One of these things is not like the other: Arby's x Birchbox, $88 rental products from Urban Outfitters and a prediction of Kohl's having a potential suitor. Listen now!
Urban Outfitters has a new rental-subscription service, but will GenZ even care?
23andMe teams up with Airbnb to help consumers with their travel plans: is this super creepy, or genius?
Amazon wants to create wearables that can sense emotions, just in case they don't have enough consumer data.
Dress Barn closes 650 stores because shuttering stores is what all the cool kids are doing according to Coresight.
Some background: Urban Outfitters was originally a retail store called Free People and was renamed Urban Outfitters in 1976, and it used to be the coolest kid on the block for hippy-esque fashion.
And now, Urban Outfitters, probably to get it's mojo back, has launched a rental-subscription service (Nuuly) for $88 for up to six items per month.
According to Kaleigh Moore writing for Forbes, Nuuly (which Phillip challenges Brian to spell) will function as it's own brand spearheaded by Urban Outfitters current Cheif Digital officer David Hayne.
Here's a question though, will Urban Outfitters target market for this service be able to resist ruining the clothes?
Phillip asks Brian what his preferred travel booking method would look like?
Airbnb and 23andMe, are teaming up to recommend their customer heritage destinations based on countries of origin, which is not at all going to end in a PR disaster.
Phillip says that the idea of 23andMe and AirBnB sharing the data they've collected with a third party is the creepy aspect, but ads that we've all probably signed those rights away in the fine print anyway.
Brian says that collaboration commerce is going to be an increasing trend in retail.
So Amazon, being Amazon wants to create wearable products that can sense users emotions: because they don't have enough consumer data.
For right now, this is just a patent filing, not an official product (which doesn't make it any less creepy)
Is the future of retail mood-ring reminiscent clothing?
There already is a dress that claims to change colors with the wearer's mood, and it's kind of awesome.
Coresight is predicting 12K store closings in 2019, which is double that of this time last year.
Dress Barn is closing all 650 of its stores, to which Brian says, "who cares?"
Phillip makes a point that low-end stores closing like Payless may actually limit options in rural communities.
So in the final story for the week, we discover that somehow earnings beats are pointing to Kohl's doing rather poorly.
Phillip points out that these reports came out only a few weeks after Kohl's and Amazon formed their partnership.
Kohls's is going to start accepting Amazon returns, which may drive much-needed traffic into their stores.
Phillip makes a Future Commerce prediction that Amazon will acquire Kohl's within 24 months.
Brian says it's either Kohl's, Best Buy or both.
So now we want to hear from you: What are your favorite collaborations in commerce right now?
Let us know in the content section on Futurecommerce.fm, or reach out to us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram or Linkedin.
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