Nearly half of all consumers now live in a state of perpetual purchase consideration, maintaining mental shopping lists that are never truly empty. With access to new sources of information and inspiration, they're constantly thinking about what they're going to buy next.

But what happens when commerce isn't just something you do; it's something that you are?

We kick off season 5 of Decoded with behavioral scientist and customer experience expert Ken Hughes, who joins us in exploring how shopping has evolved from an activity into an identity, particularly among Gen Z and Millennials. We unpack Ken’s “Blue Dot Consumer” theory and introduce the "Shopping Consciousness Spectrum," and examine how it influences not just how we live as individuals, but how we operate as brands.

• 48% of consumers maintain perpetual mental shopping lists; for millennials, it's 2 in 3. Commerce has become a cognitive state.
• Gen Z is twice as likely as Boomers to wake with commerce on their minds: Different generations, fundamentally different relationships.
• The trust paradox: consumers share intimate details with AI but abandon carts when asked to create accounts or commit.
• 2026 success requires understanding perpetual consideration. Be present throughout the journey, not just during traditional shopping windows.

• Ken Hughes - Customer Experience Expert & Behavioral Science Specialist
• Get Taylormaking by Ken Hughes
• New Modes Research: How AI is Shaping New Commerce Contexts and Expectations
• Learn more about Commerce

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Most marketing teams believe AI will revolutionize their work, yet few experience true transformation. Shai Frank from Optimove discusses new research revealing why organizational readiness—not technology—creates the widest gap between expectation and reality. The conversation explores how change management, experimentation mindsets, and vendor partnerships can help marketers move from incremental improvements to transformative results.

• 80% of companies expect AI transformation; only 18% achieve transformative results in marketing
• Change management matters more than technology capability for successful AI adoption
• Experimentation and rapid iteration beat planning perfection
• New metrics and performance indicators are needed to measure AI optimization benefits
• Vendor education and partnership bridge talent gaps without the need to hire data scientists
• "The real gap is change management. Most teams are still running on old rhythms that make transformation feel hard or impossible." - Shai Frank [00:07:35]
• "Instead of trying to perfect the post-purchase journey for eight months, let's try a few options, see what works, and course correct as a result of that." - Shai Frank [00:17:39]
• "The challenge now is making sure that every customer is served with the right content variation that makes sense for them." - Shai Frank [00:38:01]
• "In this case, it was like an 80% optimization benefit, which means 80% of your incremental sales from this campaign are because you did it with AI." - Shai Frank [00:46:24]

• Optimove + Forrester Report
• Learn more about Optimove’s Positionless Marketing platform
• Decoded Season 4: Positionless Marketing

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Lupine Skelly, Retail Research Leader at Deloitte, joins Phillip and Alicia to dissect the stark reality behind this year's holiday shopping forecast. Consumer spending is projected to drop by 10%, and economic pessimism has reached its highest level since the Great Recession. As a result, retailers are facing a season where communicating value is key. This conversation explores the enduring vitality of Black Friday, the quiet revolution of private label brands, and how cultural rituals, AI integration, and brand loyalty are being fundamentally rewired.

• Shoppers expect to spend $1,595 this season as economic concerns peak
• 57% expect the economy to weaken, the most pessimistic outlook recorded since 1997
• Black Friday remains vital despite two decades of obituaries
• 24% of budgets are spent by October due to the Prime Day effect
• Private label gains ground as brand loyalty fundamentally shifts

• [00:02:10.14] Lupine Skelly: "57% of people are saying they expect the economy to weaken in the year ahead, and that's the highest we've seen since we started tracking that question in 1997. To put that in context, 2008 was probably the next highest at 54%—that was around the Great Recession. So [there’s] a lot of uncertainty out there."
• [00:04:42.72] Lupine Skelly: "I feel like people have been trying to kill off Black Friday for 20 years. Is Black Friday dead? It's not dead."
• [00:13:17.91] Lupine Skelly: "In our study, 42% of consumers are saying they're going to use gen AI to find the perfect gift. And even more are saying they're going to use it to find the best deals."
• [00:25:49.24] Lupine Skelly: "Retail is always battling for share of wallet, but I think we're at a very different time period. Gaming, gambling—there's some big juggernauts taking what might have been the money you used to go to the mall years ago."

• Dig deeper into Deloitte data and insights here
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Oleksii (Alex) Lunkov joins Alicia Esposito to unpack how meaningful constraints fuel creativity in an age of algorithmic abundance. From Saint Sophia's 9 million glass cubes to the digitization of Berry Bros. & Rudd's 300-year heritage, this conversation navigates the tension between AI efficiency and human authenticity. Discover why 95% of AI pilots fail, how brands become cultural ambassadors, and what fractional leadership means for tomorrow's commerce teams.

