Future Commerce

The Digital Divide and New Classism This week we've entered The Odd Couple territory. Brian's relentless optimism and hope for harnessing technology for a bright future contrast with Phillip's expressed skepticism that advancements in AI and automation will benefit the working class without regulatory oversight. Get out your Xanax and buckle up! Making Walmart cool again Lord and Taylor will start selling on walmart.com with their own special homepage. It seems to Phillip that they've transformed from a prestige based brand to a value shopping brand. Why does Lord and Taylor make this move? Walmart's official press release gives us the answer. To reach a larger market and increase their digital presence. And this advances Walmart's own upmarket brand strategy. The Digital Divide: Many Americans are in a lower market tier based in cash only transactions, and companies like Walmart are trying to enable these customers to purchase digitally. But how do Walmart's upmarket aspirations affect the working class market? Brian thinks Walmart's just appealing to all markets, not just moving up. The middle class is a new opportunity, and they have the scale to expand. Brian's optimistic about the future of technology and the working class:  "maybe there will be more people in the lower class, but the lower class won't suck as much." He thinks technology is enabling us to be more efficient and provide better products, better services, and better life for the working class. Counterpoint: Only the top 1% of earners will benefit from AI and machine learning: Robby Berman posits that AI will serve and make life better for humans, but only the top 1% of humans. A Princeton study on bias in bots explores how AI has the problematic ability to target people for committing potential crimes based off the bias and prejudice of the bot creators. Walmart has a litigious history of negative workforce practices partly due to their workforce scheduling algorithm.   Brian sees the problem as cultural. He wants business leadership to create ethical algorithms and let the responsibility rest on individual business leaders making ethical decisions. Retail Apocalypse: Bloomberg's collaborative article explores the reasons behind the "retail apocalypse." It's not just about how many people have real estate and retail debt but about the number of people delinquent per capita in certain markets. The consumers in debt don't have the income and opportunity to pay it back due to lack of employment in retail. "You can be as rosy as you want about the corporate ethics, if there are no jobs, then it doesn't matter what how ethical the corporation is." Brian thinks we can create better jobs and pay better wages, and maybe it's ok that retail jobs shrink over time. He considers Amazon's warehouse workforce. And Brian takes comfort in the employment rate being at an all time high. AI enabling job elimination: Chris Gardner from Forrester predicts that automation will eliminate 9% of jobs in 2018. "These jobs are not low end jobs, they're white collar jobs being replaced." Brian is again optimistic: a whole new host of jobs will be created for creating and servicing AI. Bank of Amazon:   Internal rumblings that Amazon might also become a bank. Some regulators are willing to explore this option. Brian's optimist view: As Amazon has a view into our finances, they're going to start to help us like mint does by keeping track of our purchases and how they relate to other items. They might even create living type packages. Amazon will aggregate your financial data and help you craft a livable and economically responsible lifestyle. Phillip feels like the foxes are guarding the hen house in that scenario. When you rely on a few companies that do way too many things so that they become ingrained in society, then when that company fails, a disproportionate amount of the population is negatively affected. AI and Permanence: Reuters reported that a son used data to recreate his dad as a chatbot. Listen to this week's FC INSIDERS Exclusive Content on the possibilities of body data and machine learning. Download Transcript

