No. 388: The next letter in commerce is __.

After Grand Theft Auto and Minecraft: Balenciaga

New Media / New York Times: In a year that has already seen fashion groups hosting and streaming shows on Twitch, the gap between the forms and functionalities of these two sectors is quickly closing.

Exclusive Analysis: Gaming is the next hundred billion dollar consumer goods channel according to Doug Stephens. In a recent conversation with the analyst and consultant, he summarized the movement towards in-game commerce: "Gaming has all of the right ingredients: a highly engaged, global audience using a platform that offers interaction, social discourse, robust processing power, and users with high-speed connections."

Yesterday, Balenciaga released a bespoke video game to release its Spring 2021 collection, while Dior announced today that its next menswear show would stream on Twitch. Earlier this fall, Burberry also debuted its Spring 2021 collection on Twitch, tapping a group of models and influencers to tee up the show by having a live chat ahead of its stream. Fashion has been circling gaming for a while now, flouting stereotypes and citing the purchasing power of a demographic that’s more diverse than might be assumed. Mostly, that’s taken shape in in-game purchases like skins and product tie-ins. A Louis Vuitton League of Legends skin is the new entry-level purchase for a generation of gamers that aren’t as interested in lipstick or sunglasses.

The pandemic has accelerated the trend, and pushed marketing moments to mimic the places where potential customers are spending a bulk of their time. The reasoning comes down to more than just customer acquisition; when runway shows go online, they blend together. Standing out becomes a challenge, and gamifying fashion becomes a way to engage an active audience while debuting a collection. It’s a new marketing channel for luxury, and other brands are likely to follow suit.

We are nearing the normalization of in-game commerce: G-Commerce. 

With 3 billion packages to go, online shopping faces tough holiday test

eCommerce / New York Times: To cope with the surge, the large shipping companies have expanded weekend deliveries and hired more workers. They have also played hardball with retailers, introducing steep holiday surcharges on shipments and enforcing strict limits on how many packages companies can send out each day.

2PM, October 2020: In addition to prohibitive advertising costs, rising shipping fees and increased eCommerce competition, COVID-related uncertainties now include medical industry shipping through FedEx. In high-level logistics circles, there is credible concern that shipping lines are further disrupted as big box retailers, direct-to-consumer brands, and distributors of vaccinations converge on an already strained capacity.

Read more: Chaos and Q4 Logistics and The Failing Fundamentals

Ikea to stop publishing catalogue after 70 years

Analog-to-Digital / Retail Gazette: In the vein of the digital economy, Ikea is shutting down publication of its 70-year-old catalogue. The content will be redistributed - and most importantly recommunicated - in varied formats that lean into the assimilation towards a permanent online residency for the brand.

What happened to Man Repeller?

Sociology / GQ: The rapid decline of Man Repeller is an amolgomative story: part mismanagement and poor leadership, part economic hardship, and all very much a perplexing trajectory. The nuances of the good and bad can be discussed, but at one point, it was undoubtedly a movement with momentum.

Across fashion sites, the marketplace model is catching on

eCommerce / Glossy: Ultimately, marketplaces fill a niche that has slowly been emptying over the last year, with the falloff of department stores. They let brands reach a wider audience than if they sold only DTC, with higher margins than wholesale and without the inventory risks.

Social strikes back

Social Media / Andreessen Horowitz: Turns out, rumors of social's demise have been greatly exaggerated. Not only are we seeing the rise of innovative new social networks — from the earshare of Clubhouse to the seamless interactivity of cloud gaming — but having a social component has become a powerful acquisition and retention tool for every consumer product, across education, shopping, fitness, food, entertainment, and more.

Mapping the creator economy

The Passion Economy / Hugo Amsellem: Let’s not forget that just 15 years ago, in order to reach an audience, you had to go through a hyper-selective process where one person had the power to decide if you’d be allowed to speak to the general public. Then the internet came along (for real), and suddenly anyone could put anything online. Today, curation isn’t done by any one person, but by the public who votes with their attention. This new democracy has seen a new class of citizens emerge: The Creators.

Editor's Note: if ever you are interested in understanding the creator economy, I would also recommend studying the work of Li Jin. 

Building a membership funnel

New Media / Brian Morrissey: Every media company’s funnel is going to be different since the publishing industry is not a monolith. There are many types of publishers. But for an emerging class of DTC media businesses, from independent creators to micro-media outfits to business brands, a basic funnel is an important strategic tool to move people from their introduction to the brand to habit to loyalty and eventually to membership.

APIs all the way down

Deep Generalism / Packy McCormick: APIs handle an ever-increasing amount of things that get done in the world. Something that might have been a pen and paper process involving hundreds of people 50 years ago, and a dozen people clicking a computer screen a decade ago, is probably software talking to other software via APIs today.

The flex commerce era

Sociology / The Sociology of Business: Flex commerce is like having a giant dog in NYC. It’s a flex that one has an apartment big enough for a mastiff. The purpose of flex commerce is to establish one’s status as distinct and superior to others. Unlike other forms of commerce, it’s unrelated to the cost of goods and services, but to their intangible, symbolic value. In flex commerce, price is secondary. Primary are the cultural, social and environmental capital that a good or service carries.

Microsoft wants you to live on as a digital chatbot

CX / Protocol: This patent envisions a system for taking digital content from a person ("images, voice data, social media posts, electronic messages, written letters," the patent says) and using machine learning to train a chatbot on replicating how that person would sound. Is this the future of customer service or a really creepy way to honor loved ones who've died?

In 1985, a high tech “surf phone” debuted in Southern California. In Surfing Magazine’s “Currents Section” that spring, the editorial team asked a question: “What if you could call a number any time of day and get an up to the minute report on surf conditions?” There was demand, inquiring surfers called, and a phone service called “Surfline” became an immediate hit within its niche audience. Surfline used the technology of its day, the 1-800 number, to help novice and advanced surfers score their biggest waves.

Ten years later, Surfline entered the internet age. Surfline.com was launched in 1995 with the first live surf cam at the famed Huntington Beach. The network of surf cameras would grow to global proportions. The niche that was once Southern California became a niche that was global, in pockets all across the world.