Future Commerce

View Top 200 Chart

Back to Rankings Page

News
**Future Commerce**

Future Commerce is the culture magazine for Commerce. Hosts Phillip Jackson and Brian Lange help brand and digital marketing leaders see around the next corner by exploring the intersection of Culture and Commerce.

Trusted by the world’s most recognizable brands to deliver the most insightful, entertaining, and informative weekly podcasts, Future Commerce is the leading new media brand for eCommerce merchants and retail operators.

Each week, we explore the cultural implications of what it means to sell or buy products and how commerce and media impact the culture and the world around us, through unique insights and engaging interviews with a dash of futurism.

Weekly essays, full transcripts, and quarterly market research reports are available at https://www.futurecommerce.com/plus

Latest Episodes:

[Visions] Episode 1: A Prologue Jul 08, 2022

Show notes

How did we get here?

The story of how Visions the content property was born, and what the intent is behind it. Our goal is to broaden the conversation to art, philosophy, spirituality, and culture — and from those vantage-points, begin to understand their effects on Commerce.
“Most eCom content focuses on the how or the what. We wanted to zero in on the ‘why’ a consumer thinks or behaves the way that they do.” — Phillip
“We need a reason why… to give us the framework that we need to learn and to explore new ideas beyond just a couple of platforms that were dominant in the eCommerce ecosystem.” — Brian
Commerce touches everyone. Therefore it can be a catalyst — a tool — for change in the immediate world around you. Not The World at large, but your world.
“Not everything has to have these big, idealistic, world-changing outcomes. In fact, those distance you from making that change personal. Instead let’s talk about how you make a change that impacts one or two people in your immediate community.”
The Visions Report is a combination of many peoples’ collective ideas about how we can build more resilient businesses, and how we can help people (not customers, not consumers).

Associated Links:

Download the 100-page companion guide, our Visions Report
Subscribe to the Visions Podcast on Spotify or Apple Podcasts
If you want to review last year’s Vision 2021 you can find it at this link
Nine by Nine featured in GQ and in WWD and in AdWeek

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.

Recapping Shopify Editions (Feat. Gil Greenberg, Checkout Promotions) Jul 01, 2022

Show notes

Today founder of Checkout Promotions, Gil Greenberg, is joining the show. We recap Shopify Editions, the transformation of the Shop App, the overcrowding of the developer ecosystem, and how to thrive as an app developer in eCom. Listen now!
Like Never Before

“You're starting to see a lot of developers that actually want to run businesses for their apps and employing fundamentals to do so.”-Gil Greenberg
“There’s a world where Shopify didn’t IPO 6 or 7 years ago, and my theory is that part of Shopify’s success was that so many people were able to realize personal benefit from the growth of the stock. What if Magento IPO’d instead? We’ll never know.” - Phillip
The Shopify platform is now huge and it encompasses way more than anyone outside of the ecosystem, but even more than most people in the ecosystem realize
“You either follow Shopify's way or you're on the highway” - Gil
The launch of Shopify Functions will allow you to extend the platform where other APIs won’t let you
“There's still a lot of room for better experiences. You have all these apps, where's the centralized billing or better pricing when you're using multiple apps? I just haven't seen anything truly interesting appear yet.” -Gil

Associated Links:

Learn more about Gil Greenberg and Checkout Promotions
Tokengated Commerce- Business Breakdowns Podcast
Insiders #123: A Marketer’s Guide To The Multiverse Of Madness
Download VISIONS 2022 NOW!
Subscribe to Insiders and Senses to read more of our hot takes!
Listen to our other episodes of Future Commerce
Check out Decoded, our newest limited series

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.

Decoded: How to Buy Software Well: The Digital Commerce Software Conundrum Jun 28, 2022

Show notes

Keeping up with the Jonses isn’t just for your neighbors next door, it’s everywhere in eCommerce businesses. Companies buy software based on what they see others in their industry purchasing. Formal RFP processes create a lengthy and expensive buying process, so eCommerce companies are more open today than ever before to the idea of composable commerce. In Episode 5 of Decoded, Phillip & Boris discuss how to purchase digital software well and some key considerations in decision making. Listen Now!

