Future Commerce Podcast: eCommerce, DTC and Retail Strategy

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!

You want an optimized performance marketing stack, we have the expert insight. In season 14 of Step-By-Step, we’ve partnered with Triple Whale and Meta to help you maximize RoAS with higher-quality data.

In this episode, you’ll learn why first-party data is critical in a privacy-conscious eCommerce ecosystem, how domain-specific AI can revolutionize eCommerce analytics, and what the shift from self-hosted IT organizations to cloud-based solutions means for your business.

• Triple Whale evolved from summary pages to cutting-edge tools like their Sonar integration with Meta Conversions API.
• Your data quality is key. Understanding where your marketing dollars are most effectively spent will unlock better RoAS.
• Feeding Meta better data through server-side connections transforms ad spend into ad gains.
• AI’s Promise and Paradox: Can we teach machines context? We debate whether AI can replicate the intuitive decision-making of a savvy e-commerce operator.
• Simplifying complex workflows might mean less visibility, but greater efficiency and creative freedom.
• [00:09:17] "Garbage in, garbage out. Clean data is the alpha and omega of decision-making." – Brian
• [00:19:39] "The internet used to be the Wild West—now it’s a privacy-conscious frontier." – Kellet
• [00:31:42] "If AI were a junior resource, it’s the one you’d micromanage." – Phillip

• 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!

“Email’s stability in a changing digital world makes it one of the few reliable channels left for brands, even after ten years.” Seasoned eCommerce and email marketing expert Greg Zakowicz joins Brian and Phillip to unpack the holiday inbox squeeze. 

• [00:01:41] “Email’s stability in a changing digital world makes it one of the few reliable channels left for brands, even after ten years.” – Greg
• [00:05:46] “Honing in on your unique value, especially if you’re a small brand competing with giants, is more critical than ever.” – Greg 
• [00:08:23] “Strategic timing, like sending a campaign around a product’s peak usage time, can make a huge difference in engagement.” – Phillip
• [00:25:23] “People want creative, engaging content even if it’s transactional; small touches can make emails stand out in crowded inboxes.” – Greg 
• [00:30:08] “Just because everyone’s doing 25% off doesn’t mean it’s the only thing that works; there’s room for creativity in how you present offers.” – Greg 

• Learn more about Omnisend
• 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!

Phoebe Yu loves jumping down rabbit holes with the audience of her curiosity-driven channel on YouTube that focuses on research, human psychology, and culture, specifically within the tech sector. But if something interesting finds its way into the comment section, she’ll deep dive into that too. Listen now to Phoebe Yu’s conversation with Phillip and Brian!

Key Takeaways:

• [00:10:39] “Research is always iterating just like design. So I really want to keep that active research going, including participation from the audience.” - Phoebe
• [00:13:06] “Japan has been living in the year 2000 since 1980.” - Phoebe
• [00:29:09] “In a low context culture, people tend to communicate more directly, more explicitly, and in a high context culture, people would communicate in a more nuanced, more implicit kind of way.” - Phoebe
• [00:32:24] “It is always good to reduce user friction no matter what. We have to look at things contextually and see how that friction serves how that user feels about a certain service, a certain platform.” - Phoebe
• [00:42:47] “There is an inherent sense of curiosity when it comes to how different cultures operate because we, us, personally, we grew up in a specific culture, and it's easy to think that that is just how things are done across the board. But then when you realize there are different people doing things in a different way, that it might shatter your existing notions about certain things, and that raises a lot of questions of how things can be done.” - Phoebe

• Subscribe on YouTube to Phoebe Yu
• 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!

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Spooky Commerce finishes with an epic finale as we explore the mysterious history of Seattle's iconic Pike Place Market. Phillip, Brian, and Sarah share tales of ghost sightings, haunted (coffee) grounds, and the rich lore behind one of the oldest continuously operating markets in the U.S. PLUS: Phillip and Brian debrief a tragedy involving AI-to-human relationships and discuss the challenges parents face as children gain unrestricted access to AI tools. 

