Bonobos is the newest to try-before-you-buy brands, Walmart is killing it, Phillip loves on ULTA (again) but not for the reason you think - PLUS a new approach to designing e-commerce experiences for Gen Z. Listen now!

A pilot program that would have had facial recognition technology being used in a public school is put on hold, for all of the reasons.

Are stripped down, discovery heavy e-commerce sites the future of user experience?

Phillip's pretty much obsessed with Ulta, and for some pretty good reasons.

Walmart is basically just a tech company that happens to sell products.

The try-before-you-buy model is changing the way consumers shop online, and in-store.

Facial recognition has become a hot topic lately, especially as the discussion around privacy continues to evolve.

A public school in New York's Lockport City School District was supposed to be the first school to adopt a pilot program that would've used facial recognition software on students, which sounds totally ethical.

The program which raised some serious privacy concerns has since been put on hold temporarily by the New York State Department of Education.

This prospective surveillance state story comes a week after JetBlue customers complained about cameras taking pictures of them as they were boarding their flights.

And no one should, or could forget about how easy it was for the experiment that spurred The Privacy Project allowed for cheap facial recognition to identify where (and who) professionals were as they traveled near Bryant Park.

What does the future of e-commerce look like, could it be that it looks like the category-less kind of zany The Entireworld brand?  

Phillip definitely seems to think so, and apparently so does Nike.

"The future of e-commerce is a model that goes beyond the traditional checkout model"

Nike has set up a website that is very much in line with the layout of Entireworld and acts as a brand-bible that is basically a guide to materials and ethos and brand position for Nike.

Ulta: The Sephora alternative with pretty much everything, and seemingly immune from the broader "retail apocalypse".

So what is different about Ulta, why is Yahoo Finance calling them a "Diamond in the Rough?"

Here are some important data points: Ulta has grown exponentially: The stock has grown 3,845% over the last ten years, and now has over 25,000 products across 500 brands.

And according to Phillip where Ulta really excels is in their merchandising, and the experience of the store itself.

Brian says that Ulta's surge probably has to do with how many hair products Phillip purchases there.

Ulta has its products laid out by brand and offers in-house salon services where customers can actually experience those products.

Future Commerce is a big fan of former Walmart CTO (and current SVP of Technology at Pinterest) Jeremy King, and we were really interested to see who would replace him at Walmart.

And Jeremy King's replacement (who also will have the title of CDO) Suresh Kumar, has an incredibly impressive resume at top tech companies, including Google, Microsoft, Amazon, and IBM.

Three years ago Future Commerce was talking about Walmart as an acquisition apparel company, and now they're basically a tech company that happens to sell things

Brian says that Walmart has become more than just a thorn in Amazon's side.

Bonobos try-before-you-buy model, similar to the ones utilized by companies like Stitch Fix, seems to be working really well for them.

Here's the way Bonobos brick-and-mortar presence works: the brand uses a showroom model, called guide stores, in which customers can try on clothes before they are shipped to their homes.

And it seems to be working: according to Retail Dive 35% percent of the service users of Bonobos using this service are new customers, which means that brick-and-mortar is certainly helping this formerly online-only brand.

And as Brian says, the best thing about Bonobos is how much they've grown under Walmart's wing, they're up 74% from August 2017, and up 34% from the year prior.

Phillip says this is all great, but none of these brands is using out of the box software, and e-commerce platforms are incredibly behind current expectations of customers.

Let us know in the content section on Futurecommerce.fm, or reach out to us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram or Linkedin.

What does Star Trek teach us about ambient computing? How is voice evolving? Is voice dead? And if not is it a potential $112B market opportunity? Special bonus episode COMIN ATCHA. Listen now!

One of these things is not like the other: Arby's x Birchbox, $88 rental products from Urban Outfitters and a prediction of Kohl's having a potential suitor. Listen now!

Urban Outfitters has a new rental-subscription service, but will GenZ even care?