• Meaningful constraints drive better creative outcomes. Removing all friction from digital experiences leaves us wondering why we don't feel anything.
• AI dramatically increases individual productivity, but human oversight remains essential for tone preservation, fact-checking, and maintaining brand authenticity.
• Successful brands act as cultural ambassadors, translating something unique through their channels while balancing best practices with distinctive identity.
• The fractional work revolution emerges at the intersection of AI-enhanced productivity, volatile job markets, and businesses seeking expertise without long-term commitment.
• Most AI implementations fail because teams don't understand the technology's actual capabilities and limitations before deploying it.
• [00:06:14] "We removed all the friction, and we wonder why we don't feel anything." - Oleksii, quoting Phillip Jackson
• [00:11:40] "In order to build a personal brand, you need a person to be behind that brand." - Oleksii
• [00:28:48] "AI adoption is this huge spike on the top and then very long tail afterwards." - Oleksii

• Read Oleskii on Insiders
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• Subscribe to Insiders and The Senses to read more about what we are witnessing in the commerce world
• Listen to our other episodes of Future Commerce

Have any questions or comments about the show? Let us know on futurecommerce.com, or reach out to us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, or LinkedIn. We love hearing from our listeners!

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Following the release of his work, The War of the Worlds Did Not Take Place, Nick Susi joins the pod to unravel the real War of the Worlds myth: not alien panic, but a battle between newspapers and radio that manufactured mass hysteria. Phillip, Brian, and Nick explore how narrative form shapes collective memory, why brands weaponize conflict for attention, and what happens when everything becomes participatory fan fiction.

• Structured narratives outlast formless truth in collective memory.
• Brands now weaponize conflict and controversy for attention economics.
• Everything is becoming participatory, co-created, and infinite fan fiction.
• "The War of the Worlds is not actually a war between humans and aliens. It's really this war between mediums." — Nick Susi
• "We've entered the phase of the attention economy where the game is attention at any and all costs." — Nick Susi
• "People don't want to share the thing. They want to share their experience of the thing." — W. David Marx (referenced)
• "Awareness does not decrease manipulation necessarily." –– Brian
• "We've become much more aware of the act of storytelling as a culture, like we see the artifice of storytelling and we appreciate the act of it itself." –– Phillip

• The War of the Worlds performance piece and publication by Nick Susi
• Order The War of the Worlds Did Not Take Place on Metalabel
• Blank Space by W. David Marx
• Insiders #196: Time After Time by Brian Lange

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• Subscribe to Insiders and The Senses to read more about what we are witnessing in the commerce world
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Katherine Dee, internet culture writer and mastermind behind her popular AM-style call-in show, joins us to explore the archaeology of online life. From dissecting the Friend AI pendant's failed attempt at god replacement to chronicling e-girl evolution in her Meta Label publication, Katherine offers an unvarnished look at how we're moving beyond relentless content production. The conversation navigates haunted objects, the fragmentation of social platforms, and why the future might be more mystical than algorithmic. As AI reshapes proof itself, Katherine argues we're witnessing a cultural shift toward physical witnessing and enchanted meaning-making.

• AI companions fail when they gaslight users and demand emotional labor constantly
• Internet culture documentation requires trust without judgment to reveal authentic subcultures
• Social platforms fragment as users crave stories over gossip and embodied over digital
• The erosion of digital proof drives a turn toward mysticism and magic
• Content exhaustion pushes creators toward dynamic formats and offline experiences

• Katherine’s response to the Friend AI pendant
• E-girl 001 publication
• Katherine's call-in show exploring paranormal and internet culture
• Reggie James on spiritual technology

• Check out Future Commerce on YouTube
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• Subscribe to Insiders and The Senses to read more about what we are witnessing in the commerce world
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Have any questions or comments about the show? Let us know on futurecommerce.com, or reach out to us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, or LinkedIn. We love hearing from our listeners!

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Halloween Horror Nights wasn't always a $575M-per-park juggernaut. When Universal launched Fright Nights in 1991 with just three experimental nights and $12 tickets, they stumbled onto something bigger than a haunted house…they uncovered retail's thirteenth month of revenue. In this Spooky Commerce special, we trace how October became the secret weapon for combating theme park slumps, why Spirit Halloween's pop-up model prints money in dead malls, and what happens when horror becomes the ultimate immersive commerce experience.

• Halloween is retail's second-largest holiday and is expected to generate more than $13B in consumer spending this year Universal's Horror Nights operates 48 nights, up from 3 in 1991
• Spirit Halloween's 1,500 pop-ups generate over $1B in dead retail spaces
• Horror reflects cultural anxieties through interactive commerce
• Premium ticketing doubles daily revenue for a single venue

• Insiders #210: Spooky Commerce – What Halloween Shopping Trends Tell Us About Modern Culture
• Halloween Horror Nights Wiki
• Forbes: Universal's Halloween Revenue Analysis (2023)
• National Retail Federation Halloween Spending Report

• Check out Future Commerce on YouTube
• Check out Future Commerce+ for exclusive content and save on merch and print
• Subscribe to Insiders and The Senses to read more about what we are witnessing in the commerce world
• Listen to our other episodes of Future Commerce

Have any questions or comments about the show? Let us know on futurecommerce.com, or reach out to us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, or LinkedIn. We love hearing from our listeners!

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Producers JT and Sarah join the show to unpack some fresh Spooky Commerce news, including Matt Rife and Elton Castee's venture into property and museum ownership. As Annabelle's (yes, that Annabelle) new legal guardians, Matt and Elton are selling overnight ghost hunting stays at the Warren home and Occult Museum for a cool $2,000/night. Plus: We explore the suspicious death of a lead paranormal investigator close to Annabelle, our generational haunting by microplastics, and the Pooniverse.

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