A Day of Days to Toot Our Horns! Future Commerce hit some amazing achievements over this year:  In just a year's time, you our listeners, have propelled us into thought leadership. It all started with a podcast partnership with the Jason and Scot show.  Accolades for the humble: Forbes listed us as one of the 6 tech podcasts worth your time. Rated one of the 5 best retail podcasts for consumer brands. Brian takes award for most things predicted: Called Amazon's Whole Foods acquisition.  And called Amazon's Body Data acquisition.  The ghosts of future past: 50 episodes ago there was no:   Snap spectacles.  Snap stock, whole foods acquisition.  Google home.  Pokemon go.  Introducing Passive Commerce to you:  Wouldn't you know it: Study released claims passive commerce is the means of marketing consumer packaged goods. Actual data is proving theories we've had for many years. All Amazon all the time:  Brian keeps the dream alive: maybe swole Jeff Bezos is listening to this show acting on Brian's suggestions?  Conversational Commerce: Scott Emmons, one of our first guests, called conversational commerce a fad.   If it's not a fad, at least it's overhyped.  Like VR, the enthusiasm outstrips the reality of the technology. Wait on it, it'll come back.  Remember drake bot?  Thank you to our far flung listeners:  We're going worldwide: Japan, Argentina, Brazil, South Africa, Australia, India, Pakistan, Iran, Spain, UK, the Nordic countries, Iceland, and even one lonely listener logging in from Mongolia. You're a world wide audience engaged in making strategic decisions about the future retail technology you're going to use.  And you're using futurecommerce to make those decisions: thank you! Our most popular guest: Nick Vu, Adidas: Nick Vu explained how you need to tailor your approach to bringing innovation into your organization based on culture and size.  Amanda Manna from Lowe's Innovation lab: Explained how Lowe's uses story telling to advance rapid innovation.  The answer is super powers. No really, Iron Man-like exo-suits. They use them.  Temper that with Sucharita Mulpuru's advice: Don't do technology just for the sake of technology Retailers can embrace basic ideas such as putting a marketplace on their website.  But Saku Panditharatne gives a more urgent view of technological adoption:  Tech is central to everything, so can't skimp out on it.  ##Fang Cheng from Linc discusses practical transparency in bot customer service: Unrealistic to expect bots to be able to do everything we can do on day one.  Be open and transparent with your customers when they are conversing with a bot or human. ##Brian Roemmele humorously tells us that we're making the decisions of our own destruction:  "Everyone who thinks they have job security, they don't. Nobody has job security any longer. Everybody is going to be out of a job." ##Jason Baptiste talks voice interfaces and how to harness "fun": "A big problem I have with Silicon valley is that it's dry and not fun. Snapchat was smart to go into L.A. and do things that are fun."  How to get customers to interact with your products:  Products have to be fun and engaging and make our lives better. Another Brian prediction? 2018 is going to be the year of entertainment.  Customers want to enjoy and be entertained by an experience. Dazzle your customers. See episode 22 and our discussion with Amber Armstrong.  But don't knock TJ Maxx, man. The hunt is the most dangerous game.  Sears, on the other hand, that's the death of retail. Stand out episode: Body Labs. Using innovative technology to disrupt verticals: Episode 29: Body labs approach using their products and applying them in new and unexpected ways. "If you could easily provide businesses with the 3D shape of that consumer...you could unlock this whole other realm of both shape based analytics and size recommendations." Stand out episode: the last word goes to Caleb Light of Power Practical: Episode 42: "You're not taking a pot and making electricity with every product... sometimes those super innovative products don't sell that well as something like an LED strip that you thrown on the back of your television." "Even if you don't have super heavy tech products, you can still think of ways of bundling it or packaging it so you can make it a clean experience so that someone wants to come back to your brand to buy whatever's new." Caleb embodies what future commerce is all about: Taking the tools available to him and maximizing them for his success in business. We're living in the new retail:  Things that used to work aren't going to work anymore. The new retail means constantly poking and prodding and finding new ways of doing things.  Find people that can interpret different data, and smaller sets of data, and come up with meaningful insights that direct your business.  You can become the new retail. Join FC Insiders: you can expect more of the same in the future.  Expect more thoughtful insights, great interviews, and thought leadership. Together we're going to build a community of retail futurists to help us bring tomorrow into today.  Remember: "The future is moving fast, but Future Commerce is moving faster." Download Transcript