23andMe teams up with Airbnb to help consumers with their travel plans: is this super creepy, or genius?

Amazon wants to create wearables that can sense emotions, just in case they don't have enough consumer data.

Dress Barn closes 650 stores because shuttering stores is what all the cool kids are doing according to Coresight.

Some background: Urban Outfitters was originally a retail store called Free People and was renamed Urban Outfitters in 1976, and it used to be the coolest kid on the block for hippy-esque fashion.

And now, Urban Outfitters, probably to get it's mojo back, has launched a rental-subscription service (Nuuly) for $88 for up to six items per month.

According to Kaleigh Moore writing for Forbes, Nuuly (which Phillip challenges Brian to spell) will function as it's own brand spearheaded by Urban Outfitters current Cheif Digital officer David Hayne.

Here's a question though, will Urban Outfitters target market for this service be able to resist ruining the clothes?

Phillip asks Brian what his preferred travel booking method would look like?

Airbnb and 23andMe, are teaming up to recommend their customer heritage destinations based on countries of origin, which is not at all going to end in a PR disaster.

Phillip says that the idea of 23andMe and AirBnB sharing the data they've collected with a third party is the creepy aspect, but ads that we've all probably signed those rights away in the fine print anyway.

Brian says that collaboration commerce is going to be an increasing trend in retail.

So Amazon, being Amazon wants to create wearable products that can sense users emotions: because they don't have enough consumer data.

For right now, this is just a patent filing, not an official product (which doesn't make it any less creepy)

Is the future of retail mood-ring reminiscent clothing?

There already is a dress that claims to change colors with the wearer's mood, and it's kind of awesome.

Coresight is predicting 12K store closings in 2019, which is double that of this time last year.

It's what Steve Dennis might call "the boring middle."

Dress Barn is closing all 650 of its stores, to which Brian says, "who cares?"

Phillip makes a point that low-end stores closing like Payless may actually limit options in rural communities.

So in the final story for the week, we discover that somehow earnings beats are pointing to Kohl's doing rather poorly.

Phillip points out that these reports came out only a few weeks after Kohl's and Amazon formed their partnership.

Kohls's is going to start accepting Amazon returns, which may drive much-needed traffic into their stores.

Phillip makes a Future Commerce prediction that Amazon will acquire Kohl's within 24 months.

Brian says it's either Kohl's, Best Buy or both.

So now we want to hear from you: What are your favorite collaborations in commerce right now?

Let us know in the content section on Futurecommerce.fm, or reach out to us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram or Linkedin.

As Brian heads to NRF Tech Phillip pontificates on a foreseeable future where permits and certificates of occupancy are required to build shopping experiences on the web. Listen now!

Brian is on his way to MC NRF Tech because retail tech may be moving fast, but Future Commerce is moving faster.

Accessibility is near and dear to Phillip's heart, and so are brands that have good faith practices.

The entire Future Commerce team are pretty big fans of our sponsors: Vertex and Braintree.

What does accessibility really mean to retailers?

Why is Phillip alone on this episode? Because Brian is on his way to NRF Tech to MC it up.

And speaking of MC fabulousness, for the second year in a row, Phillip was the MC at Magento Imagine, where he got to hang with (one of the coolest people on the planet) Gary Vaynerchuck.

Speaking of super cool: Our sponsors are pretty amazing as well.

Vertex is a leader in sales tax solutions, they provide on-premise tax solutions and are trusted by over half of the fortune five hundred companies to provide service, check them out here.

Braintree, a Paypal company is leading the way in mobile payment optimization and has even led an initiative (along with HiConversion and Magento) to share the best and worst practices in conversion to sales in the mobile-commerce space.

Future Commerce dedicated an entire episode to this mobile commerce initiative, it's a great listen for retailers, or anyone interested in the mobile-checkout experience.

So, as Phillip says in this episode, accessibility is more than just making things easier for only people with disabilities, it makes services easier to use for everyone, and that's good for retailers.

