Future Commerce

Recording LIVE from the show floor of Shoptalk Spring 2026, the Future Commerce team brings our hottest takes and deepest insights from this year’s event. PLUS: We celebrated the launch of our newest zine, STRATA Vol. 001, with over 150 of our favorite people (including Snoop Dogg?). Get your copy at futurecommerce.com/strata.  Our Week In the STRATAsphere Key takeaways: AI was the headline theme, but the humanity angle landed harder with attendees. In-booth content creation has become the industry standard; Future Commerce pioneered it in 2017. FedEx's Jason Brenner reframed logistics as a brand trust moment, not just a last mile. Victoria's Secret CEO Hillary Super showed what vision-led turnarounds actually look like. Curious people will always find leverage. AI just multiplies what they were already doing. “Maybe by this time next year, we will see OpenClaw-specific agencies on the show floor.” – Phillip  "If you're inherently curious and someone who likes to problem solve...AI is gonna help you, totally, without a doubt." – Alicia In-Show Mentions: Get STRATA FedEx: Same-Day Local Subscribe to catch our full recap on Insiders Associated Links: See more post-show coverage in The Senses Check out Future Commerce on YouTube Check out Future Commerce Plus 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! Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Armand Wilson, Chief Revenue Officer at Whatnot and live commerce growth leader, talks about how Whatnot grew from Funko Pop roots into a massive live-selling marketplace. He explores community-driven livestreams, how live shopping rebuilds in-person storytelling and trust, why beauty and Gen Z accelerated adoption, and how live commerce is revitalizing local sellers and new categories.

Zia Daniell Wigder, Global President of Shoptalk and Groceryshop, joins Brian and Alicia to mark Shoptalk's 10th anniversary and unpack the themes defining the spring show in Las Vegas. (Hint: AI isn't the headline, it's the backdrop.) A week before one of retail’s biggest, most beloved shows, Zia maps the tensions, the conversations, and the hot topics shaping the next era of retail events.  The More We Automate, the More We Meet Key Takeaways: AI is the backdrop to retail in 2026, but it’s not the whole story As AI scales, in-person human connection becomes more valuable, not less Shoptalk curates its agenda top-down, then finds the speakers to match; it’s about bringing buzz brands, heritage retailers, and influential platforms together In the US, social commerce is still in its early days, which means it’s still incredibly underestimated; brand leaders will share their lessons and best practices on stage during tactical workshops for the first time Creator-brand relationships work better when brands let go of the brief Key Quotes: [00:05:00] "In-person human connections are even more important today than they have been in the past,  because we have all of this operational efficiency, all of this streamlining and optimization happening in the background in some cases, taking away some of the interactions we might've had before." — Zia Daniell Wigder [00:11:52] "You've got the huge champions that say yes, [AI] is going to change everything about the world of product discovery as we know it. And then you've got the other side saying, this is way over-hyped." — Zia Daniell Wigder [00:23:01] "Brands aren't necessarily asking about [social commerce] per se, but it almost feels like they should be." — Zia Daniell Wigder [00:24:04] "Brands are still having briefs shoved at [creators] and telling them what they should be doing, as opposed to working with them in a more collaborative way." — Zia Daniell Wigder In-Show Mentions: Shoptalk Spring 2026 – March, Las Vegas POSSIBLE – April, Miami Groceryshop – September, Las Vegas Manifest – February 2027, Las Vegas Associated Links: Visit Future Commerce’s Shoptalk hub to see what’s happening during the show Apply to attend our After Dark celebration of STRATA Vol. 001, our newest zine Check out Future Commerce on YouTube Check out Future Commerce Plus 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! Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

As ChatGPT pulls back on native in-app checkout, malls becomemainstream again. Is agentic commerce ready for primetime, or are consumers seeking more analog experiences? PLUS: Dick's Sporting Goods' loyalty loop that turns steps into spending power, and a dystopian new platform that rents out humans for AI agents that can't operate in the physical world. Everything old is new again. Granny’s Favorite Store Goes to TikTok Shop Key takeaways: ChatGPT is stepping back from native in-app checkout, but the commerce protocol it built with Stripe lives on 77% of shoppers prefer clicking through to a website over buying directly via AI The mall remains a societal favorite third space, even as stores become shoppable content studios (just ask John Lewis) Dick's Sporting Goods' movement-linked rewards program is quietly building one of retail's stickiest loyalty ecosystems, making it a viable competitor to AI apps "Rent-a-Human" platforms signal a strange new frontier: AI agents outsourcing tasks to people in “meatspace” In-Show Mentions: How 2,000 consumers used AI to shop Gen Z Is Going to the Mall Again — WSJ Rent-a-Human Join us at Shoptalk Spring 2026! Associated Links: Check out Future Commerce on YouTube Check out Future Commerce Plus 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! Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Phillip and Brian get deep on a week when everything felt a little unhinged: Shopify's AI sidekick started building custom apps, Iran allegedly took out AWS data centers mid-Claude-outage, and the McDonald's CEO went mega-viral just days after Phillip prophesied it. Underneath the chaos, a throughline emerges: the things we've used to measure value (view counts, credit card rewards, third-party apps, and AI contracts) are quietly expiring. Culture is first. Then comes commerce. This SKU Is Delicious Key takeaways: Shopify Sidekick can now build one-off apps on demand, raising real questions about the future of third-party SaaS. AI geopolitics is here: data centers are now strategic infrastructure, and the "human in the loop" question has military stakes. Meta's move to invoicing ends years of free credit card rewards for brands running paid social,  — and that party's been winding down anyway. MrBeast's long-form view counts are down 50% YoY, even with heavy paid promotion; the algorithm has shifted to interest-based, not subscriber-based. Media buyers optimizing for CPMs are chasing non-real traffic. — Rrecovering a sense of propriety is the only way back. In-Show Mentions: How MrBeast Dominated 2025 Using Advertising Phillip’s Big Arch burger virality prediction Get on the list for the Future Commerce x Shoptalk After Party Associated Links: Check out Future Commerce on YouTube Check out Future Commerce Plus 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! Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Live from a conference poolside, they recap AI moving from theory to real, agentic platforms doing operational work, and tools that replace repetitive human tasks. They highlight the need for full data context, the rise of CRM and go-to-market tooling, and how consolidation of data and workflows becomes a competitive advantage.

