The Big Show™ isn’t just about consuming
This is it, the Big Show. We’re on the eve of what may be the biggest retail week in digital commerce history. The National Retail Federation predicts that this weekend’s BFCM kickoff of holiday spending will see as much as a 10.5% lift over last year’s record sales.
It has been said that you don’t rise to the occasion, you fall to the level of your training. And this has been a year of hard training. We don’t need to rehash it, but SMB retailers have taken a beating this year, and then some. We predicted in March that YoY numbers would begin to sour once the “covid bump” had come and gone, something that came true, exaggerated by IDFA and iOS changes.
It’s not just online retailers that are trying to move the needle. Every sector of the economy is represented over the next 5 days, including SMB and local shops, spurred on by Shop Small campaigns powered by American Express. The Saturday event generated $20 BILLION last year, the eleventh Shop Small Saturday, according to the Small Business Administration.
Giving Tuesday is an event for charitable organizations, too, who begin pushing year-end donation considerations this week. In just five years, the Tuesday push has grown from $177 million in online donations in 2016 to $2.47 billion in 2020.
My inbox is already full of options across the spectrum. My local barbershop is offering a Saturday incentive (my barber is an NFT artist), the Florida Trail Association is matching donations to plant pine trees.
If you look hard enough, you’ll find more reasons to get engaged in Black Friday than consuming. Speaking of which, we’re presenting our first annual Future Commerce Gift Guide this Black Friday, with exclusive discounts, and some thoughtful brands you should consider supporting.
Rest easy tonight, eat up tomorrow. We’ve been training for this our whole lives.
— Phillip
MoviePass, again? Former MoviePass CEO and co-founder Stacy Spikes has acquired the MoviePrass brand and will be piloting a new business model this holiday season with the hope of relaunching MoviePass in 2022.
Unshuffle: With the release of her latest album “30,” Adele asked Spotify to remove the default “shuffle play” button when viewing an album and… they did. The world of music streaming can feel like a sterile place for artists, especially for an old soul chanteuse like Adele, but thankfully she’s using her platform to push back against settings that disrupt and dismantle the storytelling power of albums.
Snowball II’s just dropped: Have you ever felt the masculine urge to wear your favorite cartoon family's second pet cat on your feet? Adidas will have you covered with their Superstar Snowball, an upcoming release in their ongoing partnership with The Simpsons.
Luxury on Two Wheels: The latest luxury flex is an electric motorcycle built by DAB Motors with Burberry, outfitted with a leather saddle with Burberry’s hand-stitched monogram and customisable handlebars.
The world’s first gas station influencer meal: We’ve seen our fair share of influencer meals in the past couple years, but no gas station has staged a culinary collab… until now. Midwestern chain Kum and Go partnered with TikToker Kyle Scheele for a viral campaign that started with a life-sized cardboard cutout and ended with a deal on two slices of pizza stacked into a sandwich and a sugar free red bull. What a time to be alive.
Regenerative turkey: Turkeys that have evolved to regenerate and heal their own wounds? No, unfortunately. More like Toms Shoes, but, for turkeys. A California-based ranch is giving west-coasters a sustainable option for enjoying Thanksgiving turkey and supporting regenerative agriculture in the process.
Activism, but make it inactive-ism: Lush will shutter its Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok accounts in opposition towards the harmful effects of endless content streams and sleight-of-hand algorithms. “"I'm not willing to expose my customers to this harm, so it's time to take it out of the mix." said Chief Digital Officer Jack Constantine.
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