Future Commerce

Welcome to Future Commerce Rewind, where we compare stories in commerce today to episodes from the archives. This week, we’re playing back VISIONS speaker Justin Breton’s 2024 episode on Walmart Realm.

When Walmart entered immersive digital experiences, it wasn’t chasing hype—it was rethinking how the brand shows up in everyday digital life. In this rewind from August 2024, Justin Breton, Director of Brand Experiences, shares how Walmart Realm launched as a gamified marketplace blending culture, commerce, and creativity.

Since then, Walmart has scaled its virtual ambitions with “Walmart Discovered” on Roblox, real-world commerce in gaming, and the debut of “Walmart Unlimited.” What began as an experiment is now central to Walmart’s immersive commerce strategy.

Positionless marketing isn’t just a framework—it’s a return to how work once was: flexible, intuitive, and deeply human. In this episode, Phillip, Pini, and Optimove’s VP of Product, Shai Frank, unpack how cultural mindset, military experience, and generative AI converge to create teams that move with speed and creativity.

Listen to decode how technology and ambition together can strip away organizational friction, empower self-sufficient marketers, and dramatically improve customer experience. It’s not about removing roles—it’s about removing blockers.

Bestselling author and journalist Jo Piazza is best known as the host of the Under the Influence podcast, which boasts over 25 million downloads. Piazza is the author of the upcoming thriller Everyone is Lying to You, which dissects the rise of ‘trad wife’ influencers and the multi-billion-dollar industry built on selling idealized domesticity.

Drawing on her background in investigative journalism, which has covered everyone from Donald Trump to mommy bloggers, Piazza reveals how traditional values have become the latest form of performance marketing.

Organizations love to optimize—but often forget what, or who, they’re optimizing for. When teams are built around internal structures rather than customer outcomes, even the best strategies become slow to adapt.

Author and data analyst Neil Hoyne and Pini Yakuel explore how behavioral rigidity, not technical limitations, holds most companies back. Drawing from principles in Neil Hoyne’s book, *Converted*, they argue for a shift toward systems that favor adaptability, exploration, and proximity to the customer. Because in a world shaped by AI, the real competitive edge is not just speed—it’s staying meaningfully connected to the people you serve.

Join us for a live session from The Whalies in LA with Bryan Cano, Head of Marketing at True Classic, on a recent meteoric rise to an $850M valuation. Bryan reveals how True Classic is democratizing AI adoption across their organization by turning every employee into a technology architect and maintaining human empathy that drives authentic brand connection. We explore how tactical innovation serves a grander vision: transforming from a men's apparel company into a cultural force that builds confidence and community for decades.

Phillip and Pini decode the implications of operating in a world where generative AI acts as both creative partner and analytical assistant. The walls between departments are dissolving. Roles are becoming more flexible. Tools are learning faster than their users. And the new creative process starts with a prompt.

We only use about 5% of our brain for conscious decision-making. How will AGI emerge as a replacement for human intellect or human relationships when 95% of our emotional decisions are unconscious in nature?

🎧 Full episode available for Future Commerce Plus members.

What happens when everyone becomes a brand for fifteen seconds? And what happens after brands become nothing more than ambient frequencies in our endless scroll? Today, we’re running back the highest-rated talk from VISIONS: LA.

In this kickoff episode of Decoded, Phillip Jackson sits down with Pini Yakuel to explore the concept of "positionless marketing" — a radical rethinking of how marketing teams operate in an AI-powered world. Drawing inspiration from the evolution of positionless basketball, Pini argues that marketing, like sports, is evolving toward roles defined by agility and capability, not titles or silos. The conversation weaves through leadership, startup culture, and how Optimove is enabling marketers to work faster, smarter, and more autonomously.

Massive acquisitions—from Skechers to Touchland to Foot Locker—aren’t just headline fodder; they reflect deeper shifts in how value is defined in commerce today. Phillip and Brian explore what this means for brand identity, consumer behavior, and retail strategy, while diving into everything from Ghost Nutrition’s licensing fallout to how Ozempic might reshape fashion trends. It’s all a signal: the future of commerce is being redrawn across culture, tech, and even your closet.