Future Commerce

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**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:

Taking On International Fulfilment with ShipBob (feat. Casey Armstrong, CMO of ShipBob) Jul 23, 2021

Show notes

Building for the Future of Ecommerce Logistics

ShipBob is a full service fulfillment platform coming out of a remarkable Series E that clocked in at $200 Million. ShipBob has been a partner of Future Commerce for a while now and we couldn’t wait to talk about this incredible raise.
There are a lot of different shipping solutions across the buyer journey, and it can lead to a bit of confusion. ShipBob is helping break this confusion by being the one solution, which is what customers, merchants, and consumers want. It does this with integrations to multiple labelling and order management systems, all available through an integrations marketplace.
“One of our goals is to continue to build a solution that works for people who are just getting started that can scale up like mentioned with international B2B, so you don't have to look elsewhere.” -Casey
How do retailers determine what an operator's capabilities are and what they could do specifically for your brand?
“It's something we've already been investing in for a while, and we are seeing these people as direct to consumer and just eCommerce continues to evolve that have worked at a lot of companies that have scaled well. I think we're just going to see more of that. And again, it's going to be tough. People make some of the bad hires just like they will for any role.” -Casey
There’s a beauty to this industry, and there is a lot of opportunity for growth and complementary solutions.

Associated Links:

Learn more about Casey Armstrong and ShipBob
Let us know what you think the future of all things shipping looks like at hello@futurecommerce.fm
Subscribe to Insiders
Listen to our other episodes of Future Commerce

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

Walmart Health and the Consumerization Healthcare (feat. Marcus Osborne, Vice President of Walmart Health) Jul 16, 2021

Show notes

The “84-Point Check”, but Make it Human

With almost a million and a half associates in the United States and 150 million customers in stores and online, it's safe to say they’re one of the largest retailers in the world. But what are they doing in health? A lot, it seems.
Walmart has been in the healthcare world since the 70s; they realize that they have a significant role to play. With 90% of Americans living within 15 miles of a Walmart, they’re aiming to address the care needs of people and help get access to basic healthcare in an affordable way.
“How do you engage customers in healthcare? … By building robust omnichannel experiences that aren't about one channel but are about how all these various channels can come together to create something far more robust.” -Marcus
With omnichannel systems coming online in healthcare it’s providing more opportunities for personal monitoring systems, taking a proactive approach to healthcare.
You take your car to the shop and get an 84 point check on maintenance; why not an 84 point check on humans? “I'm not looking for one size fits all. I'm looking for a solution that is one size fits one.” -Marcus. This approach brings a personalized experience for every person, creating a revolution of diagnostics.
Not only is healthcare being affordable broken, but also the speed of care. Patients have to go through multiple doctors, specialists, and tests to get the answers they need weeks later, while also not knowing how much it will cost them in the end. This revolution of diagnostics will ultimately result in a more efficient healthcare system that most Americans can afford.
COVID helped accelerate healthcare as we know it today, showing us that speed of care can happen. If it can happen in an omnichannel or a parking lot, then it can happen in the office as well.
“We as consumers deserve to be treated better than the system has treated us, and we deserve to have more access. We deserve to have things be more convenient and we deserve to be treated better and have things be simpler.” -Marcus
Walmart Health is on the road to greater access for all Americans. One of the ways they're doing that is by looking at the communities with greater demand, a net health need. This method is what has driven them to open in cities in Georgia, Illinois, and more.
A consumer and a patient are one in the same. Consumers want high quality, for things to be affordable, convenient, simple, and they want a choice. Patients want all the same things.

Associated Links:

Learn more about Marcus Osborne and Walmart Health
Let us know what you think the future of healthcare looks like at hello@futurecommerce.fm
Subscribe to Insiders
Listen to our other episodes of Future Commerce

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

What does a CDP do? Provide Real Time Relevance at Scale (feat. Josh Francia, CGO of Blueshift and Houman Akhavan, CMO of Carparts.com) Jul 09, 2021

Show notes

“OMG CDP”

Wait. What exactly is CDP? Customer Data Platform.
Wielding CDP well means brands can provide a freaky-personal experience for customers.
Customers will freely give brands their first-party data if it means their experience will be better. Don’t blow it by making their experience worse.
“If the expected behavior is convenience, then not only it's not freaky, it's what they're hoping and expecting you to do and they reward you with that with more activity and more loyalty over time.” - Josh
CDP can power personalization and segmentation efforts. How do we know if this is too “big-brotherish?” Look at your open and click-through rates.
“If your open rates are suffering, then, hey, something's wrong with your messaging strategy and what you're personalizing around.” - Houman
Click-through and open rate metrics are direct indications of how much your customer is enjoying your content.
You can’t manage privacy compliance issues only through email anymore. CDP’s are important in helping manage privacy issues, etc.
“When customers opt into giving you data, if they never see the net benefit of that and it only benefits your business, then the customers aren't going to keep giving you data.” - Brian
The writing has been on the wall, regulatory changes are coming in customer privacy. Houman is combating this by doubling down on Carparts.com’s first party data strategy.
CDP should ultimately be used to build a meaningful relationship and loyalty with your customers.
“The future of customer engagement is real time relevance at scale” - Josh

