Fresh from the Javits Center, Phillip, Brian, and Alicia unpack NRF 2026's dominant themes, from AI's omnipresence to its curiously low adoption among the very professionals championing it. The conversation moves beyond technology theater to explore what truly drives commerce: cultural connection, intentional brand heritage, and multiplayer engagement that treats customers as collaborators rather than data points.

• AI saturation at NRF contrasts sharply with minimal executive adoption
• Successful AI integration preserves brand heritage rather than replacing it
• Multiplayer brand engagement becomes reality through tools like Taco Bell's Fan Styleplatform
• Analog intimacy resurfaces as consumers fight against digital fatigue
• "Who here has used AI to search for a product that you would like to buy? Not a single hand went up. Three out of 300 people had used ChatGPT to search for anything." — Phillip
• "The point isn't the technology. The point is building a memorable experience that connects people to people." — Brian (referencing Taco Bell's Dane Matthews)
• "How do you take a brand that is as beloved and known for being a merchant and design-led company and use technology in a way to just add to it and not try to over modernize it?" — Alicia (on Ralph Lauren's approach)
• "Maybe people are just figuring out where they want their time and how they want to spend their time... getting back to our roots through things like mahjong, board games, and very simplified intimate spaces." — Alicia

• Future Commerce Holiday AI Report, produced in partnership with Cimulate
• More details from NRF 2026
• Our official recap of Phillip’s conversation with Dane Mathews
• Shop Future Commerce's Multiplayer Brand book

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• 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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The future of commerce hinges on agility, but most brands remain stuck at spreadsheet speed. Louis Camassa, Director of Product Management at Rithum, breaks down findings from the 2026 Commerce Readiness Index and reveals why data quality, inventory latency, and algorithmic visibility matter more than channel expansion. We’re uncovering the infrastructure bottlenecks threatening AI's potential, and what it actually takes for brands to compete when algorithms decide what gets discovered.

• 63% of commerce teams face data quality issues affecting business decisions
• Inventory latency remains a competitive differentiator in agentic commerce experiences
• Zero-click phenomenon reducing referral traffic by 9% across e-commerce channels
• AI compute costs compressed 10x in one year, matching traditional search
• Energy infrastructure, not algorithms, poses the greatest bottleneck to AI advancement

• [00:02:04] Lou Camassa: "Most companies, whether you're a retailer or brand, you're moving at spreadsheet speed. That's just not the way of the future."
• [00:10:55] Lou Camassa: "We don't want to take from the past and just push it into the future. When we go into a chat experience, we don't want to drop somebody onto a homepage with a banner and categories. Let's think about this differently."
• [00:18:58] Lou Camassa: "We're seeing drops of about 9% across e-commerce in general on referral sources from Google because data is just being propagated in the AI overviews."
• [00:24:04] Lou Camassa: "Inventory latency is going to be a big game changer. It helps us get faster shipping and creates a competitive factor, specifically in LLM search, where everything else is commoditized."

• Check out Rithum’s 2026 Commerce Readiness Index
• Learn more about Rithum’s offerings.
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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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Shipping frozen premium meats and prepared meals requires precise logistics that most marketplaces aren't built to handle. But Denys Gorbatiuk saw an opportunity where others saw impossible complexity. Grumpy Butcher became Temu's first frozen food seller and proved that operational excellence can break down expansion barriers and create a competitive advantage.

Within five weeks, Temu accounted for over 12% of Grumpy Butcher's online sales. Yet the real story isn't just about velocity, it's about reaching younger demographics and using real-time data to fundamentally rethink product creation and curation.

From corporate attorney to food industry innovator, Denys shares how mastering the operational challenges of frozen logistics, leveraging platform analytics, and partnering strategically with Temu transformed Grumpy Butcher from a pandemic-era startup into a fast-growing business that redefined how Americans shop for gourmet perishables.

• Being first in a hard category pays off: Pioneering frozen food on Temu positioned Grumpy Butcher as a category leader and innovator.
• Direct feedback and engagement with shoppers on Temu enabled product development, revealing stronger resonance with younger customers and reshaping the broader business strategy.
• Mastering complex logistics is defensible: Streamlining frozen food delivery and tackling common challenges helped Grumpy Butcher establish its core competitive advantage.
• Platform partnership means strategic collaboration: Temu provided operational support and guidance that went beyond transactional seller-marketplace relationships.

• Learn more about Grumpy Butcher’s journey on Temu
• Explore Temu's seller services and marketplace solutions

• Check out Future Commerce on YouTube
• Check out Future Commerce Plus 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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