This week we dive deep into the public policy that reflects the challenging relationship between commerce, the internet, tech giants, domestic and international policy, fair treatment of employees, and the future of our economy. With the help of Daniel Sepulveda, Phillip and Brian tease out the threads and agree that “we’re going to have to make a communal decision to involve everyone in the modern digital economy or we’ll have a bifurcated society” that falls prey to the wolves of populism. Daniel Sepulveda, "ambassador of the internet": Involved in commercial technology and policy for 20 years. Politically appointed ambassador on issues of technology and telecommunications. Appointed by President Obama and John Kerry. There is no differentiator between the internet economy and the regular economy. "if you're business doesn't understand that, then you're not long for this world." On what we take for granted when using the internet: The internet is an amazing act of voluntary human engagement. There is no law that says communications firms have to accept internet protocol. It's a handshake agreement among technologists, engineers and developers who use voluntarily agreed upon rules for the operation of the internet.  A brief summary of ICANN: what it is and how it functions Before there was ICANN there was Jon Postel, and he personally managed IPAs.  ICANN is a huge nonprofit multinational organization acting as an internet yellow pages. Changing US net neutrality policy:  Tim Wu was the original thinker around network neutrality. The point of net neutrality is to keep networks from having a gatekeeper function. Ajit Pai, and as an extension, republicans do not believe net neutrality should be a legal mandate.  They think companies should manage access as they see fit as a function of commerce.  Compromise: Republicans agree that companies cannot block you from access content, attaching a legal device to that content, or charge you on discriminatory terms. Daniel's Take on net neutrality:  The point is to have democratic access for users. No one should come between the creator and participant's interaction online.  Ajit Pai's view: letting companies manage their networks as they want could create revenue and regulatory flexibility to build networks out to underserved areas.  Consider a compromise for a non-neutral behavior with a large public welfare benefit.  Concern: last mile service is still a concentrated market that needs regulation to protect against consumer abuse.  Avoiding internet policy pitfalls: Promote public policies and incentives to maximize public good of tech innovation.  Construct public policies to discourage any technology out of fear is a bad idea.  Find solutions from tech outcomes rather than create regulatory structures to deny tech innovation.  Otherwise we'll have a real political populist problem.  On universal basic income:  A primarily gig economy is a challenge: the law and public benefit systems are built for a society in which employers have a responsibility to workers, we have responsibility to each other, and entities have consumer protection responsibilities.  We'd need a wholesale revisiting of everything from labor law to education and back to public welfare law if we have a society that is mostly self-employed.  How to develop a modern workforce:  Skill development is the cop-out answer. It needs to be much more than that.  It didn't work for steel workers or coal miners. They neither relocated to find work, nor gained new skills for different professions.  We need to "develop entrepreneurship for people in place, people within geography to create and build community."  Communities and cities are embarrassing themselves for the next amazon headquarters. Take that energy and communal cash and use it for an entrepreneurial community. Brian's 2 Takeaways to building a modern workforce: 1: Invest in your employees. Teach them to be entrepreneurs or at least intrapreneurs. 2: Some of you need to go start a business. Don't hide behind the walls of a corporation. Daniel agrees: as a matter of public policy we have to reward that. We should encourage and reward the risk-taking of investing in your own company.  Phillip's 3rd cynical takeaway: The current administration is not going to be very friendly to these ideals.  It likely gets worse before it gets better.  Get politically involved to put the right people into office who have the desire to see those policies carried out, or it won't happen. People have to actually be in office to shape public policy.  