Associated Links:

Learn more about Josh Francia and Blueshift at Blueshift.com or Blueshift on LinkedIn.
Learn more about Houman Akhavan and Carparts.com at Carparts.com or Carparts.com on LinkedIn.
Subscribe to Insiders
Listen to our other episodes of Future Commerce!
Our mini-series, Step by Step
Our sister podcast, Stairway to CEO!

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.

Insights Per Minute- Shopify is subsidizing R&D with its App Developers Jul 02, 2021

Show notes

The Multiverse is Real

“Brands are like cows because it’s very easy for them to understand how things affect them, but it's very hard to see how things in the world affect others.” -Brian
Technology can act as a containing—or limiting—factor. It can enable cost savings, but it can also be an enabler of more meaningful interactions.
Shopify is looking to the future as a global empowerment of a merchant class
Digital channels for legacy retailers boomed during the pandemic. Why? Default behaviors are latent. We will always regress to defaults, especially in a retail context. Best Buy is a great example of this; as are Lowes and Home Depot. Digital success was bolstered by physical defaults.
For the first time in a decade, eCommerce is facing headwinds. Why? Because traditional brick and mortar retailers are experiencing tailwinds due to reopening. The roaring twenties will prove to be difficult for eCommerce businesses.
Where is luxury headed? Luxury is the silence of money and not constantly being barraged with ads.

Associated Links:

Check out Brian’s Insiders piece: How Now Brand Cow: On Operational Efficiency in Ecommerce Tech
Subscribe to Insiders
Listen to our other episodes of Future Commerce!
Our mini-series, Step by Step
Our sister podcast, Stairway to CEO!

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.

Millennials Think They Invented Everything Jun 18, 2021

Show notes

The Internet is a Literal Web

Congratulations to friend of the show, Ian Leslie, and to Industry West for ranking on 2PM’s DNVB list and for Adobe Experience Maker Awards. Phillip and Brian talk about the Adobe Experience Maker Awards, the rankings, and ask the question of how some brands are ranked so highly.
Millennials didn’t invent meal prep delivery. Schwann foods, and catalog delivery — even the milkman — are all examples of modern reimagining of pre-existing retail models.
In eCom news, Shopify continues to eat the world, bringing in another investment of Stripe, and launching payments buttons across Google Shopping and Facebook — without the need to be operating a Shopify store.
The BNPL ecosystem has stratified into much clearer offerings, as Phillip lays out the roadmap for Afterpay, Affirm, and Klarna.
“The world is reopening… New York City no longer has any covid restrictions. San Francisco opened up officially yesterday; the biggest cities are coming out of covid and physical retail is back. I feel like Afterpay is the big winner here in the latter half of the year, if I had to bet the way that people would be using this like everyone, every channel has to deal with the fact that physical retail is coming back.” - Phillip
“The internet is held together by spider webs.” - Brian
Most people’s first ecommerce purchase was probably a digital property.
Paula’s Choice is the original direct to consumer brand, and predates what we know as the modern web. Launched in 1995 it was one of the first beauty brands online, and predated Google by 3 years.
The first-ever secure online purchase was a copy of “Ten Summoner’s Tales”, a solo album by Sting.

Associated Links:

Insiders #088: Paula’s Choice: On Blind Spots and Phase Cancellation
Industry West
2PM DTC Power List
Adobe Experience Maker Awards
Subscribe to our weekly newsletter: futurecommerce.fm/subscribe
Check out our latest research piece, Service is the New Storefront

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.

Fast Isn't Solving Payments, It's Solving Identity (feat. Domm Holland, Co-Founder and CEO of Fast) Jun 11, 2021

Show notes

Headless Checkout

Domm gives the story behind the creation of Fast, how a family member forgetting a password sparked an idea for easier checkouts across all platforms.
“Our goal is to build a consumer network” -Domm
The challenges faced as a leader and facing polarizing feedback.
“It’s our job to protect consumer data, and consumer payments. This is typically the default relationship that consumers have with businesses, it’s a default trust.”
“It's the logical place where those three need states and those three very broken things about the sort of stateless being of the web converge.” - Phillip

Associated Links:

Learn more about Fast here: https://www.fast.co/
Get our latest report here: Service is the New Storefront
Listen to more episodes of Future Commerce!

