Future Commerce Podcast: eCommerce, DTC and Retail Strategy

Gamifying Healthcare

Future Commerce Podcast: eCommerce, DTC and Retail Strategy

Healthcare is no game, but try telling insurance carriers that. Phillip gets manipulated into buying a denim jacket, innovation in fitness and fashion, Adobe "reinvents" fintech, and the guys go deep (real deep) on healthcare and insurance.

"LOL, jean jackets are still a thing"

  • Phillip got a new jean jacket
  • Moral of the story: even when you know what's happening to you, even when you know you're being manipulated but digital marketing, you still buy the product. 
  • Brian suggests the inception theory of jean jacket marketing (perhaps Phillip watched Stranger Things 2?).
  • Pricing elasticity on an individual basis as an untapped area of potential

Minority Report Policing in Dubai

  • Dubai International Airport plans a new face scanning virtual aquarium.
  • They are legitimately there to just track your face and scan you and make sure you're not a terrorist of some kind.
    A prediction: at some point facial scanning is going to drive advertising to you. 

Amazon's Inadvertent Market Contraction? 

  • Microsoft partners are getting lifts in azure deployments ever since Amazon acquired Whole Foods. It seems that retail is really shaken up about Amazon kind of owning the world. 
  • Keep an eye on it: Amazon needs large brands and enterprise partners to continue using AWS: a large exodus might cause business contraction. 
  • Something to keep an eye on: maybe the contraction in this space may have a negative effect overall on amazon's business because Amazon needs the large enterprise partners and brands to still use AWS. They can't all jump ship for Azure. 

Amazon's Athleisure Adventures

  • Amazon is in talks with two manufactures to create its own sportswear brand. 
  • Both Taiwanese companies already make clothing for the Gap, Uniqlo, Kohl's, Lululemon, Nike, and Under Armour. 
  • Brian predicts "make" will be more important than "brand." See episode 8 for reference.
  • Brian and Phillip meet Michael from Best Made Company, an upscale lifestyle clothing and gear company recently acquired by silicon valley startup, Bolt Threads to pilot a new type of spider silk. 
  • We no longer need a consumer marketing campaign for people to accept nylon or to buy more cotton (Phillip reminisces about "the touch, the feel of cotton.")
  • Shout out to Kniterate, and Bolt Threads, to potentially disrupting the textile industry. 

Apple's New Retail Stores: If It Works, Double Down

  • Apple's new Town Square store just opened in Chicago. 
  • Shocker: it's just a big giant Apple store.
  • Retail spaces are more than just about purchasing at this point: this is Starbucks 2.0. 
  • A new discovery: the Apple store and the play area at the mall are the exact same thing, we just don't call the play area a town hall. 
  • Mark it: Brian saliently wins Phillip over to his Apple optimism at 27:47: why wouldn't Apple invest in this more? Why not? Go ahead and make it bigger, make it nicer. 

Adobe and Banks Team up to "Reinvent" fintech

  • Adobe is working with banks to merge physical branches with digital experiences. 
  • Brian's having a hard time getting excited for Adobe teaming up with banks to merge physical branches with digital experiences. 
  • Adobe's "sensei" uses artificial intelligence to automatically reformat content on a bank's website to fit a screen inside the bank. 
  • It sounds a lot like they just used AI to build a responsive webpage. What's new? 
  • One interesting point: using a customer's geographic location to trigger a notification on a smartphone once they enter a branch: bank geofencing. 

Loyalty Programs and the FBI

  • REI and the FBI worked together to catch a suspected airport bomber by using an REI bag they found in the woods and tracing the purchase back to the loyalty card of the suspected bomber.  
  • We finally found a real use for loyalty programs in this country. 

Body Dataaaaa!

  • John Hancock partners with Apple to offer $25 Apple Watches. 
  • The catch: you have to exercise regularly for 2 years with it, or pay it all back. 
  • Insurance getting involved in body devices might herald a move to the gamification of healthcare. 
  • A move to "push" healthcare rather than "pull." Push customers to healthy living rather than wait for them to come to the doctor. 
  • Potential hazards: what if your provider has access to your purchase data? Do you really want them to see how often you ate at Taco Bell last month? 
  • Brian goes a "little bit future" and suggests free preventative care for every American to save the country a ton of money. 
  • Silicon Valley has the chance to make healthcare a game and transform its role. 
  • We have legitimate technology that can help save your life. 
  • In fact, it helped save James T. Green's life. 

Puerto Rico and Tesla Grid Update

  • Tesla is continuing to invest in Puerto Rico. 
  • can Tesla adopt their work on a larger scale? 
  • Is it smart for Puerto Rico to privatize their energy grid with Tesla's help?
  • Should we allow the privitization of a fundamental human need in 2017?
  • Tesla's and Google's work in Puerto Rico is a silver lining in an ongoing humanitarian crisis.

Cryptocurrency

The Hack Back Bill

  • A new bill introduced in the House of Representatives let's people hack back.
  • It's called the AC/DC act. Metal.
  • Legislation as a defense of people who have to do something technically illegal to stop viruses and malware, perhaps? 
  • An attempt of the the government to get a handle on new threats in a digital world.  

Snapchat Vandalized in AR

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