Future Commerce

Phillip and Brian talk with Dr Amy Gershkoff Bolles about how having an innovation strategy that connects to your larger corporate strategy and a very disciplined approach, looking for opportunities that add value for your business and most importantly for your customers, is key to longevity. Evaluating opportunities in the digital and technology space, given how much opportunity there is, is a very important discussion. Listen in to hear what they are doing at Levi’s, and how the future there is bright.

It’s in the Jeans

• It’s so important to be both building for scale and testing and learning simultaneously
• Innovation is in the lifeblood of Levi Strauss and Company, and has been for 170 years of business
• Amy and her team developed a scorecard and framework that allows them to objectively assess new technology or digital opportunities and evaluate how they work with the overall corporate strategy
• Data, AI, and digitization can be used to make very meaningful differences in the costumer experience, and we are really at the beginning of understanding how to use these tools effectively
• “We're in the first inning in terms of the opportunity that lies ahead for data and AI and digitization to impact consumers and businesses. And I'm really excited to see the next eight innings that are in front of us.” - Amy
• The lines between the digital world and the physical world have been erased, especially for Gen Z consumers, so a brand must provide that seamless experience for consumers
• Levi’s has used data and AI to develop a comprehensive loyalty program that provides opportunities for consumers to have a personalized experience that is tailored to their needs
• “What future commerce perspectives and enterprise value might incorporate ten years from now could be a million things, but if you don't have the right framework in place, you won't be able to build for the future.” - Phillip
• Levi Strauss and Company is partnering with Silicon Valley Bank to find new and exciting start ups to work with that will continue to advance their strategy and approach to providing unparalleled experiences to their customers

Associated Links:

• Get ready for Archetypes, our soon-to-be-published 240-page journal! Check it out at ArchetypesJournal.com
• Get your tickets to our Archetypes Event December 1 in Miami, FL
• Subscribe to Insiders and The Senses to read more of what we are witnessing in the commerce world!
• Download VISIONS 2022 NOW!
• Listen to our other episodes of Future Commerce

Learn more about Dr Amy Gershkoff Bolles and Levi Straus & Co at LeviStrauss.com or on LinkedIn.

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!

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On today’s episode, Phillip and Brian discuss e-biking and deficient snack drawers, AI and the recent developments within use cases for eCommerce, and also about that guy in Starbucks who was in full-VR use like it was his job. Was it his job? I mean, he did have a tie on.

Jeroboam-sized BOOMCHICKAPOP

• How has Phillip’s experience with being a one-car family for a year been going and wait, how many miles has he either biked or run this year so far?
• Artificial limitations can provide great opportunities to be creative and intentional
• How’s your snack drawer looking and what’s a guy or gal to do about it?
• Sometimes a snack brand’s ideal customer is the one standing in front of the compulsive buy section in Home Depot or Lowe’s
• Let’s Enhance can ingest and teach the AI through 3D models, so if you can import a 3D model of your product, you can then compose images with the AI through prompts alone
• The whole of the AI engine has contextual understanding of certain things in the world and the same brief that would go to the creative team now goes to the engine
• “These tools are going to continue to point us towards better collaboration between departments and probably tighter teams and running diverse teams against different segments as opposed to having disparate business units.” - Brian
• Why do we need humans to sit in and give perspective on what is on brand and what is not when you could tell the AI, "This is our brand book. Follow the brand book," and then give the unlimited power of creativity to other people who are going to use it in whatever channel that you can't potentially even begin to imagine yet?” - Phillip
• Neither you nor your hair can look cool with a VR strap that goes straight down the middle of your head
• Route is getting some hate, but really all Route or any shipping insurance company is doing is creating a value extractive solution for your shortcomings as a brand or service

Associated Links:

• Follow Sofiia Shvets to check out what’s happening with CLAID.ai
• Get ready for Archetypes, our soon to be published 240-page journal! Check it out at ArchetypesJournal.com
• Get your tickets to our Archetypes Event December 1 in Miami, FL
• Subscribe to Insiders and The Senses to read more of what we are witnessing in the commerce world!
• Download VISIONS 2022 NOW!
• 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.

On today’s episode, Philip and Brian discuss their recent issue of The Senses, as well as some tips for preparing for the Black Friday/Cyber Monday season. They also talk about the recent release of a Ralph Lauren collection in Fortnite and how Roblox has become a giant brand playground. Plus listen in for a HUGE announcement that we are really excited about!

Do you Insta Cop?

