What is Future Commerce?

Future Commerce is an independent commerce media and research company founded in 2016 by Phillip Jackson and Brian Lange. It publishes the Future Commerce podcast, the Insiders essay series, The Senses research briefs, and original consumer studies, produces print titles including LORE, STRATA, Archetypes Journal, and Muses, and convenes events including the VISIONS Summit.

Who founded Future Commerce?

Future Commerce was co-founded in 2016 by Phillip Jackson (CEO) and Brian Lange (CRO), eCommerce operators who built digital commerce channels for recognizable global brands before founding the company.

What research does Future Commerce publish?

Future Commerce publishes original consumer research and benchmarks, including the Word-of-Mouth Index, a 1,000-consumer study on how shoppers use AI, and a 2,000-shopper study on AI shopping habits, alongside the annual VISIONS report and topic research across ten commerce frontiers.

How can brands partner with Future Commerce?

Brands partner with Future Commerce through podcast and newsletter sponsorships, webinars, custom research, and event activations. Its audience is retail and eCommerce operators, executives, and brand builders. Partnership inquiries start at futurecommerce.com/advertise.

What does 'Commerce is Culture' mean?

Commerce is Culture is Future Commerce's founding thesis: commerce is not merely transactional but the medium through which culture is created, expressed, and exchanged. The idea anchors its manifesto, which holds that consumers are people rather than conversion events and that brands should play for the lifetime of the customer relationship.

About Future Commerce: Commerce Research and Media Company

OUR NETWORK

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FORESIGHT AND TRENDS

2026 Predictions

The Age of Autonomy & Sovereignty: the collapse of consumer trust meets the retailer on AI autopilot.

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Listen

Prepare for the Age of Autonomy

Past predictions →

Channels & Media

Retail & Commerce MediaRetail media turns commerce into content. Every retailer now operates as a measurable media property.Marketplaces & ChannelsMarketplaces demand deliberate channel diversification. Every retailer now manages a portfolio of commerce channels.Social CommerceSocial commerce is cultural infrastructure, where discovery, identity, and purchase converge at the speed of culture.AI & Agentic CommerceAI is the new front door to commerce. Brands must serve humans and agents, or risk the Agentic Ghetto.

Brand & Loyalty

Creator EconomyCreators are now structural to commerce. They supply the audience, the channel, the CMO, and often the brand.Retention & LoyaltyCustomer loyalty is arbitrage, not affection. As performance marketing decays, retention becomes the whole game.

Culture & Experience

Physical Retail & ExperiencePhysical retail is a sensory medium, measured by Return on Experience rather than sales per square foot.Luxury CommerceLuxury commerce is not a price tier. It manufactures desire, status, scarcity, and meaning.Commerce Policy & GeopoliticsCommerce policy is technology policy. Tariffs, antitrust, and data rights shape the infrastructure of global trade.

Rather browse by format?

Podcasts·The Senses·Insiders·Field Notes·Guides

Columns & Series

The Senses

The dispatch decoding the cultural forces shaping commerce, brands, and consumer behavior.

Insiders

Numbered essays on brands, cultural meaning, and the business systems behind them.

Field Notes MEMBERS

Retail store teardowns scored against the Senses Matrix and reported from the field.

The London Brief

Field reports on London retail, luxury commerce, culture, and the future of the store.

Guides & Research

Guides FC Insights VISIONS Word-of-Mouth Index MEMBERS Member Briefs MEMBERS

Watch & Learn

Videos Webinars FC Learning On-Demand MEMBERS Conference Guides

Latest Research

1,000 Consumers Told Us How They Use AI to Shop

Holiday shopping data with Cimulate: how consumers actually shop with AI. Includes the companion film, Your Store is a Chatbot Now.

Read the research →

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Our shows

Enter Through the Gift Shop: Inside MoMA's Retail Journey

Future Commerce

Flagship

Commerce and culture, weekly, with Phillip Jackson and Brian Lange.

Step by StepOperator playbooks. One problem at a time for people who ship.

DecodedThematic explainers that decode one big shift in commerce per season.

Infinite ShelfHuman-centric brand building, and retail culture with Ingrid Milman Cordy.

Listen & watch everywhere Apple Podcasts·Spotify·YouTubeAll episodes →

Topics+

FORESIGHT AND TRENDS2026 Predictions: The Age of Autonomy & SovereigntyListen to Ep. 435 →

Channels & Media

Retail & Commerce Media Marketplaces & Channels Social Commerce AI & Agentic Commerce

Brand & Loyalty

Creator Economy Retention & Loyalty

Culture & Experience

Physical Retail & Experience Luxury Commerce Commerce Policy & Geopolitics

Podcasts+

Future Commerce Step by Step Decoded Infinite Shelf

Read & Watch+

Columns & Series

The Senses Insiders Field NotesMEMBERS The London Brief

Insights & Research

Guides FC Insights VISIONS Word-of-Mouth IndexMEMBERS Member BriefsMEMBERS

Watch & Learn

Videos Webinars FC Learning On-DemandMEMBERS Conference Guides

Events+

In the Field

Shoptalk The Lead Summit Conference Guides

Attend

VISIONS Summit & Salons

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Partner With Us Login My Account

In the Field

Shoptalk The Lead Summit Conference Guides

Attend

VISIONS Summit & Salons

All events →

What We Cover

Ten frontiers explore this thesis.

Everything we publish maps to ten topic frontiers. Each hub states our position and gathers a decade of reporting behind it.

Retail & Commerce Media →

Retail media turns commerce into content. Every retailer now operates as a measurable media property.

Marketplaces & Channels →

Marketplaces demand deliberate channel diversification. Every retailer now manages a portfolio of commerce channels.

Social Commerce →

Social commerce is cultural infrastructure, where discovery, identity, and purchase converge at the speed of culture.

AI & Agentic Commerce →

AI is the new front door to commerce. Brands must serve humans and agents, or risk the Agentic Ghetto.

Predictions →

Our annual call on what comes next. 2026 is the Age of Autonomy and Sovereignty.

Creator Economy →

Creators are now structural to commerce. They supply the audience, the channel, the CMO, and often the brand.

Retention & Loyalty →

Customer loyalty is arbitrage, not affection. As performance marketing decays, retention becomes the whole game.

Physical Retail & Experience →

The store is a sensory medium judged by return on experience, not just sales per square foot.

Luxury Commerce →

Luxury is a system for manufacturing desire, status, and meaning, democratizing downward while scarcity hardens upward.

Commerce Policy & Geopolitics →

Commerce policy is now technology policy. Tariffs, AI governance, and data rights are one fight over commerce's rails.

The Future Commerce Manifesto

Commerce connects people.

Commerce is vital to participation in community and society. That gives it power, and that power carries obligations.

People, not purchases

Consumers are people, not conversion events. Not every interaction must drive toward a sale, and not all marketing needs to manufacture FOMO.

No manipulation

People deserve to shop, sell, and gather without subversive persuasion. No dark patterns, no confirm shaming, no trustwashing, no surveillance by default.

The long game

Modern brands draw a line in the sand and play for the lifetime of the relationship. Customer lifetime value lives in the relationship, not in a dashboard.

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Commerce is Culture™

Our publication's central theme

Ten frontiers explore this thesis.

Commerce connects people.

People, not purchases

No manipulation

The long game

We've spent a decade covering commerce and its impact on culture.