Future Commerce hosts Phillip Jackson and Brian Lange Discuss Ecommerce Experience, Trends and Composable Commerce

Explore the future of ecommerce with Phillip Jackson and Brian Lange, former competitors turned co-conspirators. Together they founded Future Commerce, which helps ecommerce brands create a strategic vision that will shape the future of their retail and digital channels. Not content to leave it there, Jackson and Lange want to help brands bring about change for their customers and even the world.

Jackson said his career has included a search for differentiators that help brands cement a relationship with customers. Developing a strong human connection in terms of experience and service is what customers are looking for if a company is to win their loyalty. Just as Future Commerce works to bring value to customers through its content and research, brands need to do that same by understanding why people make the decisions they do and what led them to that decision process.

One trend both Jackson and Lange have noticed is the ecommerce experience is starting to look the same across many websites. “As much as 30% of a customer journey on a website can be governed by these third parties,” said Jackson at (10:50). “That’s a lot of real estate to give over control of.”

Lange says at (11:15) that is not necessarily a bad thing. The idea of composable commerce, the ecosystem of partners that make up a tech stack, can be the most effective way for a brand to deliver on customer expectations. But it also creates a sameness of experience that can make it harder for any one brand to stand out.

Lange says immersive experiences, including video and other forms of photography can help a brand reach customers if they can tell the right story. Story telling is a large part of what Future Commerce does, and both Lange and Jackson are keen to point out that, too, is part of the customer relationship. Right now, they see brands perhaps talking past their customers, using a narrative that might tell a story of how the brand would like to represent itself vs what it actually is. (22:00) By doing so, brands risk losing a real relationship with customers. Lange says brands should invest in narrative-driven resources to tell better stories that are clear, and self-aware to better connect with customers.

So, what is the key to the ecommerce future? Jackson says composing your business in a way that can react quickly to changing customer demands – sensing in advance what those expectations are and being nimble enough to react and put those changes into place. (24:00) Jackson points out generational businesses tend to be those that survived existential shifts in the way customers interact with them. The businesses overcome shifts not just with technology, but also with how they relate to their customers.

Lange and Jackson mentioned a number of influencers in the industry they follow, including Michael Miraflor, digital strategist, former SVP at Medialink who can be found on Twitter at https://twitter.com/michaelmiraflor.

Magdalena Kala, self-described consumer investor and former VP at Bain Capital, https://twitter.com/magdalenakala.

Alex Greifeld, an ecommerce growth advisor, https://twitter.com/heyitsalexP.