Commerce Outsights: July 17, 2024

Brand marketing is not enough; we need more data, then we need to use it; and the latest on Web3, social commerce, and footwear.

This week’s issue is a couple of days late—a delay which, as always, is entirely on me.

In my defense, though, the European Summer Slumber is a very real thing, and the scorchingly hot days have been packed with a lot of necessary and interesting work. You’ve been seeing some of it already, such as the launch of our brand-new E-Commerce Strategy practice just a few days ago, although there’s much more to come.

But let’s cut to the chase. Today’s edition of Commerce Outsights is about many things. It’s about brand, and how our new focus on brand marketing can blind us, if we’re not careful. It’s about data, and all the ways in which we’re using it and all the ways in which we’re not. And it’s about innovation, with all the latest from the realms of Web3, social commerce, and footwear.

Hope you enjoy it!

Does your brand need help with strategy, design or development?

For over a decade, we’ve been shaping, launching, and scaling shopping experiences for category disruptors such as Cometeer, Framework, and Huckberry. No matter where you’re going, we can help you get there.

Book your consultation →

🔒 “Brand” alone won’t save brands (7 mins). They said 2024 would be the year of the brand, but “brand” is much more than shiny campaigns and hot celebrity partnerships. Brands must (re-)discover and double down on their raison d'être—and nine times out of ten, that’s product innovation (as Nike found out). All of this to say: if you’re Liquid Death, you can afford to go all-in on brand. Everyone else, do yourself a favor and play nice with Maslow.

How Tapestry convinces suppliers to share their data (6 mins). In the past months, we’ve talked often about how brands can leverage consumer and regulatory expectations around supply chain transparency to create new touchpoints and engagement opportunities. However, we have never stopped to consider what it takes to meet those expectations in the first place, and to do it across your entire supply chain. Now’s the chance.

🔒 Tracking has reshaped the wellness industry. Are beauty brands next? (5 mins). For all we talk of data in this industry, there are still a lot of opportunities to make our customers’ lives easier and drive brand engagement. In beauty, we might need new technology before we can do a better job. In other segments, we just need to become bolder in collecting and activating data—it’s either that or watching consumers take the matter into their own hands.

Web3: A new era for social commerce (5 mins). I strongly believe that an anonymous, decentralized identity system would be a major step forward for the advertising industry, and it would more than make up for the signal loss we’ve experienced in the last few years. But for the plan to work, a lot of tech giants will have to come together and put their data in the open, which seems… unlikely. Perhaps a regulatory push is what we need?

Social media apps tap Click-and-Mortar™ pop-ups to boost commerce (3 mins). In a fascinating twist, social media apps are taking to the streets and creating pop-up stores with everyone’s favorite brands. This reminded me of now-defunct Neighborhood Goods, which was a pretty cool concept while it lasted, and it made me think… A permanent, real-life TikTok Shop would be the ultimate media x commerce play.

Shoe-printing company Zellerfeld “declares war [on] footwear industry” (3 mins). Zellerfeld, a company best known for 3D-printing luxury sneakers for Moncler and Louis Vuitton, woke up and chose violence. Through their DTC experience, you can not only get shoes that are made for your feet and no one else’s, but also submit custom designs and earn royalties. Bold, disruptive, and a very long shot. Godspeed.

We don’t accept sponsorships for this newsletter. All product recommendations come from our consulting team.

Instant. Instant is one of those products that pick one problem and solve it exceptionally well. If you’re frustrated by the lack of creative control over your Shopify theme or want to make more changes, faster, it’s worth a try.

Does your brand need help with strategy, design or development?

For over a decade, we’ve been shaping, launching, and scaling shopping experiences for category disruptors such as Cometeer, Framework, and Huckberry. No matter where you’re going, we can help you get there.

Book your consultation →

🎯 If you need help designing, shaping, and executing a data-informed digital roadmap for your brand, our new E-Commerce Strategy service is for you.

🛒 In our latest blog post, we unpack the Shopify Summer '24 Edition and dissect what the latest announcements mean for the Shopify ecosystem.

📺 Did you know we're on YouTube?! In our new video, Nick talks about all the different ways to customize your Shopify store.

That’s it for today!

If you’ve come across any interesting articles, podcasts, or products we should check out, you can email us at [email protected].

See you in two weeks! 👋