Future Commerce

• The Killers have released a hot sauce collab, each named after one of their albums.
• Phillip used to listen to conspiracy theory radio as a child and was exposed to conspiracies about the X-Files being a vehicle to desensitize us to alien life.
• Elements of Disney’s The Mandalorian could be seen as a conspiracy theory: Baby Yoda, being cute in his vehicle by The Mandalorian’s side, could be allowing us to normalize putting our children in pandemic-proof bubbles.

• “It’s a place to get your brand out in front of new people.” - Daniel Dixon
• Mixy is a marketplace that helps DTC brands get their brand discovered by new consumers and incentivize those consumers by saving them money.
• Daniel came from the DTC world from an omnichannel sports nutrition brand. Mixy came from working inside of a brand and working as a consultant for brands—trying to solve the problem of encouraging consumers to try new brands.
• Mixy provides consumers with five $20 gift cards under the stipulation that they can’t spend it all in the same place, which encourages them to try new brands.
• Mixy solves challenges in DTC by bringing like-minded brands together and benefits customers in the form of discount without brands actually discounting.
• Mixy is bringing bundling, which has been done in the digital product space, to physical products.

• As for now, Mixy is only integrated with Shopify and would like to expand to new platforms.
• “When [consumers] think of gift cards, they think of Nike or Amazon… They’re not thinking of gift cards for great small to medium sized DTC brands.” - Daniel Dixon on how Mixy is getting consumers comfortable with using gift cards for smaller brands.
• Mixy is looking into expanding their product selection, currently adding one brand every week. These brands are curated and fit together to be mutually beneficial to brands and consumers.

• Check out Season Four of Step by Step, where we talk about competing with big brands as a smaller DTC brand.
• Read Phillip’s article on dead celebrities: Insiders #059: “Virtual Influencers Killed The Dead Celebrity”.
• Check out Future Commerce Episode 29: “Body Data is the Next Revolution”
• Subscribe to our new weekly newsletter, The Senses.

If you have any comments or questions about this episode, you can reach out to us at [email protected] or any of our social channels. We love hearing from our listeners!

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If you’re like us, you’ve done an insane amount of jigsaw puzzles in your quarantining.

After getting into jigsaw puzzles, Kaylin was tired of staring at stock photos and watercolor scenery and longed to look at beautiful pieces of art while completing puzzles. Thus, the idea for JIGGY was born. Kaylin partners with emerging female artists to create beautiful, artful puzzles for both her customers to enjoy and her artists to make an income. Everything from the puzzle itself, to the packaging, is thoughtfully curated for a totally immersive experience.

JIGGY launched in November 2019 and it’s almost as if they looked into a crystal ball and knew that the demand would go up in March…

Previously, Kaylin was the director of Marketing at Skimm, so you could say she had a bit of experience in building community. She brought that experience into building community around JIGGY:

Learn more about Kaylin and JIGGY on their website, Instagram, or Twitter.

Connect with us at Futurecommerce.fm, or follow us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, or LinkedIn.

Have any questions or comments about the show? You can reach out to us at [email protected] or any of our social channels; we love hearing from our listeners!

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In episode 3 of Step by Step Season 4, James Le Compte tells us a story of conservation and preservation, and how they have created a luxury brand around an otherwise commonplace confection — chocolate. We dive deep into the psychology of brand storytelling, how you can tell those stories in every channel, and how you can bring tools along to inspire the customer in their purchase journey. Listen now!

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How does a small-but-mighty team compete with big global brands? Bahzad Trinos tells us exactly how his passion — his obsession — for denim has helped the brand Naked and Famous rise to the top of innovation and admiration from those in-the-know. The denim brand is pushing the limits of what is possible, creating new and exciting opportunities for engagement with the customer. From marketing automation to absurd product innovation, Bahzad teaches us how they're doing more with less, and converting more shoppers into customers, Step by Step.

