The Ghosts in Our Machines: Robot Pets and Retail Politics
Welcome to Friday, futurists.
What a week. We kicked it at NRF, we ripped a pod on the show floor, and launched our newest book, LORE. The vibes are high around here, and it’s all thanks to you, our community.
The consistent question we’ve been getting is: “why does LORE exist?” So we put together a bit of a BTS explainer and a WIP ‘how-we-think’ around here in Commerceland for you to read over the long weekend.
Queue up “Why Lore? The Stories That Shape Our Future” over on the Future Commerce Blog.
— Phillip
P.S.: A new species is living, shopping, and scrolling among us. Who are they, and what do they want? Scroll to the bottom for our first essay of 2025.
The Industry's New Defense Mechanism. The Ecommerce Innovation Alliance debuts as a formidable trade organization, uniting digital commerce stakeholders against an increasingly complex regulatory landscape. The coalition, spearheaded by Postscript's leadership and featuring prominent DTC brands like Tushy, Ridge Wallet, and Dolls Kill, emerges at a crucial moment when legislative understanding of eCommerce lags behind its cultural significance.
American Economic Plot Twist. The IMF's [bullish 2.7% growth forecast] reads less like a financial projection and more like a revisionist narrative of American decline. While other developed economies grapple with demographic winter and deflationary pressures, the U.S. has somehow maintained its protagonist energy.
Our Take: The persistence of American economic vitality presents a fascinating tension in our collective storytelling about global power dynamics. Just as streaming services upended our assumptions about content consumption, the U.S. economy continues to defy the predetermined script of inevitable decline. This economic resilience arrives precisely as American soft power faces unprecedented challenges—Taylor Swift's Eras Tour notwithstanding.
The Posterior Port Paradigm. TomBot's therapeutic companion device innovates through anatomical authenticity, combining USBC with an… unexpected charging solution. This memory care-focused furbotbaby demonstrates how industrial design can transcend mere functionality to create deeply empathetic interactions, even if that means embracing unconventional port placement.
Our Take: it’s a literal butt plug.
NEW ESSAY: Avoiding Agentic Ghettos
Why 2025's Platform Shift Makes Mobile Look Small
We've spent a decade optimizing commerce for human psychology—for attention spans, for decision fatigue, for the dopamine hit of the buy button. We built responsive designs to accommodate different screen sizes. We crafted personalization engines to serve different personas.
But what happens when your shopping companion isn't constrained by human psychology at all? What happens when commerce needs to respond not just to different devices, but to different species of intelligence?
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