Web content accessibility guidelines are laid out in the American's with Disabilities Act, passed in 1990.

Accessibility is incredibly important to everyone at Future Commerce, especially Phillip, who has written several Ebooks with Something Digital: check them out here.

'And speaking of compliance, Site Improve is a great tool that can help retailers manage their site accessibility compliance.

So which brands are doing accessibility really well, putting in the effort make their services more available to everyone?

Everyone's favorite trendy technology company Apple is a massive proponent of accessibility; they're even a sponsor of Global Accessibility Awareness Day.

Watch this incredible video that they featured on their home page during GAAD →

Apple is also trying to promote accessibility through apps like Audible.

Another company that is working to make its services more accessible is Shopify, who has renewed its commitment to making its platform more accessible for customers and is taking all of its marketing up to a much more accessible level.

So, now we want to hear from all of our listeners: Which brands do you think are working to make their sites and services more accessible to all? Let us know in the content section on Futurecommerce.fm, or reach out to us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, or Linkedin.

"Help, an AI fired me!" Phillip and Brian dig into the exchange of privacy as a currency for convenience. PLUS: full-body AI model generation, Walmart's store innovation concept, and more. Listen now!

Former Ambassador and Deputy Assistant Secretary Daniel Sepulveda joins us to talk about Privacy, CCPA, GDPR, and the fundamental right to control our own data. Listen now!

With all the talk about digital privacy, how that data being used is a question many are asking, and former Ambassador and Assistant Secretary Danny Sepulveda is here to talk data and everything that comes along with it.

In 2018 California passage passed a data privacy law, will other states follow suit in 2019?

There are three big service providers when it comes to Big Data, do we even have to name them anymore?

The genie is out of the bottle on data itself, but there needs to be context around how that data is being used, especially by massive companies with unparalleled power.

Future Commerce is beyond excited to haveformer Ambassador and Assistant Secretary Danny Sepulveda on the show, Danny is currently the VP of Government Relations at Media Math.

Brian wonders if someone will someone show up to the Senate in high-end denim at some point?

Brian says that how corporations use and utilize data is one of the most critical issues of our micro-generation.

So CCPA: or the California Consumer Privacy Act, has set a standard for states to set limits on what big corporations can do with their users' data.

Brian asks Danny if other states will follow California's example, and what is being done on a federal level?

New Jersey and Illinois both have begun to discuss digital privacy laws similar to the CCPA.

In New Jersey, AB 4902, would give users actual control over their personal data privacy.

A 2008 law passed in Illinois bans companies from using a person's scans of people's faces, irises, and fingerprints without consent, and that formerly hypothetical situation has become very real now.

Brian and Danny agree that the genie is pretty much out of the bottle when it comes to this new data-driven society.

In Washington state, the Washington Privacy Act failed to pass the house of representatives, for a multi-layered partisan reason.

Will companies step up to the plate to help retailers comply with CCPA and emerging regulations surrounding digital privacy?

So are any campaigns jumping on the digital-privacy bandwagon for 2020?

Both Elizabeth Warren and Amy Klobuchar have spoken about the need to modify and reform current anti-trust laws.

It's pretty troubling that there is an incredible amount of power being concentrated in Silicon Valley.

One of Danny's wishes for consumers in this data-driven market is that they can be seen the way they as the consumer wish to be seen.

One of the ways Brian recommends that retailers can get ahead of this data overload is to collect their own data for customers so that they don't have to get it from someplace else down the road.

Brian asks Danny what his recommendations are for retailers and merchants, long-term and short-term.

Danny says in the short term, retailers need to be focused on building relationships and maintaining relationships with clients and continue providing value.

In the long term, Danny says it is imperative for companies to have in-house team members that know as much about the technology being utilized as the tech companies they partner with.

Go over to Futurecommerce.fm and give us your feedback! We love to hear from our listeners!

