Future Commerce

Latest Episodes:

Agentic Ghettos: When Silicon Meets Sapiens Jan 17, 2025

Show notes

In this landmark discussion from NRF 2025, we lay out our theory of commerce's next evolutionary leap: the necessary fusion of human and artificial intelligence in digital spaces. As today's retailers hastily construct separate domains for silicon and carbon-based shoppers, we explore why this well-intentioned bifurcation may be precisely the wrong approach. From Salesforce's stumbling first steps with Agent Force to NVIDIA's more integrated vision, we examine how commerce might pioneer a symbiotic digital future. PLUS: Our 2025 journal, LORE, makes its debut!

Key Narratives:

The Evolution of Digital Agency: Tracing the path from simple chatbots to truly agentic AI, and why the distinction matters.
Biological Precedent as Digital Prophecy: How the coexistence of early human species might inform our approach to human-AI integration.
The Attention Arbitrage: Why AI agents represent not just tools, but extensions of human cognitive capacity.
Beyond the ‘Agentic Ghetto’: The case for unified digital architectures that serve both silicon and carbon-based users.
The Memory Migration: How technology has already transformed human cognition, from oral histories to cloud storage.

Essential Quotes:

{00:23:00} "When we've talked about agents and bots and how you're gonna have your own assistance, we're talking about consumers... [The industry is] thinking about it from a very different angle than the people that are trying to sell the software right now." - Brian
{00:25:31} "This is kind of like homo sapien and Neanderthal having to coexist... one advanced form and one less advanced form actually having functional tools and functional societies and functional coexistence together." - Phillip
{00:28:55} "Written language allowed us to move from having to memorize things and be able to recall them from ourselves to having them available to quote. We actually exported our brains into books." - Brian
{00:31:44} "The last thing we want on planet earth is to create a non-visual [space] in the ether for it to go purchase that isn't a thing that a human could actually go... The functional web needs to stay functional for humans and for bots to coexist in." - Phillip

The Future Commerce Perspective:

This episode challenges conventional wisdom about AI integration, suggesting that our current trajectory toward segregated experiences misses a crucial evolutionary opportunity. Through the lens of NRF 2025's innovations and stumbles, we explore how commerce might pioneer a more symbiotic digital future—one where the distinction between human and artificial intelligence becomes not a wall, but a bridge.

Associated Links:

Order LORE on Metalabel
The Attention Economy (August 2, 2019)
Your Body Is A Dataland (August 1, 2017)
Check out Future Commerce on YouTube
Check out Future Commerce+ for exclusive content and save on merch and print
Subscribe to Insiders and The Senses to read more about what we are witnessing in the commerce world
Listen to our other episodes of Future Commerce

Have any questions or comments about the show? Let us know on futurecommerce.com, 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.

The Future of Timelessness Jan 10, 2025

Show notes

This week, we’re unpacking Adobe’s holiday shopping report, the AI bot takeover, and the dead internet theory. As 2025 kicks off with powerful demand for both in-person experiences and AI-driven, frictionless online shopping, we’re peering into the future of the tension. PLUS: Phillip the Time Capsule Guy takes us back in time, and 5,000 years into the future.

Is AI Just Making Spam More Scalable?

Key takeaways:

[00:14:30] “Black Friday shopping is one of the most isolating things you can do now. It used to be a team sport, something you'd all go out and do…you get up early, you get the coffee and the hot chocolate in your warm coats, and you go out and you have a good time together amid consumerism madness.” – Brian
[00:20:24] “I think the return to physical connection and this loneliness epidemic is driving people back to real-life connection.” – Phillip
[00:46:55] “We are going to be building from this point forward websites or ecommerce experiences, channels, APIs. Anything that we build in ecommerce from henceforth will be done thoughtfully to assist both humans and agents to be able to seamlessly purchase from a brand.” – Phillip
[00:58:04] "Time capsules by Westinghouse and Panasonic might be humanity’s greatest contributions to cultural preservation." – Phillip
[01:01:20] “This is part of Mythopoeia. This is how you build a myth that extends into the future. You do stuff like this that's an extension of the story. And Westinghouse may be revived 5000 years in the future because of these time capsules.” – Brian

Associated Links:

Future Commerce Upcoming Events
The Future Now: January 28th, 2025. Immerse yourself in a collaborative and visionary roundtable experience with retail executives. Register here
Your Body is a Dataland: Insiders #66
Adobe Holiday Shopping Report
Check out Future Commerce on YouTube
Check out Future Commerce+ for exclusive content and save on merch and print
Subscribe to Insiders and The Senses to read more about what we are witnessing in the commerce world
Listen to our other episodes of Future Commerce

Have any questions or comments about the show? Let us know on futurecommerce.com, 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.

