Commerce Outsights
January 6, 2025
The biggest tech lessons of 2024, Bottega’s offline success, and the future of live shopping.
Hello, and welcome to Commerce Outsights—Nebulab’s bi-weekly roundup of the top reads, listens, and tools from the retail, e-commerce, and DTC space.
Happy New Year! In the first Commerce Outsights of 2025, we’re reviewing the biggest tech lessons of 2024, examining how brands are navigating online presence without social media, exploring the evolving landscape of crypto payments in luxury retail, diving into insights about AI-generated advertising, and analyzing the future of live shopping in the US.
Let's get into 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.
Thought provokers
🔒 2024's big tech lessons and surprises (5 mins) As we close out 2024, the year has delivered crucial insights about the fashion-tech landscape. While AI dominated headlines with both practical applications and experimental uses, the e-commerce sector saw major consolidation with Saks Global’s formation and Mytheresa’s acquisition of YNAP. The metaverse and Web3 story evolved from hype to practicality, with digital product passports (DPPs) emerging as a tangible use case. Meanwhile, smart glasses and mixed reality headsets from Meta, Apple, and others presented new opportunities for luxury brands, though consumer adoption remains measured.
How to be chronically online, while being offline (3 mins) Bottega Veneta offers a masterclass in modern brand presence, maintaining cultural relevance without any owned social media accounts. The luxury brand has consistently ranked in the top 5 Hottest Brands while letting its creative expression and strategic cultural partnerships do the talking. From photo series with A$AP Rocky to fanzines and carefully curated fashion shows, Bottega demonstrates how brands can protest the “near-futile battle to earn attention” by channeling resources into meaningful offline activations that naturally generate buzz.
🔒 Content is king, but distribution is the kingdom (6 mins) A telling examination of brand content operations reveals that while the content marketing industry approaches $600 billion, 48% of brands still outsource their storytelling to third parties. This paradox highlights a critical challenge: as Gen-Z demands authentic, community-focused content, brands must evolve from the traditional “speed and volume” playbook to embrace a “publish model” that prioritizes in-house creative teams and direct audience relationships.
Goings on
NIQ research uncovers hidden consumer attitudes toward AI-generated ads (3 mins) Groundbreaking research from NIQ uncovers concerning insights about AI-generated advertisements. Consumers can intuitively identify AI-created content, perceiving it as less engaging and more “annoying” than traditional ads. Even high-quality AI-generated ads elicit weaker memory activation, suggesting a fundamental misalignment between AI-created content and human cognitive processing. The findings serve as a critical warning for brands rushing to embrace generative AI in their creative processes.
The case for and against live shopping in the U.S. (6 mins) As TikTok Shop aims for $17.5 billion in U.S. gross merchandise sales this year, the live shopping landscape faces both promising opportunities and significant challenges. While success stories like Beachwaver's 1.1 million unit sales demonstrate the format's potential, TikTok's uncertain regulatory future and the high costs of consistent livestream production pose serious barriers to entry.
🔒 As Bitcoin soars, luxury brands consider accepting crypto payments (4 mins) With Bitcoin reaching new highs, luxury brands are reconsidering cryptocurrency as a payment option. Printemps, partnering with Binance, becomes Europe’s first department store to accept crypto payments, while established players like Gucci and Balenciaga expand their crypto initiatives. Though largely symbolic, these moves reflect luxury retail’s ongoing efforts to capture new wealth and project innovation, even as they maintain cautious approaches to implementation.
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.
In other news...
☕️ Brewing innovation for Cometeer. We helped Cometeer revamp their digital experience with smart algorithms for personalized coffee recommendations and a seamless subscription management system.
🛍️ Shopify takes a breather with The Boring Edition. The Winter '25 Edition focuses on improving existing features rather than adding new ones—a strategic move that’s anything but boring for enterprise clients.
🎨 Optimizing product variants on the PDP. Michela from our design team shares practical tips for improving PDP variant displays, from mobile-friendly swatches to smart implementation of hover previews.
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! 👋