Episodes

  • *TEASER* You Can See Everything, If You Speak Fielder

    *TEASER* You Can See Everything, If You Speak Fielder
    Oct 23 2026

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    3 mins
  • Deloitte Predicts A $1.7 Trillion Holiday Season

    Deloitte Predicts A $1.7 Trillion Holiday Season
    Oct 21 2026
    Stretched wallets are still spending. Deloitte projects up to 4.8% growth in holiday spending this year, driven mostly by price of goods rather than volume of sales. Shoppers say they feel stretched, yet they keep spending. Brian McCarthy, a principal in Deloitte’s strategy and analytics practice, joins Phillip and Alicia to forecast this year’s holiday spending. Brian explains why behavior outweighs sentiment, how AI shopping agents are changing the way people find products, and why physical stores still bring in most of the new holiday dollars.The Store StaysKey takeaways:Deloitte projects 4% to 4.8% holiday growth, driven mostly by price rather than volume.Behavior beats sentiment: anxious shoppers still spend, just more strategically.Value-seeking is a lasting change: shoppers now weigh durability, quality and private label.To show up in AI shopping agents’ picks, brands need detailed, well-structured product data.Digital sales are growing, but in-store sales still bring in most new holiday dollars. “Behavior holds stronger than sentiment when it comes to holiday.” — Brian McCarthy“We’re seeing that sentiment shift not towards spending less, but towards spending more strategically, more thoughtfully, more intelligently.” — Brian McCarthy“We hear ‘value’ and we immediately think cost savings. But… that’s not always the case.” — Alicia Esposito“From tradition, nostalgia – holiday spending is still dominantly in store.” — Brian McCarthyIn-Show Mentions:Just released: Deloitte’s 2026 Holiday Retail SurveyCheck out Deloitte’s first Halloween studyReview Deloitte’s 2026 Back-to-School SurveyAssociated Links:The 2025 Holiday Reality Check (Ep. 429, with Deloitte)The BFCM Sprint: Last-Minute Tips and Tactics from DeloitteSeparating Real Signals from the Noise (Ep. 480)BFCM 2025: We Give Thanks for Couch CommerceAgentic Commerce and the eCommerce Site’s New Existential CrisisThe Concierge Economy: Understanding AI's True Role in the Shopping ExperienceThe Alpha Effect: How Gen Alpha is Redefining Back-to-School SpendingMember Brief: Return on Experience and the New KPIs of Store DesignCheck 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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    23 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
  • Separating Real Signals from the Noise

    Separating Real Signals from the Noise
    Sep 16 2026
    The in-house research team has hollowed out, and the LLMs picking up the slack are only delivering their best guesses. Merciv, the agentic brain behind Future Commerce’s Signal Reports, has set out to deliver auditable, defensible, and unified reporting solutions — and it’s redefining what brands are capable of achieving in-house in the process. Phillip and Alicia welcome Merciv co-founder and CEO Shaia Erlbaum to the show to talk about how brands can read signals in real time, and verify their relevancy. Shaia argues that data itself is commoditizing, but verification is not. The most honest consumer signal lives too deep for surveys to reach, which is why our Signal Reports are looking deeper than stated behaviors and are telling completely new kinds of retail and culture stories.The Toothpaste Doesn't Lie Key takeaways:Insights teams keep shrinking while the C-suite depends on them more than ever.Surveys capture posturing. Forums, reviews, and comment sections capture behavior.Data is commoditizing. Proprietary brand knowledge is the durable moat.The first Signal Report, a collaboration between Future Commerce and Merciv, maps where GLP-1s removed cultural friction – and where friction migrated to."Almost everyone answering a survey question about how many times they brush their teeth in a day will say twice. But if you actually look at those sales figures, they simply don't sell enough toothpaste." — Shaia Erlbaum"These models aren't built to tell you, 'Hey, I don't know.'" — Shaia Erlbaum"There's a world where data's already becoming a commodity… a lot of the real advantage is less rooted in which model's more intelligent, but more so in to what degree can we actually verify the information we're coming across." — Shaia Erlbaum"The office of the CMO is becoming more of an individual contributor role." — Phillip JacksonIn-Show Mentions:Merciv: merciv.com"Frictionless Wellness: GLP-1s and What Comes After the Age of Autonomy" – the first Future Commerce Signal Report, powered by Merciv.LORE, our newest book on who really writes your brand's story. Get it in the Future Commerce shop.Associated Links:Read the first Signal Report, Frictionless Wellness: GLP-1s and What Comes After the Age of AutonomyInsiders 204: The Ozempic Effect: How GLP-1s Rewrote the Gospel of Self-LoveEpisode 435: Predictions 2026: Prepare for the Age of AutonomyEpisode 367: AI Agents Are Here. "Brands" Might Be In Danger.Episode 447: The Agent Has Left the BuildingCheck 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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    44 mins
  • Former Commerce Secretary Gutierrez on Leadership, AI, and America’s Role In the World