Jonathan Cohen, CMO of Onyx Global Group (Pure Daily Care & Aquasonic), joins Phillip and Alicia to trace the arc from Amazon-first launches to TikTok Shop dominance. This week, we unpack the unmeasurable and explore what it actually means to cede your marketing playbook to a creator economy that doesn't need your permission. Control Is Overrated, Anyway Key Takeaways Creators are the new CMOs. Brands don't cascade strategy; creators build their own. Amazon reviews are still currency. Early investment in social proof compounds over the years. Sampling is a long game. Expect results two to three months out, not just the week of Black Friday. TikTok Live provides free focus groups. Real-time customer feedback can greenlight a new product line and unlock new growth opportunities. You can't dashboard everything. The brands with staying power are building habits, not just conversions. "The creators are our mini CMOs. They build their own marketing plans, their own talking points, their own strategies to sell our products." — Jonathan Cohen [00:22:08] "We have cut checks for tens of thousands of dollars to creators we've never spoken to before." — Jonathan Cohen [00:22:07] "If you brush your teeth, you're an Aquasonic potential customer." — Jonathan Cohen [00:45:28] "You're building habits. And there's no better investment in brand than that — because those habits stick with them a lot longer than the ad dollar you spent to get them there." — Phillip Jackson [00:47:50] Associated Links: Check out Future Commerce on YouTube Check out Future Commerce Plus 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! Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

In just one year, Daily Harvest was acquired by Chobani, dropped its subscription requirement, and launched a campaign calling out the wellness hype machine. CEO Ricky Silver joins us to talk about the facts in an industry dominated by fiction. Selling Food, Not Fiction Key takeaways: The wellness hype machine is exhausting consumers. Daily Harvest's "Eat Food, Not Fiction" is its counter-punch. Subscription was a business convenience, not a consumer demand, and removing the gate unlocked growth. Consumer sovereignty and business autonomy are in tension with one another. The brands that resolve it will win. LLMs are the new discovery layer. Brands must build authoritative, trusted ecosystems to surface in AI answers. Fixing the food system requires collectivism, even with rivals. "Some of our best consumers were the ones who engaged with the skipping function. Active management meant they were finding the right cadence for them." — Ricky Silver "Connection is a motive. It is not tech-driven — even if technology is the thing bringing us together." — Ricky Silver Associated Links: Learn more about Daily Harvest Catch up on Future Commerce’s 2026 predictions Check out Future Commerce on YouTube Check out Future Commerce Plus 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! Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Most Super Bowl ads failed before they aired. Dr. Marcus Collins explains why. We break down the Super Bowl as a cultural spectacle: the ads, the Bad Bunny halftime show, and the Levi's strategy that no one is talking about.Key takeaways:Why Marcus felt bad for every marketer who ran a Super Bowl ad this yearThe Lay's ad was beautiful. Marcus saw a father handing his daughter a lifetime of debt.How Levi's turned a 30-second spot, a stadium, a popup, and a halftime show into one integrated play"This is not a 32-second ad. This is a constellation of nodes that together tell the story only Levi's could."What Anthropic understood about the group chat that OpenAI and Google missedBad Bunny performed for 120 million viewers at home, not the 70,000 in the stadium, and that was the pointAssociated Links:Catch our Super Bowl ad analysis in our Things We're Overthinking newsletter.Follow From the Culture, hosted by Dr. Marcus Collins and Amanda SlavinBuy For the Culture on AmazonCheck out Future Commerce on YouTubeCheck out Future Commerce Plus for exclusive content and save on merch and printSubscribe to Insiders and The Senses to read more about what we are witnessing in the commerce worldListen to our other episodes of Future CommerceHave 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! Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

LIVE from Manifest 2026: Shipium CEO Jason Murray reveals why AI transformation isn't about making old processes faster but fundamentally rethinking workflows. From turning three-day analytics tasks into minutes with Orca to exploring adjacent areas such as auditing and consulting, Phillip, Brian, and Jason unpack how domain-specific AI creates competitive moats in an era when traditional advantages are dissolving.Some Kid In His Dorm Room Is Coming For Your CompanyKey takeaways:AI works when you rethink workflows, not optimize existing onesDomain-specific AI beats general LLMs through context and reduced hallucinationsSpeed of experimentation matters more than prediction accuracy aloneAdjacent spaces, like auditing, are now accessible through AI-powered digital twinsTraditional moats are dissolving; data and ecosystem relationships become keyIn-Show Mentions:Learn more about ShipiumLearn more about ManifestAssociated Links:Check out Future Commerce on YouTubeCheck out Future Commerce Plus for exclusive content and save on merch and printSubscribe to Insiders and The Senses to read more about what we are witnessing in the commerce worldListen to our other episodes of Future CommerceHave 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! Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.