E-com Kart

We're talking about e-commerce, which has come a long way, baby, but might be in for a slowdown. Who can you trust to report accurately on said possible slowdown? Nobody who already has bets placed on this party never ending! Trust your instincts and look at your sales data, or trust our guest this week, Luigi Ferguson.

The increasingly permeable barrier between physical real world stores and digital online websites continues to blur. David has invented something beyond "show rooming" where he goes into the store first, then leaves and buys online in his car from the parking lot, and then picks up in store. You have to listen to understand it, it's complicated.

False scarcity stinks, in Lee's opinion, and is hitting a weird fever pitch that interacts in strange ways with real world inventory, and to Luigi's point, what consumers can see with their own eyes. If you've never ever sold out of something and have been selling it for a couple years, people have the memory and if not that than in some cases the tools to see when you're lying.

Randy talks about streaming media and can't help using it to remind everyone that she's the Zoomer who loves physical stores and loves physical books and loves laying down on a fainting couch to balance her physical humors just like Dr. Leechbleeder said to so she doesn't get the Vapors. SHE'S SO OLD!!!

Customer experience is a differentiator so strong that it now builds and defines the boundary of what constitutes community for a brand. How to determine when you're really ready to find community in a new place, versus what's just part of your standard testing of channels regimen, is covered by the group.

The power of speaking directly with customers over using large fields of data in many cases, especially if you know how to pick your spots. Luigi notes that the best service experiences that people remember tend to be one person just going all out to make something right with an order, and these moments merit study.

The limited appeal of personalization over someone's real needs and feelings in any given moment is eloquently explored. It's okay to be boring and a big brand in certain contexts and moments if that's more authentic that the alternative.

What skills will the greatest e-com workers of the future have cultivated? Where will they work? How can you hire them? All will be addressed in the episode for which you are currently reading a summary. Go ahead and press play, and listen to Luigi when he tells you to re-emphasize quality over quantity.