Welcome to the relaunch of FC INSIDERS.

We launched Future Commerce 3 years ago this week. What an amazing 36 months it has been. Brian and I started with just the two of us and our team has now grown to 8 people (and we're hiring 2 more roles). We're fully-remote and we're bootstrapped, all of us are working this as a side-hustle. We're doing incredible things despite our size and relative lack of financial backing. Just this year we've partnered with NRF, Internet Retailer, CommerceNext, WB Research, and Shoptalk to bring exclusive content. We've stood on some of the biggest stages in retail. We've interviewed CEOs, CMOs and CTOs; producing over 40 hours of content already in 2019 and we're merely halfway through 2019.

3 years ago our show was incredibly tech-focused. We believed that intelligent technology decisions were pivotal to the success of an online retailer. But the landscape has changed. We're proud of having had a voice that brands trust for these 3 years but technology and the decisions to be made around adopting tech isn't the only concern at this point in time.

The challenges that brands face today are very different. Rising CAC, diminishing ROI, and access to funding for their businesses topped the list of concerns that our listeners cited in our first-ever audience survey we conducted earlier this year. We've listened to that feedback and we're changing our focus to better speak to those concerns.

Changing consumer expectations - expectations that weren't set but you, but by others such as Amazon - are causing agita amongst our merchant listeners. Our audience is made up of people who are influential in their organizations, too, and have command of financial decision-making. 91% of our audience say they are financial decision makers and 70% of them listen to every show we produce. Those decision makers are trying to determine the direction of their businesses to please their customers and we believe that while technology plays a role it's not the only thing that matters.

Our audience want to hear from us about issues that brands wrestle with such as Trustwashing or creating content-first experiences. They want to hear about new business models like the rise of the resale market. They want to hear about the new age of personalization and the application of body data in making bets on sizing for supply-chain and purchasing decisions.

So on our 3rd birthday we're expanding our focus. We used to say "Retail tech moves fast but Future Commerce is moving faster"; and while we have predicted the future with incredible accuracy we believe that giving you insights to shape the future of your brand is even more powerful.

Today we're adopting a new mantra. One that is much more inclusive of our total vision and the diversity of the many voices and viewpoints in our industry:

The future of commerce is what you make of it. And we want to help you shape that future.