• How to be prepared for the Black Friday/Cyber Monday season, including some horror stories from past years
• ECommerce itself is gamified. ECommerce best practices tend to point to how do we become more persuasive? How do we appeal to our basest of instincts like FOMO?
• We will be publishing a Future Commerce trade show and conference guide to assist in all of your “Which shows do I go to and why?” questions and needs, so stay tuned
• Brian has more Marshall McLuhan to talk about, which reminded him of our big announcement
• Our big announcement is that we are publishing a 240-page journal called Archetypes, and it’s going to blow your mind
• Plus we are launching Archetypes at a live event centered around art and performance, including modern dance, on December 1 in Miami, FL (wait until you see the merch!)
• Phillip is loving the brand Teenage Engineering on every level
• Any generational brand becomes what's relevant and they find product market fit and then they find the generational brand culture fit much later in their journey
• The guys share a little “remember when” about how hard it was to get a site back up when it crashed back in the old days

Associated Links:

• Find the Roblox Brand Tracker Here
• Read the Senses on Ralph Lauren’s Fornite Activation here
• Get ready for Archetypes, our soon to be published 240-page journal! Check it out at ArchetypesJournal.com
• Get your tickets to our Archetypes Event December 1 in Miami, FL
• Subscribe to Insiders and The Senses to read more of what we are witnessing in the commerce world!
• Download VISIONS 2022 NOW!
• 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.

Open source software is such an important part of how the whole world is run, and it takes a community to build it. In fact, so much has been built up to this point, that everything new that’s created is standing on the shoulders of the giants that have solved problems in the past, problems that we don’t even have to think about much today. So what are the problems that we do need to investigate today and how shall we best address them? Yitzchak Lieblich from Web Solutions NYC shares how they do it. Listen in to this final episode of Season 9 of Step by Step!

Like a Light Bulb

• “Know what you know. Know what you don't know.” - Yitzchak
• Finding the right platform solutions may cost more upfront, but will cost less in the long run as you work with what you actually need and build from there
• Happy developers lead to happy code which leads to happy merchants
• “Open source, at its core, has been about sort of unselfishly sharing learnings and findings and asking others to potentially join you in helping to build.” - Phillip
• Merchants also love open source options because of the control it offers them
• There was the Magento wave, the Shopify wave, and a next wave will come as well
• Some merchants will continue to use SaaS, but it’s important to base that decision on an honest look at the maturity of your business and the needs you have moving forward

Associated Links:

• Get connected with Shopware
• Learn more about Yitzchak Lieblich
• Listen to our other Step by Step seasons
• Archetypes Event December 1 in Miami, FL
• Subscribe to Insiders and The Senses to read more of what we are witnessing in the commerce world!
• Download VISIONS 2022 NOW!
• 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.

Because open source is so flexible, it can be such a powerful tool. But how do you manage the complexities of all that is possible and steer clear of overbuilding? How do you stay focused with all that is available? Listen in as Founder and CEO at Alumio, Caspar Hardholt, explains how to manage these risks and build your open source stack successfully.

Feature Creep

• Software providers work with more educated business owners/operators today than in years past, and multiple software needs add to the complexity of the process
• Before any adjustments should be made, use your open source platform as is and to its fullest potential
• “I'm speaking to a lot of agencies and they're starting to realize that custom coding everything is not in the best interest of their clients. So there's also a shift going on there.” - Caspar
• “Nobody wants to walk around in shoes that are too big. Managing the amount of time and investment, the future-proofing, and the amount of capital that you pump into any project, whether it's open source or not, is really just understanding the growth rate of the person who has to inhabit the software.” - Phillip
• “Relationships are at the core of open source software.” - Brian
• “Don’t reinvent the wheel. Adapt to the wheels you get.” - Caspar
• Managing complexity requires understanding what complexity means to you and your business and making an honest assessment

Associated Links:

• Get connected with Shopware
• Learn more about Caspar Hardholt and connect with him on Twitter
• Listen to our other Step by Step seasons
• Archetypes Event December 1 in Miami, FL
• Subscribe to Insiders and The Senses to read more of what we are witnessing in the commerce world!
• Download VISIONS 2022 NOW!
• 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.

We all hate the B-Word (budgeting). How do you set yourself up for success when you enter into a project using open source? How do you make sure you have guardrails going into this so that you can actually have a plan and don't get yourself into trouble? Can software buying be less scary? Stephen Stark, Founder, and CEO at ITG Commerce explains how you can make these decisions less scary. Listen in and find out!

