For the brands that are most suited to the modern economy: media and commerce operations become one. This is the efficient path for sustained growth, retention, and profitability.
To generate demand for tires, Michelin increased the desire to travel by automobile: a media guide to various destinations. It’s the original case study in linear commerce. The lines of demarcation between media and commerce aren’t fading. It’s always been this way.
Apple’s privacy move may have intended to impair tech rivals but it will have net positive effects for them. As more pursue first-party data, audience development will become one of the most coveted skills on the market.
Most conventional media groups still believe that reach matters more than depth. By acquiring majority stakes in niche brands, The Chernin Group has created the digital map of what it takes for brands to succeed in a fragmenting market. It's linear commerce 2.0.
A practical inside look at how ButcherBox became the first DTC brand use Instacart's third-party marketplace, and 2PM's small role as a growth partner.
Why the Shopify partnership is an indication that the streaming giant is moving towards longer-term physical events. And eventually — an amusement park.
There’s a new way to view a brand’s investment in media operations. Every brand should have a digital supply chain or a set of components that, when properly constructed, equip a retail business with an important class of end products: content, first-party data, digital products, and community. There’s a small minority of brands that have a venture-backed war chest or a Kardashian-Jenner sister atop the sales funnel. For those few, conversion rate optimization is the game by improving the landing page, shorting image load times, A/B testing, tuning headless commerce modules, and properly capturing social proof through on-site user generated content (UGC).
The digital-first future is upon us, agglomeration means new forms of community, commerce, and asset management.
When you think about DTC, Web3 is its natural predecessor, a return to the earliest vision of the internet. It’s learning by doing, and it places the most value in the hands of those who create the most value.
The next great innovation in the creator economy is the DeFi layer that allows for the global brain to properly compensate its best cells.
Toys are simply toys until they become useful to advertisers, business developers, and adults. Where brands, content, creativity, and consumerism meet, civilization forms.
With the growing interest in NFTs, the emphasis on physical goods will expand. Consumers will have their own galleries of digital assets. Traditional retail will want that space.
In the 20th century, we had interstate highways and air travel. Today, we have the eCommerce infrastructure.
A thesis of the mall as a RetailOS: marketplace tech, a region-wide network, and last-mile support.
We are beginning to see the early signs of a shifting electorate that will be influenced by digital real estate more than its physical counterpart. Where we live follows our virtual loyalties and not our physical ones.
Raising USPS prices to combat Amazon's growing influence is no different than digging up paved roads before a period of heightened freight transit.
If the Austrian philosopher had prevailed in 1954, retail wouldn’t be failing, eCommerce would have remained an afterthought, and urban neighborhoods might have been more integrated.
Anchor stores are no longer, the modern brands have the anchor leverage.
For equity and fairness in the housing market, there's a precedent: The early Sears catalogue helped black Americans shop without discrimination.
In 2020, retailers coped with the disruption of social distancing initiatives and closures enacted by state and county governments. The pandemic caused reactions that were entirely predictable. It’s the lengths of its first- and second-order effects that we are tasked with managing today. Companies are once again delaying their returns to the office. The “great resignation” has persisted as one of the most damaging responses to the retail economy. Shipping ports are clogged, factories are no longer at capacity, containers are more costly than ever, and each store has differing ways of managing the spread of the pandemic. As a result, inflation has unsettled a republic, and the cost of goods is outpacing the buying power of the typical American.
There are second and third-order effects when our way of living and work begin to evolve our existence.
The "solutions" to the first Gilded Age created some of the inequalities that are fueling this one. And one of the casualties is the middle class consumer that emerged in response.
After flying through six cities, surveying 81 retailers, and staying in seven hotels over 30 days, a clear picture: digital commerce is now a refuge for the under-retailed.
Consumer psychology relies upon perception as much as it quantitative economic shifts. One reason many are failing to recognize the bifurcation of wealth is simply because they prefer not to.
Fast forward 100 years and the desire to rebuild, consume, and socialize has already begun to embolden an unlikely economy.
If mall retailers don't become eCommerce practitioners, developments will struggle with vacancies, perpetuating a ruinous cycle. Physical retail needs eCommerce more than ever.
The eCommerce industry's growth feels like an achievement of a new Gilded Age. It's demolishing the middle class.
We are now living in a new age of enlightenment. We have an overload of content, information, and ideas but few formats in which we can harness them for future use. This is especially relevant for today’s creators, entrepreneurs, and technologists.
The writer, teacher, and generalist takes inspiration from other industries, exploiting arbitrage opportunities others have yet to realize. He shares three practical ideas any digital brand can use to build.
Optimism is a talent. Be dynamic, inaction is failure. Calmness is a valuable tool. Look for opportunity in everything.
While content is what the prolific family is known for, it seems to be the tip of the iceberg. With the push push for first-party data, the way to build companies today is to build audiences first.
One of the great strategic advantages is cognitive flexibility: to employ the best strategies for your industry, study the advancements in others. We are living in a new age of enlightenment.
An eclectic list to help expand perspectives, see old ideas in new ways, identify new ones, and find common thoughts along the way.
The smartest people in the room rarely get the credit for their big ideas. Here, five leaders within the 2PM ecosystem that move industries forward.