Predictions 2025: The Rise of Gen X & Americana Jan 03, 2025

Show notes

In our biggest episode of the year, we explore seismic shifts coming in 2025: from the return of Gen X leadership to a new wave of American counterculture. We revisit our eerily accurate 2024 predictions while laying out bold forecasts for retail consolidation, AI evolution, and the changing media landscape. Plus, we dive deep into why Google might be poised for a massive comeback and how Walmart is transforming into a media empire.

"Quantum Intelligence & Objective Truth": Key Moments from Our 2025 Predictions

On Taste & Truth (13:12) - "I believe that taste is the unique ability to recognize objective truth in situations where subjectivity reigns supreme." - Brian
The Future of Retail (34:50) - "In the retail sector, we will see larger holdcos start to downsize by breaking off individual pieces into smaller entities so they can reorganize and pass regulatory muster when selling divisions later." - Phillip
Hardware Renaissance (54:41) - "The excitement around content actually represents a deeper desire within people for well-designed, bespoke hardware technology." - Brian
Urban Transport Evolution (1:39:14) - "eVTOL will be a huge tech winner in 2025, creating a paradigm shift in urban transport - starting as the luxury option Uber envisioned in 2017." - Phillip
Political Realignment (1:59:00) - "There's something latent here around realignment in how people think about the political spectrum post-second Trump presidency. Many political orphans, both right and left, don't know where they fit." - Brian
The Innovation Paradox (2:18:43) - "When solving problems, we inevitably miss the new problems our solutions will create. It's easy to walk into dystopia thinking you're walking into utopia." - Brian

Associated Links:

Heading to NRF? Come celebrate the launch of our 2025 print journal, LORE with us on Tuesday, January 14! Register here.
Check out Future Commerce on YouTube
Check out Future Commerce+ for exclusive content and save on merch and print
Subscribe to Insiders and The Senses to read more about what we are witnessing in the commerce world
Listen to our other episodes of Future Commerce

Have any questions or comments about the show? Let us know on futurecommerce.com, 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.

Year-End Roundup: Best of 2024 Dec 27, 2024

Show notes

This year was a great one for the Future Commerce podcast. We vision-casted with fellow futurists at exclusive events across the nation, launched podcast specials like Spooky Commerce and FC Radio Theater, and were joined on the podcast by many of our industry muses, including Kickstarter’s Yancey Strickler and Walmart’s Justin Breton.

We’ve rounded up our 2024 highlight reel in one year-end finale episode. All featured episodes linked below.

The Good, the Spooky, and the Visionary

Featured Episodes:

When Technology Changes, Context Changes (February 6, 2024)
You Can Buy Haunted Dolls on eBay (October 11)
After Dark: Luddite Luxury, Acorn-Based Economies, Starbucks Star Days as Economic Indicator (February 21, 2024)
The Tyranny of Visibility (February 13, 2024)
DECODED: Polymaths and Philosophers (May 13, 2024)
Building Culturally Intelligent Brands (May 17)
What is Futureproof for Gen Alpha? (June 7, 2024)
Don’t Say Metaverse (August 23)
How Liquid Death is Murdering Marketing (July 7)
The Dark Forest of Creative Capital (December 6)

Associated Links:

Check out Future Commerce on YouTube
Check out Future Commerce+ for exclusive content and save on merch and print
Subscribe to Insiders and The Senses to read more about what we are witnessing in the commerce world
Listen to our other episodes of Future Commerce

Have any questions or comments about the show? Let us know on futurecommerce.com, 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.