Amazon and US trade policy:  Amazon is the most interesting and strongest company in America. Jeff Bezos is a genius. He's in everything.  They have some of the most talented people in the game. They understand the need to spread value to consumers and employees better than most companies. But there is a basic need in competition law, antitrust law, and societal function to understand the degree to which Amazon becomes the Walmart of the internet.  Not having a public dialogue on that issue would be a failure of duty for public officials.  Daniel's 5 year snapshot:  We risk an overcorrection in dealing with technology.  We haven't had a proactive mechanism for working with silicon valley and undeniably giant companies.  With no conversation about their practices, there'll be an overcorrection because people are afraid of how big these companies are becoming.  The hope is for a positive and inclusive dialogue that creates reasonable guardrails and authority for consumers and workers relative to tech operators and owners for the assets in their lives: personal identification data and labor.  We need a conversation about how our system better and more democratically distributes wealth. We're going to have to make a communal decision to involve everyone in the modern digital economy or we'll have a bifurcated society. Photo credit: Getty/Politico, 2015 Download Transcript

Healthcare is no game, but try telling insurance carriers that. Phillip gets manipulated into buying a denim jacket, innovation in fitness and fashion, Adobe "reinvents" fintech, and the guys go deep (real deep) on healthcare and insurance. "LOL, jean jackets are still a thing" Phillip got a new jean jacket Moral of the story: even when you know what's happening to you, even when you know you're being manipulated but digital marketing, you still buy the product.  Brian suggests the inception theory of jean jacket marketing (perhaps Phillip watched Stranger Things 2?). Pricing elasticity on an individual basis as an untapped area of potential Minority Report Policing in Dubai Dubai International Airport plans a new face scanning virtual aquarium. They are legitimately there to just track your face and scan you and make sure you're not a terrorist of some kind. A prediction: at some point facial scanning is going to drive advertising to you.  Amazon's Inadvertent Market Contraction?  Microsoft partners are getting lifts in azure deployments ever since Amazon acquired Whole Foods. It seems that retail is really shaken up about Amazon kind of owning the world.  Keep an eye on it: Amazon needs large brands and enterprise partners to continue using AWS: a large exodus might cause business contraction.  Something to keep an eye on: maybe the contraction in this space may have a negative effect overall on amazon's business because Amazon needs the large enterprise partners and brands to still use AWS. They can't all jump ship for Azure.  Amazon's Athleisure Adventures Amazon is in talks with two manufactures to create its own sportswear brand.  Both Taiwanese companies already make clothing for the Gap, Uniqlo, Kohl's, Lululemon, Nike, and Under Armour.  Brian predicts "make" will be more important than "brand." See episode 8 for reference. Brian and Phillip meet Michael from Best Made Company, an upscale lifestyle clothing and gear company recently acquired by silicon valley startup, Bolt Threads to pilot a new type of spider silk.  We no longer need a consumer marketing campaign for people to accept nylon or to buy more cotton (Phillip reminisces about "the touch, the feel of cotton.") Shout out to Kniterate, and Bolt Threads, to potentially disrupting the textile industry.  Apple's New Retail Stores: If It Works, Double Down Apple's new Town Square store just opened in Chicago.  Shocker: it's just a big giant Apple store. Retail spaces are more than just about purchasing at this point: this is Starbucks 2.0.  A new discovery: the Apple store and the play area at the mall are the exact same thing, we just don't call the play area a town hall.  Mark it: Brian saliently wins Phillip over to his Apple optimism at 27:47: why wouldn't Apple invest in this more? Why not? Go ahead and make it bigger, make it nicer.  Adobe and Banks Team up to "Reinvent" fintech Adobe is working with banks to merge physical branches with digital experiences.  Brian's having a hard time getting excited for Adobe teaming up with banks to merge physical branches with digital experiences.  