2026 Signals We’re Tracking: Commerce Evolves (Again), the Monoculture is Back, and Celebrity Prevails? - Future Commerce

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Episode notes

Phillip sits solo to unpack conflicting economic signals: Shopify's monster quarter against a Census report showing eCommerce eating share while retail overall slows. What does this mean for brick-and-mortar? Although stores still make up most retail sales, their mission and value have shifted. The good has become secondary to the experience of acquiring it. Plus, he breaks down why the monoculture returned in a summer of shared events, and what's on the FC docket through November 3rd. The Monoculture Isn’t Dead, It’s On Substack Key takeaways: Commerce is growing (online sales grew at nearly twice retail’s pace in 2025), but it’s growing by disappearing into everything else. The product itself is secondary to the experience of purchasing it. The monoculture isn't dead; it’s been revived by sport, tours, and global events. "There is a monoculture now of people writing about the summer of the monoculture on their Substack." "You're not just communicating your vision anymore to the human capital within your business; you now have to communicate vision to machines and put it into machine language.