    Former Commerce Secretary Gutierrez on Leadership, AI, and America’s Role In the World
    Oct 7 2026
    Phillip and Brian sit down with Carlos Gutierrez, former U.S. Secretary of Commerce and former chairman and CEO of Kellogg, ahead of the release of his memoir, Sheer Will. Carlos explains how the Commerce Department became one of the most powerful seats in Washington, why America should out-innovate China in the AI race, and why he thinks Americans are reluctant capitalists.An America of Reluctant CapitalistsKey takeaways:With USTR now reporting to Commerce, the department holds more economic power than ever.Judging Mexico by the trade deficit misreads its value as a production partner.To win the AI race, America should out-innovate China rather than rely on sanctions.AI can't motivate people. Judgment and intuition will matter more for leaders.Global brands stay competitive when local teams share ownership of the P&L."The Commerce secretary will be as powerful as the president wants him or her to be." — Carlos Gutierrez"I think that our [AI] strategy needs to be to out-innovate China." — Carlos Gutierrez"We are reluctant capitalists. We're reluctant to go too far. We're reluctant to embrace these trillion-dollar companies." — Carlos Gutierrez"I wanted 40, 50 people to go to sleep worrying about the P&L, not just me." — Carlos GutierrezIn-Show Mentions:Sheer Will: Learning to Lead When There Is No Path by Carlos Gutierrez (St. Martin's Press), available October 6Associated Links:Member Brief: The First 100 Days: Reshaping a Modern Commerce Department on the World StageMember Brief: Consolation PrizeMember Brief: The Power of the Modern Commerce Department: Every Fable Has a MoralThe Senses: The Commerce Department Is a Hedge Fund NowPolicy Brief: The Halo Effect of the New EconomyTabula Rasa: Commerce in the Great Geopolitical GameThe Senses: 100 Days Later and We're Still Tariff-iedMember Brief: Costco and the New American ImperialismEpisode 414: Kunle Campbell – Is Commerce in Conflict with Idealism?Episode 309: AI Should Empower Your Workforce, Not Replace ThemCheck 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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    42 mins
  • Memorable Over Measurable: Retail’s Lost Wonders