Retail Tech is moving fast, and Future Commerce is moving faster.

Ingrid Milman (Ann Taylor, LOFT) sits in this week in our Earth Week deep-dive to discuss sustainability, transparency in supply chain, and "deliciously sinful" luxury impulse buys. Who has the true influence on the eco-conscious purchase decision - the brand or the consumer? How can fashion lead the conversation in transparent supply chain and manufacturing processes? Featured brands this week: Outdoor Voices, Rent the Runway, Reformation, H&M, Allbirds and more. Listen now!

Director of Digital at Ann Inc, Ingrid Millman, is co-hosting this week.

Earth Day has turned into Earth Week and, there are lots of sustainability stories to share.

Can rental Services like Rent the Runway find a way to make dry-cleaning more eco-friendly?

Instagram ads somehow turned Phillip into a sneakerhead.

Before we get into Earth Day, Ann Inc has a new rewards program, and for the first time, customers receive rewards for spending across the entire portfolio.

Also, Ingrid's professional views expressed on FC do not reflect those of her employer.

Anyways, Rent the Runway used Earth Day 2019 to publish its sustainability report on Twitter, showing how RTR as a service is helping to reduce waste.

Ingrid loves Rent the Runway, and has been a long time subscriber, even pre-unlimited, but feels that if RTR wants to be genuinely sustainable, the company will need to look into more eco-friendly dry cleaning options.

Phillip says that RTR is the Uber of dry cleaning, they partner with local dry cleaners to get all of the clothes dry cleaned consistently.

Phillip points out that three years ago, Rent the Runway would have gone to IPO.

Ingrid is obsessed with the Marie Condo effect and the results from its popularity.

There's been a surge in the number of people utilizing both physical thrift stores, and online platforms like Poshmark, thredUP, and luxury re-sell platforms like The RealReal.

Ingrid points out that there needs to be a change to the way these resell platforms operate: namely that there needs to be more of a focus on creating solutions for their customers. As of now, there's not a lot of value proposition outside of general resell.

Phillip doesn't know if he trusts the resale market, and questions if perhaps if companies are posing as third-party sellers.

Phillip also blames Instagram for turning him into a sneakerhead, because Instagram forces him to buy an insane amount of sneakers through their targeted advertising.

Has retail followed more of a meme culture than an influencer culture?

Ingrid makes a fascinating point: Many people develop their actual sense of style in High School and/or college, but they cannot usually afford to outfit that style entirely, but people in their 30's are targeted by luxury brands more because they have a wholly different purchasing power, and now can make "deliciously sinful" luxury purchases.

Ingrid has noticed a trend with Google search terms, including sustainability, cotton fiber, dress garments, and for some reason the brand Free People.

Phillip poses a question regarding sustainability: Do consumers care about sustainability because of the PR push that the brands they trust are putting out? Or are brands increasing their PR around sustainability because they know their customer care about it?

Ingrid makes a great point that GenX and anyone near that age group cares less about sustainability because it's not on their radar, as opposed to millennials (and anyone under 35), who may make sustainability a key focus of their purchasing choices.

If legacy brands want to pick up a younger customer, then they are going to have to put a much larger focus on sustainability efforts.

This is especially true considering how many younger brands are beginning their brands with eco-friendly products like Allbirds.

So in honor of Earth Week, Ingrid and Phillip are sharing some brands that are truly pushing sustainability.

One such brand is The Reformation, who has a seriously sustainable slogan: "Being naked is the #1 most sustainable option. We're #2", which is pretty freaking awesome.

Another thing to love about this brand is their transparency: They list all of their sustainability practices on their website including energy efficiency, recycling, and more, and they also list the sustainability sequence on each project page.

H&M has also announced transparency in supply chain initiative, which promises full transparency in supplier names, location, etc.

Another brand that has stood out in their efforts is Outdoor Voices, an apparel tech company that Phillip says makes "everyone feel like they're invited to the party.

