Future Commerce Podcast: eCommerce, DTC and Retail Strategy

"Instagrammable Moments" Live @ NRF 2019

Future Commerce Podcast: eCommerce, DTC and Retail Strategy

Products that are sharable are all the rage - in part 1 of our recap of NRF we come to you live from the show floor and talk about how retailers are using customer engagement to shape how their product assortment and marketing are crafted. Listen now!

Main Takeaways:

  • Walmart is stepping up its technology game in a serious way.

  • 2018 really was the year of open source, and sneakers, and content.

  • Content continues to be king of community creation, and retailers are finally picking up the mantle.

  • Behind-the-scenes ingredient brands are going mainstream

  • A 2019 Future Commerce prediction episode is coming up: What will Philip and Brian forecast?

Walmart Is Making Moves: Can They Beat Out Amazon?

Commerce 2040: Looking Ahead to Retail's Future:

Practical AR Was Big at NRF: Next Step is Running in Virtual Shoes?

  • Practical AR was everywhere at NRF: With Augmented Reality being able to help consumers and retailers in everyday-life.

  • Unity3D had a really cool sneaker demo that was nearly photo-realistic.

  • Even Amazon has been pushing their AR functionality (though not at NRF because they didn't show up in any real way)..

  • Phillip describes the shoe demo: The shoe that they used was a Nike VaporMax which has a translucent sole, and with the exact environmental lighting combined with Nike's level of accuracy with 3D models, this "sneaker" was next-level-authentic.

  • Phillip and Brian predict that real-time models of this level becoming the norm is pretty much only two years away.

Show vs. Tell: User Generated Content is King in 2019:

Shareable Moments For The Win (Can You Even Instagram?) :

Amazon is Trying to Stay Relevant: RIP Sears:

Europeans May Understand Experiential Retail Better: Can U.S Consumers Adapt?

  • Phillip hosts a panel with two companies with well-known customer experience, Ritual Cosmetics, and Sheetz Inc.

  • Phillip observes that European retailers understand the idea of "experiential retail," and European customers may expect that level of service.

  • Sheetz, a gas-station convenience store brand has built their entire brand identity on delivering the best experience for their customers, and they can do so because they know their customers so well to begin with.

  • Somehow everything always comes back to Amazon.

Collaboration is Cool: Ingredient Brands Built Finally Gain Customer Awareness:

  • Phillip and Brian both want to see a Starbucks-Toms collaboration.

  • Ingredient brands, which once were pretty behind-the-scenes, are going mainstream.

  • Ingredient brands are brands that go into other brands products and aren't marketed directly to consumers, but they are brands that consumers already trust.

  • Phillip thought ingredient brands referred to companies like McCormick: Which actually makes a lot of literal sense.

  • Should McCormick have an ingredient food truck?

  • Consumers are now actually looking for these ingredient brands, as opposed to just trusting their efficacy, with retailers like Woolrich becoming a lot more ingredient brand focused.

Phillip and Brian Preview Prediction Episode 2019:

  • Brian says 2019 is going to be all about using data to make informed decisions about products, this can refer to using past data to re-invent and re-brand (like Story does every season)

  • Somehow this entire episode is about shoes.

  • Phillip's 2019 prediction is that 2019 will be the "year of the customer," and more specifically the year of guided commerce, giving customers the ability to have the retail experience that they want.

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.

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