Keeping up with the Joneses

There have always been and will always be fads and fashions driving purchases. This is no different when it comes to companies purchasing software.
Companies tend to copy purchasing patterns when they see their peers and competitors successfully implementing software.
B2B Sales are irrational. The buyer of the software is rarely, if ever, the user of the software. How can B2B companies take the irrationality out of this process?
Business owners need to look at an issue in their business and ask themselves if they should be involved in the decision making process for purchasing specific software and to what degree they should be involved. - Boris
If you want to extract value out of a software purchase, the people who will actually be using the software should be involved in some manner in the buying process.
Be very explicit and specific about the problems your business is trying to solve. Don’t just buy software.
You want to aim for a long-term relationship with your software. Try before you buy is a MUST in order to build sustainable processes.
Examining the RFP cycle: by its very nature, the RFP introduces risk, despite its sole purpose being to mitigate it. - Phillip
What do we mean by “scalability?” An enterprise software isn’t scalable in the same way that Shopify is, nor should it be. They’re two different products solving for two different issues. It’s better to ask what the approach to scalability is.
“The SaaSification of the industry is actually leading to many developers losing skills.” - Boris

Associated Links:

Learn more about Boris Lokschin and Spryker
Check out Episode 1 of Decoded on the Developer to Consumer!
Check out Episode 2 of Decoded on our new composable world!
Check out Episode 3 of Decoded on Social Commerce!
Check out Episode 4 of Decoded on High-Complexity vs. High-Commodity environments.

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 Creators Owe To Their Audience” (Feat. Neil Shankar, Content Creator) Jun 24, 2022

Show notes

TikTok creator Neil Shankar joins the show today to chat about the algorithm, how brands are playing the game, power stances in commerce, and our recent Visions 2022 report. Listen now!

Playing the Game

Neil Shankar is a TikTok content creator, producing content on what's new with consumer brands
“Getting the algorithm to like you is sometimes about playing the game of TikTok, for instance, speaking the language of TikTok and engaging with TikTok creators. You don't need to be like dancing in front of a ring light.” -Neil
Interacting with the idea of something is just as compelling to us as potentially purchasing that thing, its the concept of Romanticism, an idea we elaborate on more in our Visions report
As our infinite choice of options increases, it becomes a footprint issue, not just a carbon footprint, but a time footprint
“Brands and companies should be paying attention to how much time and focus their customers are giving them.” -Brian
When brands are able to slap a date on a project or report, or whatever it may be, it's creating a time capsule, meaning that it will never decay because it lives on in that year
“Visions 2022 will never become outdated. It will always be an encapsulation of this current moment.” -Neil

Associated Links:

Check out more of Neil’s content over on TikTok!
Trends are Dead by Vox
Download VISIONS 2022 NOW!
Subscribe to Insiders and Senses to read more of our hot takes!
Listen to our other episodes of Future Commerce
Check out Decoded, our newest limited series

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.

Economists Fight Club (The Great Reshuffle) Jun 17, 2022

Show notes

The $100 Pumpkin

Brian believes that no matter if there's an economic downturn, people will always make room for food and beverage in their budget, “People don't want to come down on food and bev, they'll forgo other things.”
Smaller stores like Erewhon might not face challenges in the downturn due to the loyalty of those going after food and bev, but Whole Foods which is not up-market, might take a hit with downturn challenges
“The businesses that go all-in on investing in the right things right now instead of pulling back are actually going to do even better.” -Brian
What we’re seeing is the echo chamber doing exactly what it’s good at, which is creating a narrative around something that is just a venture-backed industry problem.

Associated Links:

How to Market in a Downturn
Insiders #104: The eCom Brain Drain
Download VISIONS 2022 NOW!
Subscribe to Insiders and Senses to read more of our hot takes!
Listen to our other episodes of Future Commerce
Check out Decoded, our newest limited series

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.

