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Future Commerce

Future Commerce

By: Phillip Jackson Brian Lange
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Future Commerce is the culture magazine for Commerce. Hosts Phillip Jackson and Brian Lange help brand and digital marketing leaders see around the next corner by exploring the intersection of Culture and Commerce. Trusted by the world's most recognizable brands to deliver the most insightful, entertaining, and informative weekly podcasts, Future Commerce is the leading new media brand for eCommerce merchants and retail operators. Each week, we explore the cultural implications of what it means to sell or buy products and how commerce and media impact the culture and the world around us, through unique insights and engaging interviews with a dash of futurism. Weekly essays, full transcripts, and quarterly market research reports are available at https://www.futurecommerce.com/plus©2026 Future Commerce Economics Leadership Management & Leadership Marketing Marketing & Sales Philosophy Social Sciences
Episodes
  • 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
    • Subscribe to Insiders and The Senses to read more about what we are witnessing in the commerce world
    • 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!


    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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    1 hr and 48 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
  • Cartographies of Meaning

    Cartographies of Meaning
    Sep 11 2026

    Nikita Walia and Elliot Vredenburg of U.N.N.A.M.E.D. Studios took to the VISIONS stage at MoMA last year to enlighten a room of retail executives and brand marketers about the realities of worldbuilding. Their theory: a brand’s final form is decided by the public—and the strategist's job is to navigate that story, not control it. And they use Mercator, Buckminster Fuller, Guy Debord, free public Wi-Fi, and an acne sticker to back up their claims.

    Mapping Meaning Isn’t About Being RightKey takeaways:
    • Branding isn't worldbuilding because worldbuilding just imposes another set of rules
    • A three-hundred-page brand book is obsolete the day it ships, and rebrands every five to ten years are theater for stakeholders
    • The public decides a brand's final form, not the guidelines deck
    • Regenerative brands are always rebranding
    • [00:00:25] "Counter to what you've heard today, branding is not, in fact, worldbuilding." — Nikita Walia
    • [00:04:34] "This is sameness being sold to us as a form of consistency." — Nikita Walia
    • [00:15:45] "It's not about being right. It's about being useful, and useful in motion." — Elliot Vredenburg
    • [00:17:09] "A regenerative brand doesn't need to rebrand every five to ten years because it's always rebranding." — Elliot Vredenburg
    In-Show Mentions:
    • The Mercator projection (1569) and Buckminster Fuller's Dymaxion Map
    • Superstudio, The Continuous Monument
    • Guy Debord and psychogeography
    • LinkNYC
    • Burberry, Daniel Lee, Demna's Balenciaga, Pierpaolo Piccioli
    • Starface
    Associated Links:
    • Read Alicia Esposito's companion essay, The New Meaning of Brand Building: Cartographies of Meaning
    • Watch the original session at VISIONS Summit: Cartographies of Meaning
    • Hear Dami Lee's VISIONS session, The Stories Behind Our Spaces
    • Listen to Building Culturally Intelligent Brands with Dr. Anastasia Kārkliņa Gabriel
    • Revisit The Anti-Blands, Existential Brands, and the New Dadaism
    • Read Surface Culture: When Brands Mistake Wallpaper for Authenticity
    • Check out Future Commerce on YouTube
    • Check out Future Commerce Plus for exclusive content and save on merch and print
    • Subscribe to Insiders and The Senses to read more about what we are witnessing in the commerce world
    • 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!



    Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
    Show More Show Less
    22 mins
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