TW: This week’s episode discusses sensitive subject matter, including suicide.

Key Takeaways:

• AI taking on a life of its own: Children have unrestricted access to increasingly lifelike AI tools. 
• Pike Place Market is home to more than just vendors: It's rumored to house spirits from Seattle’s early days.
• Kells yeah: Kells Irish Pub sits on a former mortuary and a former indigenous burial site – and is one of Seattle’s most haunted locations. 
• [00:09:30] “​​The thing is, the difference between what you were doing and what an AI is doing is you are interacting with real people. Message boards were human-to-human communication. It was just instantaneous. This is like, getting sucked into a video game that has no end.” – Brian
• [00:18:00] "This thing (AI) has escaped containment." – Phillip
• [00:25:22] “Brian’s developed a palate that's sophisticated enough to taste the ghost in Pike Place roast.” – Phillip
• [00:03:35] "The building that Kells Pub exists in is the Butterworth and Sons building, which was not only a former mortuary, but it was also built on top of tribal burial grounds.” – Sarah
• [00:40:00] “There's just there's so many elements here that would actually enable this sort of storytelling around the place.” – Brian

• 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

This week we unpack multisensory commerce, the economical ebb and flow of re-commerce, and reflect on Phillip’s keynote at the Motion Creative Strategy Summit. PLUS: Spooky Commerce is back. Phillip, Brian, and Sarah journey to a haunted 1980’s Bay Area Toys R Us.

• Tactile interactions produce profound experiences – something digital media cannot replicate. Phillip’s keynote presentation at the Motion Creative Strategy Summit highlighted the polymathic inspiration of tactile creativity.
• [00:09:30] “Things that you consider to be highly immersive aren't as immersive as you think they are. The sphere is very immersive, but it is not as tactile as Meow Wolf's Omega mart.” – Phillip
• [00:21:15 ] “I step into that Waymo and I get, you know, a technology rush. It feels like, finally. Oh, finally. It's here. All the things that we've all dreamed of. And I think it's because the imagination has already moved on.” – Brian
• [00:33:30 ] "Sylvia Brown herself came in, so this brought a lot of coverage to the story…they did this whole televised seance moment, and she discovered that the ghost's name is Johnny Johnson." – Sarah
• [00:34:15] "What a weird fate for him. You know? First of all, tragic death. Second of all, like, a toy store gets built over, like, this beautiful ranch where he was supposed to live this life, and then he gets to haunt toys." – Brian

• 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!

From dead-and-undead-again crypto cycles to eBay’s paranormal side, we explore the range of the paranormal in this week’s installment of Spooky Commerce. Listen now!

• eCommerce giants like Pinduoduo (Temu’s parent company) are contributing to deflation in China by flooding the market with cheap goods.
• Disaster alerts compete with the attention economy. In our daily flurry of push notifications, we might also be alerted of an impending natural disaster.
• Despite repeated crashes, the cryptocurrency market continues to revive itself.
• {00:03:55} "The visual language of a hurricane is lines at retail or empty shelves having been bought out. It’s part of the cultural act of a disaster... commerce is so disrupted in a moment of disaster." – Phillip
• {00:19:10} "I don't know which is worse, this horrific porcelain doll I'm looking at called the 'Haunted Effanbee Doll' from the 1930s, or the fact that it's listed at $12,000." – Phillip
• {00:27:20} “I am not clicking that link. Oh, it’s a duck? Okay, link me that one.” – Brian
• {00:31:00} “There's a lot of stuff that's sold on the Internet that's actually really hard to validate whether it can do what it says that it does. And I bet there are reviews of this duck that make it sound like people had paranormal experiences with it… Individual experiences are what we use to validate whether something is trustworthy to purchase.” – Brian
• {00:33:00} "Do the delivery drivers know they’re transporting haunted relics?" – Sarah

• 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!