Decoded: The Vertical Limit: Commodity vs Complexity Jun 15, 2022

Show notes

High Complexity, Low Commodity

Online experiences have become more commoditized over time; low and no-code platforms have displaced the need for a “developer,” and instead require feature configurations and tweaks
Software development thrives where experiences have high complexity. High complexity often means that there are no de facto “standards” or best practices that need to be employed. This requires developers to build, test, refine, and iterate. This is the best-case scenario for a developer in eCommerce.
eCommerce platforms have become increasingly prescriptive in UI and UX as customers have become “used to” certain purchasing patterns
Ecommerce needs to become more complex in certain industry verticals. Specific sectors such as automotive, food, furniture, manufacturing, and pharmaceuticals all have sophisticated requirements, complicated purchase paths, long consideration times, unique regulatory requirements, or other challenges that make them a poor fit for off-the-shelf software, but a great fit for developer innovation.
A shopper’s identity in high-commodity environments is tied to the retailer. You’re not a grocery shopper, you’re a Walmart shopper or a Target shopper. However, in high-complexity environments, the identity of the shopper is found in the brand of the product itself. You’re not a car driver, you’re a Tesla driver.

Associated Links:

Learn more about Boris Lokschin and Spryker
Check out Excite 2022, Spryker’s eCommerce Conference in June

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

“Retail Media is a Direct Channel to the Shopper” (Feat. Kiri Masters, Acadia) Jun 10, 2022

Show notes

What if everyone is sick of drinking champagne?

Retail media is a direct channel to the shopper. It’s an attractive audience for brands to reach shoppers, and it's becoming really profitable
Brands are currently using two methods to allocate retail media, which makes it very limited, and its harder to get ahead of trends when using one of the two models
Kiri’s proposal for the two methods is to get back to the basics of the marketing funnel, “the idea is to identify your objective, and then which part of the marketing funnel you are going to focus on given that objective, and then execute for ad types and targeting options within that stage of the funnel.” - Kiri
We are currently living in a world where brand is performance and performance can also be brand
“There are a lot of constructs organizationally within these companies that make it very challenging because of the silos. The real goal of each team might be they're working against each other because the metrics and what they're focused on don't really align.” - Kiri
It can be profitable for brands to launch in retail media, but there are always downsides. Such as: not having a good enough story to compete against other brands, not being on brand, and convincing advertisers it will be worthwhile

Associated Links:

Learn more about Kiri Masters and Bobsled Marketing
Kiri’s most recent report, Retail Media Allocation
Instacart for CMOs
Listen to previous episodes with Kiri!
Subscribe to Kiri’s podcast: ECommerce BrainTrust
Stay tuned for VISIONS 2022…coming soon!
Subscribe to Insiders and Senses to read more of our hot takes!
Listen to our other episodes of Future Commerce
Check out Decoded, our newest limited series

Have any questions or comments about the show? Let us know 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.

Successful Leadership Requires Passion AND Discipline (feat. Jeremy Cai, Italic) Jun 03, 2022

Show notes

You’re Either Alive or Dead

Jeremy Cai is the founder of Italic, a leading marketplace that offers the highest quality products at the lowest prices by connecting consumers straight to top manufacturers.
People are continuing to buy more online than ever before, and Jeremy thinks it will only continue to grow. With the heightened demand for Amazon, brands will continue to seek out online consumers
“If you look at a brand and take away the fluff, they’re taking the same exact product or assortment they have in every season, applying a new coat of paint on it, and a new story on it, and selling the same thing 365 days per year for ten years in a row.” -Jeremy
Italic no longer seeks consumers like H.EN.R.Y, the consumer they now aim to sell to is Julia, a customer in their late 20s-early 30s, familiar with shopping online and is looking to graduate and take a step up from the everyday DTC brands to a more premium product
“It's not just about growth. It's about knowing who your buyer is.” -Brian
“The only two things that are constant in start-ups are you're either alive or you're dead. And as long as you're alive, you're still kicking.”
In our newest report coming out soon, Visions, one of the emerging themes is Profitability of Distraction, and we may be entering an era where folks are becoming less distracted. But for brands, their direct focus is zoning in on one thing: what is the most profitable? Could brands begin to widen their focus on multiple areas?

Associated Links:

Learn more about Jeremy Cai and Italic!
Alex Geifeld’s LinkedIn Post
Stay tuned for VISIONS 2022…coming soon!
Subscribe to Insiders and Senses to read more of our hot takes!
Listen to our other episodes of Future Commerce
Check out Decoded, our newest limited series

Have any questions or comments about the show? Let us know 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.

