About
Changing How Brands View Commerce
This is not about retail. It’s about human behavior.
Future Shopping began life in 2003 under the domain “culturalexception.com” as a sleepy music and culture blog put out in frequent but irregular bursts by a web strategist/developer. A fortuitous meeting in 2009 with a magazine editor in an airport lounge resulted in an article about how big brands could learn a thing or two from indie musicians on how to use social media more effectively.
With that the subject matter of the blog changed.
From the very beginning, businesses have had an uneasy relationship with marketing in the digital age. It was easy to do and hard to quantify. The continued blizzard of technology advancements and potential game-changers like AI has only served to create more questions than answers for today’s brands, retailers, and their stakeholders. With data as the underlying fuel for today’s commercial engine, there is more need than ever for clarity and definition relating to where a company should – and should not – apply resources.
Digital – and particularly mobile – has shifted the balance of power away from brands and retailers, to be completely in favor of the consumer. This has given rise to the notion of consumer experience – or CX – as the focal point for acquiring and retaining consumer engagement outside of a price promotional strategy. Now we see the introduction of AI as a key enabler of a nimbler, more personalized way to develop meaningful relationships with consumers, at scale. At least, that’s where we are so far.
Game on!
What Is Future Shopping
Future Shopping is the platform for Anthony Long, a marketing technologist with over 30 years of experience in digital commerce, marketing, mobile, and managing the data that powers all of it. Including AI.
Since 2009, with a notable acceleration starting in 2016, Tony has worked with companies from most consumer-facing industries in one form or another to bring about corporate fluency in marketing in the digital world. His background includes:
- Global CX director / global e-commerce director for 2 multinational FMCGs
- Mid-stack and front-end development team lead for 2 global web / e-commerce development agencies
- Turnaround expert working on behalf of private equity firms and famlily offices
- SVP sales & marketing for a global toy/hobby company
- Founder of one of the original “Silicon Alley” web development shops
- Creative director for a NYC ad agency
His work in CX, e-commerce and AI has further fed his observations and enabled his experiments on how smartphone-armed people behave today. Preparing for his writing, as well as the many keynote and panel appearances, has further informed his global perspective on how we all embrace and thrive in our data-swamped world, and how businesses need to evolve to meet these growth opportunities.
Future Shopping brings together Tony’s current activities as a columnist for E-commerce Brasil Magazine and conference speaker, and adds in a newsletter and series of “big-topic” digital white papers.
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