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Future Commerce

Future Commerce

Written by: Phillip Jackson Brian Lange
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About this listen
 Future Commerce is the culture magazine for Commerce. Hosts Phillip Jackson and Brian Lange help brand and digital marketing leaders see around the next corner by exploring the intersection of Culture and Commerce. Trusted by the world's most recognizable brands to deliver the most insightful, entertaining, and informative weekly podcasts, Future Commerce is the leading new media brand for eCommerce merchants and retail operators. Each week, we explore the cultural implications of what it means to sell or buy products and how commerce and media impact the culture and the world around us, through unique insights and engaging interviews with a dash of futurism. Weekly essays, full transcripts, and quarterly market research reports are available at https://www.futurecommerce.com/plus©2026 Future Commerce Economics Leadership Management & Leadership Marketing Marketing & Sales Philosophy Social Sciences
Episodes
  • How to Grow an eCommerce Business When the Math Doesn’t Math

    How to Grow an eCommerce Business When the Math Doesn’t Math
    Nov 6 2026
    Selling online has never been more expensive. Cheap channels are saturated, factory and freight costs have climbed, and ad platforms keep getting better at extracting margin from brands. For a lean DTC brand in 2026, the old math simply doesn’t math.Ecommerce economics are broken. Dave Stickland, Co-Founder and President of Popsmith, joins Phillip and Brian to share how he rebuilt Popsmith’s marketing from the garage up. Dave explains how agentic AI tools take his ad creative from concept to live in 24 hours, why AI slop is a skill issue, and why the next generation of agencies and creative strategists will be paid for vision, not execution.Chasing A Frontierless FutureKey takeaways:There’s no more frontier for DTC brands. A decade ago, subsidized Amazon fees, direct access to overseas factories, and cheap paid social made healthy margins easy. Now factories sell against brands on Amazon, factory wages have doubled, freight costs have soared since COVID, and Meta keeps getting better at extracting ad spend.Contribution margin pays for everything below the line, including agencies, freelancers, and new hires. When that margin disappears, so does the budget to grow.AI creative is still not fully autonomous, but only works with scaffolding: product renders, brand context, and a clear process.It’s time for brands to extract new value from the creative library they’ve already paid for.Agencies will be paid to advise and build SOPs, not to execute inside the software.“You either own the software or the software will own what you do.” — Dave Stickland“What AI will never be is relational.” — Dave Stickland“The data set itself is what you are paying for, not the tool.” — Dave SticklandIn-Show Mentions:Dave on X: The Math Doesn’t MathShop the popcorn popper at popsmith.comRunneth by MotionJamey Gannon’s The AI Creative Director courseFuture Commerce’s LOREGet tickets to VISIONS Summit, February 10, 2027 at MoMAAssociated Links:The Growth v. Profitability Cage Match (Infinite Shelf)DTC Theory and The Innovator’s Dilemma (Ep. 253)[DECODED] The Power of AI-Enabled AmbitionFrom Plastic to Patek: What AI and Watchmaking Have in CommonThe End of Outside: How to Future-Proof Your Career Against the AI ApocalypseOur Post-Funnel Future: Brand Ethos is the New Competitive MoatThe Final Boss of Popcorn Buckets (The Senses)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.
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    54 mins
  • Shopify Exec Reveals the Future of Post-Anonymous Retail