Decoded - Social Commerce: Authentic Context for a Socially Native Generation May 31, 2022

Show notes

Adapting to Customer Behaviors

We used to only have one marketplace: Amazon. But social media is becoming a marketplace on its own.
The good news: for developers, as we standardize API’s and as more companies go headless, social media commerce platforms won’t feel like something completely new, just another property for brands.
The bad news: for product, sales and marketing teams, this shift will be much more of a change as they learn new rules, regulations and customer contexts.
It seems as though Snapchat and TikTok are forming the new generation of consumer who have a bigger desire to participate in social trends, creating more commerce opportunities.
Very little window shopping & impulse purchase happens in traditional eCommerce contexts. Impulse purchases are not frictionless in this context. Perhaps this is something that social commerce offers that traditional eCommerce does not?
Tech companies have become very good at creating the illusion of an impulse purchase. However, our online impulse purchases aren’t really all that impulsive. It’s actually hyper-personalization and targeting algorithms.
Millennials are “digital natives,” but Gen Z’s are “social natives” and this affects how each demographic participates in commerce. Are we creating “metaverse natives” in the youngest generation as they participate in commerce on platforms such as Roblox?
Boris sees a rise in what he calls “fluent transactions,” which are more immediate and less interruptive transactions that don’t disrupt a person’s day. Shopping is no longer an event.
Platform wars aren’t simply PHP vs Java. It’s the number of channels that you’re acquiring customers from competitors.

Associated Links:

Learn more about Boris Lokschin and Spryker!
Check out Excite 2022, Spryker’s eCommerce Conference in June

Have any questions or comments about the show? Let us know 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.

Facing the Counterfactuals (How to Navigate the eCom Downturn) May 27, 2022

Show notes

A Boom to the Creator Economy?

Counterfactuals give us a what-if thinking. It’s thinking through scenarios that haven’t happened, but what if they did? They help us analyze our past performance
“Counterfactual analysis makes up a lot of like our cause-effect thinking when we're thinking about how to apply a situation in a new context because nothing is ever the same and the pace of change is happening faster and faster.” -Brian
The concern that many have right now is where do customer place their loyalty? Will they be more experimental or less experimental? They're going to go to the things that they know and return to defaults
There is a demand for growth and demand for goods right now that's being pent up. The demand is there, but it's not being met
In a downturn, more money is necessary for all areas of life, causing people to look for another job, side gig, and ways to bring in that extra income. With everything increasing, there will be a people supply as well, which in hand would lead to a boom in the creator economy

Associated Links:

Insiders #123: A Marketer's Guide to the Multiverse of Madness
Stocking up and Seeking Out, Rightpoint
Stay tuned for VISIONS 2022…coming soon!
Subscribe to Insiders and Senses to read more of our hot takes!
Listen to our other episodes of Future Commerce
Check out Decoded, our newest limited series

Have any questions or comments about the show? Let us know 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 TOPPODCAST Picks

Follow Us

Stay Connected

How did we get here?

Associated Links:

Associated Links:

Keeping up with the Joneses

Associated Links:

Playing the Game

Associated Links:

The $100 Pumpkin

Associated Links:

High Complexity, Low Commodity

Associated Links:

What if everyone is sick of drinking champagne?

Associated Links:

You’re Either Alive or Dead

Associated Links:

Adapting to Customer Behaviors

Associated Links:

A Boom to the Creator Economy?

Associated Links:

Related Podcasts

Links

Stay Connected

Our TOPPODCAST Picks

Follow Us

Stay Connected

Future Commerce

How did we get here?

Associated Links:

Associated Links:

Keeping up with the Joneses

Associated Links:

Playing the Game

Associated Links:

The $100 Pumpkin

Associated Links:

High Complexity, Low Commodity

Associated Links:

What if everyone is sick of drinking champagne?

Associated Links:

You’re Either Alive or Dead

Associated Links:

Adapting to Customer Behaviors

Associated Links:

A Boom to the Creator Economy?

Associated Links:

Related Podcasts

1

2

3

4

5

6