Adobe's "sensei" uses artificial intelligence to automatically reformat content on a bank's website to fit a screen inside the bank.  It sounds a lot like they just used AI to build a responsive webpage. What's new?  One interesting point: using a customer's geographic location to trigger a notification on a smartphone once they enter a branch: bank geofencing.  Loyalty Programs and the FBI REI and the FBI worked together to catch a suspected airport bomber by using an REI bag they found in the woods and tracing the purchase back to the loyalty card of the suspected bomber.   We finally found a real use for loyalty programs in this country.  Body Dataaaaa! John Hancock partners with Apple to offer $25 Apple Watches.  The catch: you have to exercise regularly for 2 years with it, or pay it all back.  Insurance getting involved in body devices might herald a move to the gamification of healthcare.  A move to "push" healthcare rather than "pull." Push customers to healthy living rather than wait for them to come to the doctor.  Potential hazards: what if your provider has access to your purchase data? Do you really want them to see how often you ate at Taco Bell last month?  Brian goes a "little bit future" and suggests free preventative care for every American to save the country a ton of money.  Silicon Valley has the chance to make healthcare a game and transform its role.  We have legitimate technology that can help save your life.  In fact, it helped save James T. Green's life.  Puerto Rico and Tesla Grid Update Tesla is continuing to invest in Puerto Rico.  can Tesla adopt their work on a larger scale?  Is it smart for Puerto Rico to privatize their energy grid with Tesla's help? Should we allow the privitization of a fundamental human need in 2017? Tesla's and Google's work in Puerto Rico is a silver lining in an ongoing humanitarian crisis. Cryptocurrency Russia considering it's own cryptocurrency, which goes against the fundamental tenant of cryptocurrency: decentralization.  Bubble watch: Bitcoin is approaching 6,000 to 1 US dollars.  Mastercard announces its own blockchain service. A reversal of their previous anti-Bitcoin position.  Cryptocurrency Domain squatting: everyone is trying to stake lay claim to a name or brand while other markets go crazy.  Bitcoin is still the wild west The Hack Back Bill A new bill introduced in the House of Representatives let's people hack back. It's called the AC/DC act. Metal. Legislation as a defense of people who have to do something technically illegal to stop viruses and malware, perhaps?  An attempt of the the government to get a handle on new threats in a digital world.   Snapchat Vandalized in AR Snapchat partnered with Jeff Koons to add AR elements to his artwork.  It was vandalized.  But was it really? Someone used a separate app, recreated the exact model, and added virtual spraypaint vandalism.  Brian, breaking with his usual optimism, thinks we're seeing a new norm: subversive acts built on AR in different spaces, layered one on top of the other. Lenses uon lenses, with little to no regulation or enforcement.   That bleak note leads us to the SEC announcing investigations into blockchain. Download Transcript

This week’s episode arc: the future is a nuclear hellscape full of zombies to the future filled with sustainable food, vibrant public transit systems, voice ux assistants for non sighted developers, and a technologically innovative rebuilt Puerto Rico. Sometimes you need the dark to see the light. Google Home vs. Amazon Game over? Target partners with Google for voice enabled online shopping, joining Walmart to give Google two huge retailers. Amazon, what happened? You had a two year head start. Brian reminds Phillip: Amazon doesn’t need to partner with Walmart or Target. Amazon’s Alexa is trying to be branded the same way, but at some point, is it a blender, too? Its definitely a fridge. Amazon’s been blowing their lead to Google Google Missteps Google be creepin Google Fi accidentally throttled half a million subscribers. Does that mean they’re going to renege their promise not to throttle users ever? Amazon Acquires Body Labs Amazon Acquires Future Commerce podcast alum Body Labs for $70MM Brian called it, and he’s excited; confirms that Jeff Bezos listens to Future Commerce. Body Labs is a body modeling software that takes a 2D picture of your body and turns it into a 3D representation. Ramifications for: private label brands, custom clothing, new sizes, sporting goods, and even video game avatars. Uber eVTOL Phillip got an Uber survey; subject: rockets. Specifically, eVTOL (electric vertical takeoff and landing). 