Commerce Outsights: June 17, 2024

The new opportunities for customer engagement.

You will notice that today’s isue is a bit longer than usual—almost twice as long, if my word count thingie is not betraying me.

For the most part, I attribute this to the fact that we’ve just had more time to stay on top of things. With Pulse and Shoptalk behind us, we’re all back to our usual work schedule, which is good news for our content marketing (though not as good for our undying wanderlust).

But to be fair, we also feel like there's more going on lately. More announcements, more commentary on those announcements, and more speculation about current trends and where they're headed.

This week's edition is, by and large, about the new opportunities for customer engagement—not the cost-center kind, but the revenue-generating kind. 1:1 merchandising, Digital Product Passports, zero-party data, collabs, and everything else brands do to earn our love in the post-arbitrage era.

Enjoy.

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 →

🔒 Why Fashion’s Curation Problem Is so Hard to Solve (6 mins). At Shoptalk, every other vendor I've spoken to offered a merchandising solution, and most of these leveraged AI in some form. At the same time, we're witnessing the birth of an entire ecosystem around editorial tastemaking. It really feels like there should be a middle ground, but we haven’t found it yet.

Consumer Relationships Aren't Built on Financial Incentives (5 mins). In the past, we have written both about collecting and activating zero-party data, reaching very similar conclusions: a robust data strategy starts with a crystal-clear understanding of how to collect the data you need, how to minimize the cost of collection, and how data activation will impact your bottom line.

🔒 What Makes a Brand Magical? (10 mins). Business of Fashion has its own framework for evaluating brand strength, and it kinda reminds me of the Brand Power Score designed by Forerunner Ventures. An interesting tool, especially as you start coupling it with the concept of a Brand Universe.

What the End of the Web Means for Digital Commerce (5 mins). A thoughtful take by Kelly Goetsch, Chief Strategy Officer at commercetools, on how the advent of genAI will change the way we shop online. I agree: digital commerce as a standalone experience is collapsing on itself, which will reshape how brands show up and how consumers think about them.

Consumers want more from digital product passports (5 mins). In “Apology of the regulator,” I argued that brands should treat Digital Product Passports as a CX opportunity, not a regulatory burden. It looks like consumers agree. DPPs are the formal embodiment of an informal cultural shift. The best brands will ride the wave rather than just stay afloat.

Rimowa Gets Connected... But Leaves All Upside on the Table (5 mins). Speaking of DPPs, Aleksija is one of the most creative minds in our industry when it comes to imagining their potential applications. In her latest piece, she riffs off Rimowa's announcement that their products will embed an NFC-powered DPP, and she envisions a more connected, more engaging Rimowa.

🔒 Luxury E-Commerce: Who’s Surviving and Why (7 mins). In a depressed luxury landscape, a few winners stand out—and according to them, it’s because of their superior product curation and customer retention strategy. However, keep in mind that (1) luxury is a strange beast, not at all generalizable; (2) the world’s much more random and complicated than we’d like to believe.

Golden Goose Boosts Europe IPOs in $600 Million Shoe Listing (2 mins). Also worth reading: this interview with Silvio Campara, CEO at Golden Goose. It’s the story of a brand that focuses on cultural impact and authenticity—and in doing so, is achieving near-universal fame.

Shopify’s Shop App Is a Maybe $1 Billion Marketplace (2 mins). Shopify’s leadership has repeatedly stated that Shopify has no interest in creating a marketplace. And yet, Shop is becoming suspiciously similar to one—due in part to initiatives such as Shop Cash and Shop Campaigns. If nothing else, I’d say Shopify is at least flirting with the idea.

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

Swap. Swap promises to manage and improve every aspect of your fulfillment operations: shipping, returns, circularity, internationalization, and more. I've had the chance to chat with their team at Shoptalk, and they are used by one of my favorite brands ever, Joseph Joseph. Check them out.

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 →

🍷 We’re stoked to announce our latest client, Tannico—a Moët Hennessy (LVMH)-Campari joint venture!

♻️ Doing subscriptions? Don't miss Michela's latest article on how to optimize your subscription UX for conversion!

🍼 If you're a CPG brand, you should check out Gatorade's new loyalty program, Gatorade iD. It's pretty good.

🔍 What does our discovery process look like? Careful, but bold.

🤖 The latest issue of The Thought is about AI. More specifically, it’s about AI’s potential long-term impact on retail and e-commerce brands.

That’s it for today!

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

See you in two weeks! 👋