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

[Step by Step] How Can I Leverage 3PL and xMS to Increase Revenue? Jun 04, 2021

Show notes

“It’s like shipping inception”

Are we in a Shipping Inception or are 3PLs and 4PLs really that complicated?
Identifying where your customers are is key in choosing the right 3PL solution for warehousing and shipping.
“Despite the Amazon narrative, not everyone needs everything in 30 seconds… I think it's critically important for brands to manage customer expectations, meaning if you don't have the infrastructure to do two day delivery, then don't promise to do delivery.” - Nima
Having a 3PL like Whiplash can help smaller businesses scale and keep shipping costs lower.
“I really am confident that retail is going to see a rebirth... We're getting a lot more brands asking how can you support these smaller shops, maybe two or three per quarter over the next year?” - Ryan

Associated Links:

Get connected with Shippo!
Check out Whiplash.
Listen to our other Step by Step seasons
Find our Future Commerce episodes on our website.

Have any questions or comments about the show? Contact us at Futurecommerce.fm, or reach out to us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, or LinkedIn.

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

[Step by Step] How Can I Utilize Shipping to Curate a Great Customer Experience? Jun 03, 2021

Show notes

The Post-Purchase Experience

Consumer expectations are almost unfair for smaller businesses. But that doesn’t mean brands can’t continue to provide a great post-purchase experience.
Many brands have turned to 3PLs to help meet the demand of fast shipping and to keep shipping costs lower.
“Brands have to be more transparent with customers. They need to give customers a choice around what services they offer and the price. A lot of brands are starting to use 3PLs to meet the customer demand, which means they're storing inventory somewhere else throughout the country to get shorter deliveries. Brands need to communicate with shoppers after the purchase in a way that conveys the brand message differently than just an email saying your order has been shipped.” - Matt Crawford
It’s more than just shipping, it’s about creating a memorable post-purchase experience. It’s about connecting the “front office” with the “back of house.”
“I think of the post purchase because I try to make it a marketer's problem, not a person in the warehouse problem.” - Matt
“When you improve shipping and you offer different options around shipping, it's almost like having additional products on your site.” - Brian

Associated Links:

Get connected with Shippo!
Listen to our other Step by Step seasons
Find our Future Commerce episodes here: https://futurecommerce.fm/future-commerce-podcast

Have any questions or comments about the show? Contact us at Futurecommerce.fm, or reach out to us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, or LinkedIn.

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

[Step by Step] How Can Marketplaces Leverage Shipping? Jun 02, 2021

Show notes

A Different Innovation

“Shipping is a growth engine. The entire web is possible, all eCommerce is possible because you could ship stuff. The question is, how do you master that in a way that is intentional as a brand or as a marketplace?” - James
As the largest resale marketplace, the mechanics of Flyp are run differently. Flyp works to connect owners with sellers, creating a different experience. In the process they use bulk shipping to diversify the engagement in the marketplace.
“We have an entire matching system that is designed to essentially incentivize pro sellers to behave and to perform better with their customers. A lot of our analytics are done around the efficiency of distribution that our resellers are offering to their customers on Flyp.” - James
Shipping is constantly changing and Shippo is changing with it, providing new ways to execute and build fast.
“One of the benefits of having Shippo is they've got this really cool feature where you give the information that you need and then you can pick the one that works for you, and we are able to leverage that in different ways.” - Dani

Associated Links:

Get connected with Shippo!
Find Flyp here: https://www.joinflyp.com/
Listen to our other Step by Step seasons
Find our Future Commerce episodes on our website.

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.

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

[Step by Step] How Can I Wield Shipping to Acquire New Customers and Build Loyalty? Jun 01, 2021

Show notes

Not a Cookie Cutter Method

With the rise of shipageddon, shipping has become about getting products to the customer as safe and quickly as possible.
Due to the different mentalities and thought processes of shopping during COVID, many customers choose different methods causing businesses to shift their concerns of shipping.
“It's not just a cookie cutter thing where you're doing clothes or a hat or a shirt where you just throw it in a box. What we found is with the batch function on Shippo, we’re able to copy a certain order numbers into the search bar up top, search those and batch print those out, saving us a tremendous amount of time.” -Keith Austria
“So many of us buy things online and really don't think about what the business challenges are around operations that make it all work.” -Phillip Jackson

Associated Links:

Get connected with Shippo!
Check out Decorware.
Listen to our other Step by Step seasons.
Find our Future Commerce episodes on our website.

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.

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

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