Outdoor Voices uses sustainable fabrics in their products, like merino wool, and rec poly made from upcycled post-consumer water bottles.

Also: In our bonus episode for Earthday, Phillip talked about Allbirds instituting a carbon tax on themselves to offset emissions and make the already eco-friendly brand 100% carbon neutral.

Ingrid poses one final food for thought question: A movement that runs parallel to the transparency in clothing push is the organic food movement. So why is the transparency in clothing movement moving into the mainstream at a much faster pace?

Go over to Futurecommerce.fm and give us your feedback, or you can reach out on Instagram, Twitter, or any of our social channels. We love hearing from our listeners and hearing your thoughts on current trends in retail.

And you can reach out to Ingrid on Instagram at → ing_stagram

Retail Tech is moving fast and Future Commerce is moving faster.

What do Amazon, Everlane, Allbirds and New York City have in common? They have all announced Carbon Offset initiatives. Brian's out so this is our first mini-episode covering some of the stories that landed on Earth Day, April 22, 2019. Listen now!

Future Commerce conducted an audience survey study at the beginning of this year, and Rachel Swanson of Method + Mode is here to talk results.

Future Commerce is working to create a community around the content we produce.

What can the FC team learn from our incredible audience?

Data is more than just numbers, and proper implementation may require a facilitator to connect the dots.

Rachel Swanson from Method + Mode is here, and she breaks down the results of Future Commerce's first-ever audience survey.

Rachel started her career working at digital agencies in the era of split-testing (also known as A/B testing.

Then, over ten years ago, Rachel got a job working at Condé Nast, working in-house with Glamour, and W for three plus years each, honing the brand messaging and positioning for ad sales with a data-driven method.

What drove Rachel while working in partnerships with brands, was the innovation and the drive to bring out the white space, which ultimately pushed her to strike out on her own.

"Helping innovators Innovate is kind of how I see what I do."

This survey taught the FC team so much about our audience, and their feedback was invaluable to the development of our show.

Phillip points out two main problems that Future Commerce faced before this survey and our rebrand. One issue being our content was much better than our logo suggested, and two being that even though retail voices were listening to Future Commerce, we didn't know who they were.

Rachel discusses some of the key points from the survey, including that our listeners are 60/40 B2B-B2C focused, and that listeners are looking for more diversity in guests and topic discussion.

Also, thankfully listeners do seem to like the back-and-forth that Phillip and Brian engage in, which is probably a good thing.

Brian asks Rachel what our audience cares slightly-less about?

Apparently, our current listeners have little desire to Phillip and Brian on video, which seems to devalue Phillip's Ulta Beauty makeup haul.

Brian wonders whether future listeners may be more interested in video, mainly depending on the context.

Our audience does seem to respond well to our growing Instagram game.

Also, since we learned that our audience favors consistency, Phillip wants everyone to know our new episodes come out on Friday's.

Brian asks Rachel if she can explain what makes for proper research?

Rachel explains though many people equate data and research, they aren't the same. Data becomes unless it is married with human connection is what drives standout work.

And as Rachel points out machine learning cannot derive everything, because it lacks that human connection.

These are all reasons to work with someone who can decipher that data and connect the dots, be it in-house or otherwise.

It's more than just lakes of data; it's about storytelling, and connection with your customers.

Rachel: "If you're not an expert on your customers or your audience you're not doing your job as an executive."

Want to reach out to Rachel, and Method + Mode ? Go over to --> ｿ .

Go over to Futurecommerce.fm and give us your feedback! We love to hear from our listeners!

Retail tech is moving fast, and Future Commerce is moving faster!

Are digital experiences the gateway to a more accessible luxury experience for millennial consumers? Scott Emmons opens up to us about his successes at Neiman Marcus, the future of technology adoption at retail brands, and how he's bringing that culture of innovation and technology leadership to other brands in his new role at Current Global.