[DECODED] Commerce in the Age of Context: When Buying Journeys Collapse

Episode notes

The traditional linear shopping journey has collapsed. Commerce now happens everywhere, and consumers are navigating this omnimodal reality with unprecedented fluidity. Phillip Jackson and Lindsay Trinkle sit down with Melissa Minkow, Global Director of Retail Strategy and Insights at CI&T, to unpack findings from her Retail Tech Reality Check research. Together, they dissect how different platforms serve distinct purposes in the buyer's journey, why "omnichannel" is more relevant than ever, and what happens when everything becomes shoppable but commerce itself becomes invisible. In this episode, we explore how the expanded digital ecosystem is fundamentally reprogramming how consumers engage with content, community, and commerce. With 74% of US consumers now using AI tools in their path to purchase, brands can no longer control the narrative - instead, they must embed themselves intentionally into customer-led conversations across multiple contexts. Commerce Is Invisible; Context Isn’t Key takeaways: Each social platform serves a distinct purpose: Facebook for purchasing, YouTube for discovery, Reddit for research. Context matters more than channel ubiquity.

• Korean 'Dopamine Sites' Let You Shop Without Shopping60 / 100
• Inside Lululemon’s Resale Engine68 / 100
• The Machine Ate the Storefront, PayPal Mapped the Collapse69 / 100
• Nearly 1B Strong: Snapchat Has Retail’s Most Overlooked Audience
• After Dark: "You're Not A Visionary, You're A Vendor"