100 questions almost entirely on eVTOL, e.g. does it need a pilot for you to feel safe, or can it be autonomous? Show title idea: “I’m running a little late, my eVTOL crashed.” Phillip peers into the future and sees only two options: eVTOLs, or scrap metal fortified shelters protecting the huddling remnants of humanity from zombies and nuclear apocalypse. Facebook Facebook Announces it’s own food delivery service Definitely not on brand: “Of all the things they could go invest in, this is not the thing I’d expect” Oculus Go: VR for the common folk Exciting development, Facebook announces Oculus Go. Affordable entry point, stand alone, embedded audio, “near high VR experience.” Phillip says, “it doesn’t sound good to me, that’s like saying ‘it’s not diarrhea, it’s near diarrhea.’” A clear upgrade in the affordable VR realm: this is not pseudo-experience that feels like a phone hack. Not only visual VR, but spatial audio as well. Hugo Barra, Zuckerberg, if you’re listening, send the guys over for a demo. VR still kitsch: it’s not clear how it makes life better for consumers. Magic Leap gets some serious Series D funding 1 billion dollars of Series D funding. That’s a lot of money, especially for an unknown product. Prediction: Magic Leap is the Solyndra of 2017 Exceptional at fundraising, but nothing else? Or maybe the CEO of Magic Leap is just Killgrave from Jessica Jones. Technology for good in the public sphere Brent Toderian, tweets Enrique Penalosa, Mayor of Bogota’s, inspiring quote: “A developed country is not a place where the poor have cars. It's where the rich ride public transportation.” Real disruption comes when convenience outweighs other factors: need innovation in public transit. “The whole world depends on disrupting food delivery and public transit systems.” Shoutout to Jason L Baptiste and his new company, Studio Live. Google’s Project Loon connects Puerto Rico to wifi using hot air balloons. Mark Zuckerberg uses Puerto Rico to shill for his new Facebook feature. Download Transcript

Show Notes Future Commerce Episode 46 Review of 2017’s Shop.org conference FC Interviews Magento's own Peter Sheldon Kobe Bryant gave the keynote Brian’s favorite talk: the textile guy () letting the audience see behind the veneer of his business. “The garden section,” and “The OG Future Blanks.” Writing thank you notes with [https://bond.co/](Bond, the robot auto-writer) VNTNA, holograms, and the shared experience If the future is now, where are our flying cars? Google Pixel Buds: the potential to reshape the world with a real-life Babelfish Rebuilding Puerto Rico with Elon Musk’s help. Will Tesla battery packs help modern cities rethink infrastructure with tech at the core? Reminder, friends of the future: we want to be more engaged with you! Join FC Insiders, follow us on Facebook (it’s hoppin’), follow us on Twitter, find us on LinkedIn (Brian lives and breathes LinkedIn). We want to know who you are and what you want! Augmented Reality’s leap in sophistication Nike and AR: combating sneaker bots Ikea’s new ARKit built app verging on uncanny valley territory Toys “R” Us, bankruptcy, and a chance to rebrand with AR at the core of store experience AR’s role in commerce: “just like we don’t call movies talkies, and we don’t call cars horseless carriages” the name and the technique of AR will fade into the background Assessing your AR strategy Black Mirror’s “Nosedive” and social media’s role in commerce Brand perception: stay in your lane? The Amazon sphere of influence affects Costco: Costco announces grocery delivery program Costco’s had a trick up their sleeve all along: a hamburger. What hamburger is up your sleeve? Phillip’s cuckoo clock room of Amazon Echoes What better way to end a podcast than with a reference to Ray Bradbury’s “There Will Come Soft Rains.” Download Transcript

"If it doesn't add value, don't invest in it" - Peter Sheldon of Magento joins us to talk about crowdsourced ecosystem innovation, what PWAs mean for retailers, and gives his input on what the next 5-10 years looks like for retail.

The guys discuss the future of music, digital goods, ephemeral products, and how Spotify is changing our consumption behaviors and expectations. With John Beeler and Lowell Brams of Asthmatic Kitty Records.

Amanda Manna, Head of Narrative @ Lowe's Innovation Labs, talks with Brian about the importance of story and narrative in technological innovation

Caleb Light of Power Practical shares his experience on Shark Tank, finding new success with Amazon, and partnering with Mark Cuban Companies.