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It’s tougher than ever to attract an online shopper. It feels like everywhere you turn, you have to spend money to acquire a customer, and then spend MORE money to buy their loyalty. How do the big brands do it? How can a startup compete? There are so many channels for customers today and making sense of acquiring, converting, and reactivating these customers is more complicated than ever. Customers are no longer as loyal as they once were and float between brands, and channels, more fluidly than ever. In our fourth season of Step by Step we'll ask the question, "How can a DTC brand compete with established brands?".

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Founded in 2015 by Sunny Chadha and his wife, Seema, Venus ET Fleur takes a modern approach to floral design. Inspired by beautiful Parisian hat boxes and featuring Eternity Roses, which are real roses that last a year, the brand hit 20 million dollars in revenue in its first three years and has grown to over half a million followers on Instagram. In this episode, Sunny shares with us his entrepreneurial journey from growing up in New Jersey and working for his father's electronic company, to a disappointing Valentine's Day that sparked the idea for his company. Sunny talks with us about how Instagram posts from the Kardashians affected the business, why he believes in vision boards, and what it's like to run a business with your spouse.

###In This Episode You’ll Hear About:

###To Find Out More:

###Quotes:

“Through life you go through things like that, and as long as you look at it to sort of bring out the positive, it's always going to teach you something good. There's always going to be something that you take out of it to develop yourself.”

“We were able to do something very, very foreign to us, but it kind of taught us that as long as we work hard at it, we have the right team, the right support, the right hard workers, we can do it.”

“I love getting opinions from people that are close to me, but also the more opinions, the more complicated your decision becomes.”

“I think not getting too much sort of cloudiness in your thoughts and just like still staying true to what you're thinking and what your gut tells you.”

“That's one of the beautiful things about a business is like if it feels right, do it. You're the one that's going to be doing all the work. So make sure you just sign off on it yourself and just hit the ground running as fast as you can.”

“It was like this feeling of like this is going to be different. This is going to be new. And this is going to be something that is going to be big.”

“Once we were able to inject the perfect version, being our Eternity Rose, into the florals...that lifted that restriction on geography for me. And I was able to continue to try and grow as fast as we could. So that was a big thing.”

“I think development everywhere is what keeps me going. It keeps me really sort of on my toes. Like, what can we keep doing? How can we continue to grow?”

“We started to introduce these new product categories to where we educated customers on where else you can utilize florals within your space.”

“You can plan for demand and you can buy inventory, but you also have to make sure that you have enough people that can package and design and so on. And then also customer service. As we grow, all the sides of the business grow and it's important for people to remember all those other parts of the business as well.”

“I think it's very important for couples out there that are looking to get into business together to make sure from the beginning that you have that alignment and understanding.”

“You want to move quickly. So a lot of people might just be like, "Hey, we'll figure it out as we go," but then as you go and those things become pain problems, it can also negatively impact the business, but more so even the personal relationship.”

“We need to have that work/personal life balance, which is very, very important for sure. And I always recommend that.”

“I think team building and really understanding who those people are is super important.”

“It's something that I'd say is not just to hope to get to the goal and then look back at the journey. Also embrace it as you go through the journey.”

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It’s tougher than ever to attract an online shopper. It feels like everywhere you turn, you have to spend money to acquire a customer, and then spend MORE money to earn their loyalty. How do the big brands do it? How can a startup compete? Find out in our next season of Step by Step, coming next week.

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

Today we talk with Ferris Jumah, CEO of Surge.AI, about big data, AI technology in consumer insights, and the evolution of purchasing funnels.

If you have any comments or questions about this episode, you can reach out to us at [email protected] or any of our social channels. 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.

Today we talk with Ferris Jumah, CEO of Surge.AI, about big data, AI technology in consumer insights, and the evolution of purchasing funnels.

If you have any comments or questions about this episode, you can reach out to us at [email protected] or any of our social channels. 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.