FC Radio Theater: A Day in the Life of Nana Alexa Dec 23, 2024

Show notes

Introducing a Future Commerce Radio Theater production: A Day in the Life of Nana Alexa, an original story by Erin DaCruz. Performed for radio by Joseph Discher and Leonor Woodworth. Voice production by Whole Story Studio.

A Day in the Life of Nana Alexa can be found in the Muses journal, available for purchase at shop.futurecommerce.com.

Timecodes:

[00:02:28] Time of day – 5:45
[00:04:01] Time of day – 6:22
[00:05:20] Time of day – 8:17
[00:07:02] Time of day – 10:00
[00:07:46] Time of day – 10:36
[00:09:05} Time of day – 12:02
[00:09:21] Time of day – 12:10
[00:10:38] Time of day – 16:28
[00:11:56] Time of day – 17:37
[00:12:25] Time of day – 19:30
[00:13:07] Time of day – 20:19
[00:13:46] Time of day – 22:12
[00:16:15] Time of day – 5:45

Associated Links:

Enjoy A Day in the Life of Nana Alexa in print: Order the Muses journal
Get your copy of the Archetypes journal
Check out Future Commerce on YouTube
Check out Future Commerce+ for exclusive content and save on merch and print
Subscribe to Insiders and The Senses to read more about what we are witnessing in the commerce world
Listen to our other episodes of Future Commerce

Have any questions or comments about the show? Let us know on futurecommerce.com, 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.

FC Radio Theater: The Wrong Part Dec 20, 2024

Show notes

Introducing a Future Commerce Radio Theater production: The Wrong Part, an original story by Brian Lange. Performed for radio by Joseph Discher. Voice production by Whole Story Studio.

The Wrong Part can be found in the Muses journal, available for purchase at shop.futurecommerce.com.

Stay tuned for our upcoming radio theater readings: A Day in the Life of Nana Alexa by Erin DaCruz.

Timecodes:

[00:00:19] Act 1
[00:11:35] Act 2

Associated Links:

Enjoy The Wrong Part in print: Order the Muses journal
Get your copy of the Archetypes journal
Check out Future Commerce on YouTube
Check out Future Commerce+ for exclusive content and save on merch and print
Subscribe to Insiders and The Senses to read more about what we are witnessing in the commerce world
Listen to our other episodes of Future Commerce

Have any questions or comments about the show? Let us know on futurecommerce.com, 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.

FC Radio Theater: Dissociating at Costco Dec 18, 2024

Show notes

Introducing a Future Commerce Radio Theater production: Dissociating at Costco, an original story by Brian Lange. Performed for radio by Joseph Discher. Voice production by Whole Story Studio.

Dissociating at Costco can be found in the Archetypes journal, available for purchase at shop.futurecommerce.com.

Stay tuned for our upcoming radio theater readings: A Day in the Life of Nana Alexa by Erin DaCruz, and The Hardest Part by Brian Lange.

Timecodes:

[00:00:20] Chapter 1
[00:08:19] Chapter 2
[00:17:45] Chapter 3
[00:26:43] Epilogue

Associated Links:

Enjoy Dissociating at Costco in print: Order the Archetypes journal
Get your copy of the Muses journal
Check out Future Commerce on YouTube
Check out Future Commerce+ for exclusive content and save on merch and print
Subscribe to Insiders and The Senses to read more about what we are witnessing in the commerce world
Listen to our other episodes of Future Commerce

Have any questions or comments about the show? Let us know on futurecommerce.com, 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.

The Dark Forest of Creative Capital Dec 06, 2024

Show notes

Yancey Strickler on Metalabel, Digital Scarcity, and the Coming Creative Revolution

Kickstarter co-founder Yancey Strickler unveils his vision of a radical economic future where artists become society's power brokers. Through Metalabel, he's building the infrastructure for collective commerce and creative ownership that could transform how we value and exchange culture.