Wedding Planning

• Selecting software is important, but selecting the strategy by which you build that software is even more important
• Open source allows the possibilities of meeting your customers’ needs in so many ways, but discipline, focus, and vision also have to guide you as you build.
• When buying, building, planning, and budgeting well for open-source software, it’s imperative that the expectations of what is needed and who will be involved are set at the beginning of the project
• “At some point, you need to deconstruct what you have and make sure that you are planning for the future and not bolting on to a good or bad decision from the past.” - Stephen
• The goal is a collective vision between all parties involved
• “It's not really the base platform features that provide a leg up. It's the stuff you do on top of it and that extensibility and customizability is the difference maker for most businesses trying to differentiate in eCommerce.” - Phillip

Associated Links:

• Get connected with Shopware
• Learn more about Stephen Stark
• Listen to our other Step by Step seasons
• Archetypes Event December 1 in Miami, FL
• Subscribe to Insiders and The Senses to read more of what we are witnessing in the commerce world!
• Download VISIONS 2022 NOW!
• 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.

When should I use open source software and how do I build on top of it to create the unique and differentiating elements of my business where I am right now? How can open source create community and lead to a wider array of solutions? Sander Mangel, eCommerce Solutions Architect at Shopware, joins this episode to explain the necessity of community in open source. Listen Now!

A Bigger Beneficial Pie

• Doing eCommerce has become tremendously complex and that requires not just developers but specialists, analysts, and more discipline than it ever has before
• We wouldn’t have the internet if we didn’t have open source
• “The actual lineage and the history of these communities goes on to power commerce at its core and whether that's in a commercialized way or not, open source sits at the root of all of this.” - Phillip
• The only way to actually leverage open source is to contribute back and be a part of the community
• If you’re not sharing that knowledge because you’re worried about IP, or if the whole value of your company relies on a set of features, you're probably doing something wrong
• “When you have so many voices, it's easy for vision to splinter, but you have to have {vision} in order to be successful.” - Brian
• “If you're measuring the success of your community by the lines of code written, it's never going to work because that's not how community works.” - Sander
• “If you run open source software and leverage that in a smart way, in a conscious way, you can make the difference with just a few lines of customization to make sure that it specifically fits your business. That's where the value of open source lies.” - Sander

Associated Links:

• Get connected with Shopware
• Learn more about Sander Mangel
• Listen to our other Step by Step seasons
• Archetypes Event December 1 in Miami, FL
• Subscribe to Insiders and The Senses to read more of what we are witnessing in the commerce world!
• Download VISIONS 2022 NOW!
• 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.

Open Source isn’t dead, actually it’s never been more alive. We’re in the ninth season of Step by Step and this season, we’re exploring the question, “is open source still viable for the modern business?” We think the answer is yes, but getting to the solution requires the business operator to do a cost benefit analysis, manage complexity and budget, and choose the correct software to set their team up for success.

In this first episode, Ben Marks, Director of Global Market Development at Shopware joins the show to talk about the Open Source Business about why open source isn’t dead.

Open Source Isn’t Dead

• Put simply, open source is just collaboration in the open.
• Just because something is free doesn’t mean it’s open source and just because it’s open source doesn’t mean it’s free.
• The startup capital is minimal and the opportunities are abundant, making open source really appealing.
• People misconceive SaaS software to be the easy option, but they fail to think through the learning curve, necessary level of customization, and architecture that’s required, which can make SaaS options more expensive depending on your business type.
• Is open source still viable for commerce?
• The beauty of open source is the ability to differentiate based upon your business’s needs.

Associated Links

• Listen to past seasons of Step by Step!
• Find out more about Shopware.
• Connect with Shopware on LinkedIn.

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.

We’ve been through Brian Goes Bougie together, but can we handle Phillip Goes Dirtbag? Also the guys talk about brands they are loving right now, hot takes on Mr Beast and a bit of a musing on the Age of Contentment. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com

for information about our collection and use of personal data for

advertising.

What if the way we think about expense management and reimbursements could be reinvented? What does that look like? Listen in to learn how Divvy is changing the way business is done and making life easier for teams like yours. 

An Easier Way

• Divvy provides software to make the details of expense management easier with tools for keeping track of everything that passes through accounts, budget locks to prevent overcharging, and even cash-back rewards
• Because accountants have feelings, too, and giving them more time to do their job instead of chasing you down for receipts makes everyone happier
• “We try to do things that you could only do with a card plus software together.” - Tucker
• Divvy provides ways to creatively find growth and cost savings in areas that perhaps were overlooked
• “We've had consistently over 100% net revenue retention for years. We get customers onboarded, they stick around, they know what they like, and they keep doing more of it.” - Tucker
• Maximize your cash back, maximize your rewards, and turn your finance team into a revenue center

Associated Links:

• Subscribe to Insiders and Senses to read more of what we are witnessing in the commerce world!
• Download VISIONS 2022 NOW!
• Listen to our other episodes of Future Commerce
• Check out Decoded, our newest limited series

Learn more about Tucker Stoffers and Divvy at getDivvy.com or {{social media}}.

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.