    Shopify Exec Reveals the Future of Post-Anonymous Retail
    Nov 11 2026
    Shopify merchants set a record $14.6 billion over BFCM last year. But as discovery moves into AI and the season stretches longer, the store’s job is changing from closing a sale to starting a relationship.Ellen Linardi, VP of Product at Shopify, is obsessed with fixing in-store workflows and dreams of a world where items left in a shopper’s online cart are ready when the customer arrives in-store. We unpack how in-person purchases are both the most personal and the most anonymous transactions in retail, how POS workflows free merchants to focus on curation, and why 2027 should be the year businesses uplevel experiential commerce.When the Online Cart Follows You In-StoreKey takeaways:The customer relationship often starts online, and deepens in-store. Shopify is focusing on closing that gap.Retail-first merchants still need to be findable through AI search. That’s where awareness and discovery happen now, before consumers leave home.While the holidays are for new business acquisition, brands should treat every sale as a relationship moment: identified customers spend significantly more.Workflow is everything, and optimization differs from store to store. Customize POS to how each location actually sells.“A customer list is only as good as what you do with it afterward.” — Ellen Linardi“Buyers are not forgiving with wasted time. And time in store is not wasted time, [unless] you’re waiting.” — Ellen Linardi“I like to think of [small businesses] as people with consumer resources but enterprise problems.” — Ellen Linardi“An in-person transaction is the most anonymous transaction we have, and yet it is the most personal.” — Brian LangeIn-Show Mentions:Learn more about Shopify’s latest retail and POS updates at Shopify EditionsExplore Shopify POS and Smart GridConnect with Ellen Linardi on LinkedInFuture Commerce’s BFCM 2025: We Give Thanks for Couch CommerceFuture Commerce’s OMNIMODAL researchFuture Commerce’s The Concierge Economy guideFuture Commerce’s celebrity brands Signal Report with MercivGet tickets to VISIONS Summit, February 10, 2027 at MoMAAssociated Links:Memorable Over Measurable: Retail’s Lost Wonders (Ep. 482)Separating Real Signals from the Noise (Ep. 480)Member Brief: Return on Experience and the New KPIs of Store Design (Insiders)Field Notes: How Physical Retail’s Most Compelling Stores Activate the Senses (Insiders)The Good Friction Opportunity (Insiders)The Doorbusters Are Back (And So Are the 5 am Lines) (The Senses)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.
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    38 mins
  • Your Front Yard Is Home Depot’s Homepage: Inside Skelly’s Legacy and Halloween Creep

    Your Front Yard Is Home Depot’s Homepage: Inside Skelly’s Legacy and Halloween Creep
    Oct 14 2026
    Aubrey Horowitz, Merchant of Decorative Holiday at The Home Depot, is on the show to talk about the viral skeleton that set the Halloween decor bar 12 feet high. Aubrey shares a behind-the-curtain look at how Home Depot designs its seasonal assortment for America’s front lawns, shaped by a vocal community of haunters who shop earlier and earlier each year. Plus, we walk through Skelly’s ground-up development with suppliers, the future of app-controlled animatronics, the moving target of nostalgia (the ’90s are vintage now, but won’t be for long), and why the best feedback loop in retail is a customer base that never stops posting.Icons Like Skelly Market ThemselvesKey takeaways:Halloween enthusiasts finish planning by August, pulling seasonal demand into summer.Haunting is a mindset more shoppers are embracing. Home Depot is meeting growing demand by building collections year over year based on public feedback.Nostalgia never goes out of style, but which era defines the trend keeps shifting. Skelly brought haunted-house-scale giants to retail and turned yard decor into a creative medium.“You can all shop at the same retailer, and then come out with a completely unique and completely different haunted yard scene.” — Aubrey Horowitz“How do I deliver a product that you may not know that you want yet, while also delivering the thing that you’re asking for?” — Aubrey Horowitz“In many ways the front yard is like the homepage of people’s lives.” — Brian Lange“We just had no idea that [Skelly] would take off and that people would wanna dress him up for all the holidays and leave him up year round.” — Aubrey HorowitzIn-Show Mentions:Skelly, The Home Depot’s 12-foot skeletonAssociated Links:Insiders 210: Spooky Commerce: What Halloween Shopping Trends Tell Us About Modern CultureConsumers are Overindulging on Halloween. Disney is Meeting the Moment.The Senses: Aug-tober is HereInsiders 239: The “Quiet Season” Fallacy: Why Waiting for Black Friday is Destroying Your Retail BusinessField Notes: Holiday Edition: Spirit ChristmasInsiders 040: Nostalgia as a Security BlanketEpisode 426: The 13th Month of RevenueEpisode 312: Barbenheimer: Nostalgia, Retail, Recall, and RelevanceJoin us at VISIONS Summit, November 3 at MoMACheck out Future Commerce on YouTubeCheck out Future Commerce+ 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.
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    29 mins
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