“In 50 years, artists won't just influence culture—they'll control capital”

Key takeaways:

{00:13:10} - “The concept of art and creativity that we think of today that we take as givens that we're like, “Oh my God, I have to promote my drop again today,” are incredibly modern inventions.” - Yancey
{00:24;51] - “I believe {this project} will produce a world where 50 or 60 years from now, artists and creative people are the most powerful members of society. They will have the greatest influence. They will have the greatest access to wealth. They will be the most powerful people in society, and this is a structure by which that will occur. And that's a project we'll announce next year.” - Yancey
{00:26:20} - “We all want to be able to homestead and have our own spaces that are ours, but we also want to be part of spaces where we can be discovered. And so how can our catalogs exist in a world like that? Artists right now are excluded from capitalism. Let's change that.” - Yancey
{00:28:53} - “People are still just looking in the dead channel, the dying channels…where we've been trained to look for what is new and what matters. And the answer is that that's not where those things are happening now.” - Yancey
{00:38:09} - “Anyone who's 20 years old today, born and raised on the Internet, there's just like a mentality, a metamodern, just flat openness, super well-curated sort of vibe that I just think lends itself quite well to operating very specific, but I think very successful, small to medium-sized creative businesses.” - Yancey

Associated Links:

Pre-order the LORE Journal by Future Commerce on Metalabel
Connect with Yancey Strickler and learn more about Metalabel
The Dark Forest Collective
Kirby Ferguson’s New York Times piece, Is Creativity Dead?
Check out Future Commerce on YouTube
Check out Future Commerce+ for exclusive content and save on merch and print
Subscribe to Insiders and The Senses to read more about what we are witnessing in the commerce world
Listen to our other episodes of Future Commerce

Have any questions or comments about the show? Let us know on futurecommerce.com, 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.

"What is Reality?" FC LIVE at The Moore, Commerce Conversations at Sea 2,0 Dec 03, 2024

Show notes

Join us at the final events of the year! All of our events can be found at futurecommerce.com/events

December 9: Future Commerce LIVE at The Moore
RSVP: Apply to attend here

December 11: Commerce Conversations At Sea 2.0
RSVP: Apply to attend here

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Kate Fannin: “We Should Measure ROE — Return on Experience” Nov 29, 2024

Show notes

Retail and customer experience expert Kate Fannin brings brands down to earth for a living, driven by her consulting mantra, “People buy things; they pay for experiences.” Drawing from her career journey across iconic brands like Gap, Nordstrom, and Estée Lauder, Kate offers insightful strategies for curating meaningful customer connections that make even online shopping feel like window shopping in your favorite small town.

“The Invitation to Come and Stay Awhile”

Key takeaways:

Human connection never went out of style, even as digital capabilities flourish.
If a brand’s technology isn’t solving a pain point, they should ask: is that technology enhancing customer experience or force-following a trend?
[00:11:00] "What we’ve lost in digital is the invitation to come and stay awhile." – Phillip Jackson
[00:14:00] "There’s no such thing as drive-through luxury." – Brian Lange
[00:17:00] "Every brand needs to ask: What does it take to bring the customer back?" – Kate Fannin
[00:40:00] "Can you have human engagement at scale? Not the same as me shopping with Jackie in Cold Spring…So AI has its place, but you can’t just peanut butter it across everything." – Kate Fannin
[00:42:00] "People buy things, but they pay for experiences." – Kate Fannin

Associated Links:

Connect with Kate at Kate Fannin Consulting
Connect with Kate on LinkedIn
Check out Future Commerce on YouTube
Check out Future Commerce+ for exclusive content and save on merch and print
Subscribe to Insiders and The Senses to read more about what we are witnessing in the commerce world
Listen to our other episodes of Future Commerce

Have any questions or comments about the show? Let us know on futurecommerce.com, or reach out to us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, or LinkedIn. We love hearing from our listeners!

Kate is a "consummate consumer" and channel-agnostic "Retail Realist" -For over two decades, she has worked in marketing, retail, and IT, including 15+ years in luxury fashion, and beauty. She has held various leadership roles at Estee Lauder Companies, Nordstrom, Neiman Marcus, and Gap, Inc.

Her passion is evaluating the consumer experience, from product and packaging to elevated, immersive "phygital" engagement programs to ensure that the customer is the top priority!

‍Kate has an MBA from the University of Illinois, and a BBA from St. Mary's University in San Antonio, TX, both in Marketing.

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