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.

• 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)

• 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!

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. 

• [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

• 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!

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.

• [00:00:19] Act 1
• [00:11:35] Act 2

• 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!

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.

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

• 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!

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.

• {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

• 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!

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

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.

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.

We are joined by the brilliant Jacob Matson, Developer Advocate at Mother Duck, to discuss the new frontier of data application, the evolution of computing, and Brian’s taste in wine. Get nerdy with us and learn about the unlimited potential for customized consumer experiences powered by advanced databases and more tech forecasts – brought to you by a frontline data expert. 

• [00:25:46] “Our hardware is scaling faster than we can create data, and that’s changing how we think about software.” –Jacob
• [00:23:54] “If everyone’s buying the same canned software, we’ll converge on the same experiences—and that sounds terrible.” –Jacob
• [00:29:00] “It's not that we were necessarily doing things the wrong way in the past…we came up against the limitations of the technology that was available to us, whether it be cost or speed.” –Brian
• [00:37:19] “SQL might just be the lingua franca that bridges the gap between business users, developers, and AI.” –Phillip
• [00:50:27] “Imagine encoding all your knowledge and taste into a bot—your brand's experience could truly feel unique.” –Jacob
• [00:52:21] “People are gonna have to get used to technology having a perspective on what things might look like, and some level of confidence around that perspective.” –Brian
• [00:55:52] “Things are getting easier, and software is finally starting to work for us instead of against us.” –Jacob

• Learn more about Mother Duck
• Follow Jacob Matson on Twitter
• 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!

Jack Kavanagh of Shopanova joins us to share his unique perspective on cutting through the noise of marketing fads and focusing on strategies that truly drive growth. From balancing trends with long term strategies to harnessing the power of tools like Triple Whale’s Sonar for precise ad targeting, we dive deep into the realities of scaling eCommerce businesses in 2024. Discover how agility, better data segmentation, and a holistic approach to metrics can revolutionize your business.

• Not all data points deserve attention—focus on those tied to measurable outcomes, like revenue and customer growth, rather than vanity metrics.
• Tools like Sonar by Triple Whale empower businesses to manage data and ad performance efficiently without expensive expertise.
• [05:50] "Sometimes you miss the forest for the trees. Focus on connecting people with a product that improves their lives." – Jack
• [13:30] "Brand owners have been burnt by marketing gurus just like Facebook moms have been burnt by fad supplements." – Jack
• "[00:24:14] People go after their biceps hard, but by the time they've got them, it's over. It's all about calves now. What really matters is a healthy body." – Brian
• [34:30] "The allure of tools like Sonar is they solve complex problems hands-free. That’s where advertising is now." – Jack

• Learn more about Sonar, Triple Whale’s Meta integration
• 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!

We sit down with Brandon Kuipers, Co-founder and CMO of Zox, to discuss how a family arts-and-crafts project evolved into a globally recognized e-commerce brand. Hear how Zox grew from a family project to an international success by leveraging data-driven marketing, and how emerging tools like Triple Whale's Sonar have unlocked global markets. 

• Leveraging the right data tools, like Sonar, significantly improved Zox's data visibility, enabling them to optimize ad performance in international markets.
• Localized strategies, like creating region-specific products such as language-adapted designs, can help deepen market engagement.
• [00:06:32] “Building a business is about innovating, even when you feel like you have it figured out.” — Brandon
• [00:17:54] Once Sonar was set up, our data accuracy went from tracking almost none of our conversions to tracking just about every conversion." — Brandon
• [00:20:30] “Sonar has been the missing link, reopening markets we thought had closed down.” — Brandon
• [00:25:18] “Even if an ad flops in the U.S., it can still perform well in other regions. Nothing is wasted.” — Brandon
• [00:28:30] “This level of visibility is enabling full-on product pivots to better address new markets.” — Brian 

• Learn more about Sonar, Triple Whale’s Meta Integration.
• 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!