Commerce Outsights: Oct 15, 2024

Personalization powered by AI, the cautious approach to holiday ads, and Alaïa blending fashion with culinary flair.

Last week, I attended a couple of conferences, where I met loads of great people, sat in on insightful talks, and gave one of my own on using customer experience (CX) to drive growth. A recurring theme in many of my conversations was AI—there’s a lot of excitement, but also confusion about how to cut through the noise and find meaningful, practical applications across different business models.

So, it’s only fitting that this edition of Commerce Outsights is packed with AI insights. We’re exploring Puma’s new personalized shopping experiences, some cautious approaches to AI-powered holiday ads, and Kirsten Green's (yes, that Kirsten Green) perspective on how AI will change consumer brands. Last but not least, we dive into Alaïa’s latest project, blending fashion and food in their ‘La Table Alaïa’ series.

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.

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Simplifying Digital Product Passports for Independent Brands (7 mins). DPPs are making waves, but brands need to filter out over-ambitious promises and focus on what’s actually practical. Luke Hodgson’s series does an excellent job of breaking this down. His take on separating hype from realistic goals pairs well with our own take on how DPPs can enhance the customer experience by promoting transparency, circularity, and data-driven activations.

How to Come Up with More Winning Tests Using Data (9 mins). Occasionally, a handsome knight will come and give a name to a practice you had already espoused. The ResearchXL framework is very close to our strategy process at Nebulab, especially since it integrates both quantitative and qualitative research—something most brands are hesitant to do due to the inherent messiness of qualitative insights.

🔒 AI Can Jump-Start Consumer Brands, Investors and Founders Say (6 mins). We wrote about AI's growing influence on brands back in June, and Kirsten’s take aligns with our predictions. The question remains: can brands achieve hyper-personalization through AI while also maintaining a coherent identity, or do they risk losing their cultural impact in the process?

Puma Partners with Google Cloud and Meta for Personalized Product Images and XR Shopping (8 mins). Speaking of personalization, Puma’s collaboration with Google Cloud and Meta is setting a new standard. Their generative AI is enabling product images tailored to customers' regions. Hopefully, this is where Shopify Magic is headed—still lots of potential there.

Brands Are Cautious About Google and Meta's Generative AI Holiday Ad Push (6 mins). While major platforms like Google and Meta are pushing brands to use generative AI for holiday ads, many remain cautious about relinquishing full creative control. This might be the balance we discussed earlier—AI can enhance efficiency, but brands are wary of going all in. Will ad platforms force our hand eventually, or can we keep some creative autonomy?

Alaïa Revives the Art of Hosting with ‘La Table Alaïa’ Dialogue Series (6 mins). As luxury brands are looking for new ways to engage with customers, Alaïa’s new culinary project brings fashion, food, and hospitality together. This is reminiscent of SOTA's excellent research on Brand Universes (which is, unfortunately, no longer available, so you'll have to trust us).

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

SparkLayer. Shopify’s B2B capabilities are solid, but sometimes you need a bit more power. That’s where SparkLayer comes in. Some of our clients are using it and loving the flexibility it offers. Plus, since it integrates directly with Shopify, you get the best of both worlds: Shopify’s ecosystem combined with a powerful B2B workhorse. Check it out if you're looking for more from your B2B setup!

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 →

🤝 E-commerce partnerships are broken—and fixing them won't be easy. In the meantime, though, here's what we're doing about it.

✏️ As we all shuffle to prepare for BFCM, Michela took some time to break down some top UX strategies you can implement to boost performance this season.

🩲 We recently migrated MeUndies onto Shopify, and got a shoutout from the Harley Finkelstein himself.

🇮🇹 Find us in Milan on October 23 for I partner delle aziende Ecommerce, and on October 30 for Forum Retail.

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! 👋