    Memorable Over Measurable: Retail’s Lost Wonders
    Sep 30 2026
    Taste can’t be manufactured, so brands are hiring the people who have it. Writer and gr8 collab founder Emma Apple Chozick returns to talk with Phillip about her creative process (sans content calendar), building ShopMy’s Signals Substack on proprietary data, and what the long-gone BEST Products showrooms can teach us about designing retail spaces worth remembering.A Category of OneKey takeaways:Brands can’t manufacture taste; they’ve learned to partner with people whose judgment audiences already trust.Real editorial starts with an insight, question, or tension. Consumers today can sniff out a product pitch from a mile away — if a brand’s editorial isn’t valuable as standalone content, it’s not worth sharing. BEST Products’ SITE showrooms prove the best retail trades measurability for memory.Emma Apple Chozick: “Taste is obviously completely subjective. But when a brand resonates with a particular person’s taste, that’s not replicable. A brand can’t create that on their own. They can try, but it’s never gonna feel authentic.”Emma Apple Chozick: “I don’t know if the goal is actually ‘to grow.’ I think the goal is to work on really compelling projects that are aligned with what I’m interested in and can reach new people. But the goal isn’t always reach.”Phillip: “I don’t know that any of those [hot new channels] actually reflect culture. I think we bend culture to those things because that’s where we put capital, and an industry likes to talk about them because they’re new. But the people actually define what the culture is around the brand.”In-Show Mentions:Watch Emma’s BEST Products videoFind Emma Apple Chozick on LinkedIn and InstagramLearn more about gr8 collabExplore the archive of SITE New YorkRead Signals: A Publication by ShopMyWatch Surroundings on YouTubeRead Emma’s Dwell essay, “The Midcentury House That Raised Me”Listen to Emma’s first Future Commerce episode, Creating Credible Content and Community-Building CollabsAssociated Links:Read: Member Brief: Return on Experience and the New KPIs of Store DesignRead: Insiders #188: Architecting Desire: How Retail-Hospitality Hybrids are Changing ConsumptionRead: Substack and Retail’s New Media EraRead The Senses: “That’s a Great Collab”Listen: Where Culture Happens, Commerce FollowsVISIONS Summit at MoMA, New York City: Join us on November 3, 2026Watch: 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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    37 mins
  • Rewind: Everything, Everywhere, All at Once

    Rewind: Everything, Everywhere, All at Once
    Sep 23 2026

    Welcome to Future Commerce Rewind, where we revisit our deepest and most enduring conversations. This week, we're playing back our April 2025 conversation with Andrew McLuhan, grandson of Marshall McLuhan and director of The McLuhan Institute. Andrew joins Phillip and Brian to explain why his grandfather's ideas still hold up: the side effects of a technology tend to become its main effects, and the Global Village was never as idyllic as it sounds. AI has become a companion, an advisor and a shopping assistant. McLuhan's asks the core question: what do our new tools extend, and what do they change about us?

    Associated Links:
    • Get your ticket to VISIONS Summit: NYC
    • Check out Future Commerce on YouTube
    • Check out Future Commerce Plus for exclusive content and save on merch and print
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    • Listen to our other episodes of Future Commerce

    Have 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!


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    1 hr and 48 mins
  • Retail Media In Your Ears: Inside Dollar General's 21,000-Store Audio Network

    Retail Media In Your Ears: Inside Dollar General's 21,000-Store Audio Network
    Sep 2 2026
    The next big advertising opportunity is here. The audio systems in Dollar General’s 21,000 stores connect shoppers with advertisers and drive loyalty. Austin Leonard, VP and GM of Dollar General Media Network (DGMN), sits down with Phillip and Alicia to explain why the retailer has doubled down on audio and the role that non-endemic advertisers play in his long-term vision. “The Cocktail Party Effect” Key takeaways: In-store audio is getting programmatic optimization so DG’s sponsors can serve ads at the best time of day and in the best-suited markets. Non-endemic only works in-store if it clears the near-endemic bar: shopper relevance.Dollar General’s 21,000 stores across suburban, urban, and rural markets are often the only stores in town, making its ad inventory a community utility. The Yellow Glasses Project pairs brand partners with the DG Literacy Foundation via iHeartRadio.[00:18:10] Phillip: "This is the power that I think audio has that nothing else has; it can catch your attention even when you're focused on something else."[00:32:40] Austin Leonard: "I call that the last mile of eCommerce for the last mile of America."[00:36:15] Austin Leonard: "The next era of retail media is really about accountability and also telling our story for our unique audiences." In-Show Mentions: Find Austin Leonard on LinkedInMore about DG Media NetworkYellow Glasses ProjectiHeartMedia, DG Literacy Foundation partnership featuring Bobby BonesListen to Future Commerce’s episode with Collin Colburn of IAB Associated Links: More retail media coverage on Future Commerce retail media hubRead: Insiders 237: “Vertical Dramas” and the New Era of Commerce MediaListen: LIVE from Shoptalk Spring: Retail Media Confessions, Hype Cycles, and the Creator ReckoningRead: Ad Infinitum: Retail Media is The Final Boss VISIONS Summit at MoMA, New York City: Join us on November 3Watch: Future Commerce on YouTubeJoin 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 Commerce Have 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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    40 mins