Brands are in a position where they must exceed customer expectations even if the customer wasn’t expecting it. No brand is safe from the need to stay one step ahead of its customers – just think of Blockbuster and Nokia. In this episode, I have a great conversation with Brian Solis, VP, Global Innovation at Salesforce. Brian is a world-renowned digital anthropologist, futurist, eight times bestselling author, and international keynote speaker. He has consistently been recognized as one of the…
International Council of Shopping Centers: The Future of Retail and Real Estate Isn’t What It Used to Be
Brian Solis delivered the keynote address at the International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC) 2020 CenterBuild Conference. His presentation, “The Future of Retail and Real Estate Isn’t What It Used to Be,” was well-received and is online now. When ICSC was founded in 1957, the retail industry was a veritable juggernaut even surging forward beyond the initial wave of Amazon and e-commerce in the 90s. Then over time, the relationship between consumers and digital, social media, real-time, and mobile slowly,…
Can AI Save the Retail Industry?
Over the years, I’ve studied retail innovation and also retail stagnation. Among the white hot trends propelling retail startups and giving legacy brands hope are artificial intelligence (AI), computer vision, Internet of Things (IoT), connected sensors and good old fashioned ingenuity. My friend Macy Bayern of TechRepublic recently wrote about the role AI is specifically playing in retail innovation. Her resulting article features insights from industry experts and innovators. I also wanted to share our unabridged conversation with you here……
Brian Solis Shares How Innovation Can Transform Your Brand With Retail Touchpoints
In an interview with Alicia Esposito of Retail Touchpoints that appeared on the Salesforce blog, Solis focused on transforming your brand in commerce, marketing, customer service and even holiday readiness. First, he discusses the “experience economy,” a phrase coined by Joe Pine and James Gilmore in their book The Experience Economy. Solis said, “Today, your brand is defined by the experiences people have and share, which is completely different than in the past. If people are going to have an…
10 Things Modern Digital Commerce Players are Doing To Thrive and Survive
The future of commerce is already unfolding. Even though everyone says, “yes we know the world is changing,” I don’t believe that executives have shifted their thinking or belief system to change how they make decisions to compete differently. The challenge is that many decision-makers are caught in a state of “future shock,” stuck in the past and unable to move in ways that matter to an incessantly evolving market. Why? Because they still operate in an ecosystem that prioritizes quarter-to-quarter performance while…
Dial M for M-Commerce: Why Now’s the Time to Swipe Right for Mobile Revenue
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, mobile is the first screen, not the second screen. Design and invest accordingly. Tell me if you’ve heard (or experienced) this one before… You’re in the market for a new product. You’re on your mobile and you see something in social that prompts you to go online. You hop from page to page and site to site only to become increasingly frustrated with the process because the sites are incredibly difficult…
The Future of Retail: Stop Iterating and Start Innovating
The team at OneStop invited me to Los Angeles to speak to a wonderful group of digital marketers, etailer/retailer, search and commerce strategists. Among the many things I’m studying and speaking about these days, the future of retail is fascinating to me personally and professionally. The future of retail isn’t just about new technology, the latest gadgets and all of the incredible startups that are pushing retail, commerce and everything else forward. It’s also shaped by connected/mobile customers who are more…
State of Mobile Commerce: An Evening in San Francisco with Criteo
I recently had the opportunity to co-host an event in San Francisco with Jonathan Wolf of Criteo to discuss the past and future of retail and mobile commerce. That evening celebrated the release of the company’s quarterly State of Mobile Commerce Report, based on its pool of online shopping data covering more than a billion transactions totaling over $130Bn of annual sales. That evening, we would entertain some of the most interesting people documenting or contributing to the future of ecommerce,…
Brands Give Facebook F-Commerce an F
With a looming $10 billion IPO on the horizon and a community that’s estimated to hit 1 billion users this Fall, Facebook seems unstoppable. Yet on one important front, the store front that is, Facebook has exposed an imperfection. People are not proving ready to actually buy goods and services in Facebook – at least not at the scale retailers are used to seeing through traditional e-commerce. And suddenly, many question the role Facebook actually plays in the monetization strategy…
The 6 Pillars of Social Commerce: Understanding the psychology of engagement
Social media is about social science not technology. As such, its value is not realized in the Likenomics of relationship status nor in the scores individuals earn by engaging in social networks. The value of social media comes down to people, relationships, and the meaningful actions between them. As such, its value is measured through the exchange of social currencies that contribute to one’s capital within each network. Through conversations, what we share, and the content we create, consume and…
