D2C brands on social media? What brands do you think are doing the actual work in connecting with their customers and keeping them engaged? Let us know in the content section on Futurecommerce.fm, or reach out to us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram or Linkedin. Have any questions or comments about the show? You can reach out to us at or any of our social channels, and we love hearing from our listeners! Want to reach out to Ingrid? Reach out on Instagram → Retail tech is moving fast, but Future Commerce is moving faster. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Phillip and Brian are back to talking about deep fakes (and cheap fakes), Instagram may be having a massive influence on purchasing decisions, and is the term direct-to-consumer no longer relevant? Listen now! Show Notes: Main Takeaways: There's deep fakes, cheap fakes, and shallow fakes, and it's all getting a little ridiculous. Should Anna Delvin (aka Anna Sorokin) become the next CMO of Victoria Secret? Everyone should probably start sending Brian hate mail. The Instagram aesthetic is no longer a thing; brands should get on board. Are we going back to advertising on billboards? Cheap Fakes And Deep Fakes And Shallow Fakes Oh My: There's been a lot of talk about deep fakes: the grand phenomenon that brought us all Steve Buscemi's face on Jennifer's Lawrence's body, and it's getting worse. Future Commerce has been talking about deep fakes for a while (and shallow fakes), but now cheap fakes are a thing, and it's less than impressive. For example, here's a "cheap fake" of the Speak of The House Nancy Pelosi, in which she appears to be drunk, it's low quality, and ridiculous and yet it went viral, Having fun yet? Here's what Phillip's calling the worst deep fake/voiceover of Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook, telling us all how happy he is to own all of our data. Brian says everything is a swirl of confusion right now. On the commerce side, this kind of AI is getting easier to implement this into media, and really what deep-fakes are a tool for convincing viewers that the content being played is real. Is the future of deep fakes having all our brains being scanned into robots? We Don't Need Deep-Fakes: We're Being Deep Faked All The Time: But if the point of deep-fakes is to convince a viewer, then do we need them at all? Especially because as Phillip points out: , we're being convinced all day, every day on social media platforms. Phillip blames Instagram (again) for turning him into a sneakerhead. Brian says that there is going to be a place for deep fakes in advertising that is going to allow brands to leverage different personalities and people at a much larger scale than they do now. We're seeing similar uses being used in body data, where services Allure Systems can use models body data at mass to create diverse catalogs. Spoiler Commerce, Clever Marketing, and Bigger Better Brands: So here's an actual question: Is the fact that brands are using Instagram to promote a false (or misleading, don't sue us) narrative about their business ruining social media? Phillip thinks that fake socialite Anna Sorokin should be made Chief Marketing Officer of Victoria Secret when she gets out of prison. Considering how terrible Victoria Secret is, she couldn't do a worse job, and we know she understands modern marketing. Going back to Instagram, it seems that according to Taylor Lorenz of the Atlantic, that GenZ is over the Instagram aesthetic, the very thing that made Instagramble brands famous. The irony is that GenZ is over it, modern advertising seems to be over it, but many brands are doubling down on it. Digitally Native or Direct-To-Consumer: Is Anything Real Anymore? Direct-to-consumer or D2C has long been a term used to describe brands that are sold directly to the customer, usually with an e-commerce slant. The question is: Does the title still fit the entire marketplace? According to Hillary Milnes writing for Modern Retail, D2C is a misnomer and should be replaced by the term digitally native, and for a good reason. The D2C landscape has changed, and there's plenty of evidence of that, Bonobos is owned by Walmart, Unilever acquired dollar Shave Club, and Casper is being sold in [Target} everyone's favorite more expensive Walmart. Hilary's response to all the changes in the D2C landscape is that we start referring to the brands as digitally native instead. Phillip makes a prediction: "Over the next two years, we're going to see content marketing platforms evolve to more psychographic-based customer segmentation to do direct selling. We love hearing from our listeners. So, do you think we're at the pinnacle of a new way of advertising? Is the Instagram aesthetic over, and should brands get on board with that? Let us know in the content section on Futurecommerce.fm, or reach out to us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram or Linkedin. Any questions, comments or inquiries, can be emailed to , and if you want to send Brian hatemail, you can do so at . Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.