Episode Details

Two of the smartest people we've ever had the pleasure of interviewing join the show this week! In our main interview, Mike Lackman, CEO at Trade Coffee joins the Future Commerce team to talk about how subscriptions and curation are driving user adoption and repeat business at Trade Coffee. In our "what's new and what's next" segment at the end of the show, Hitha Herzog, retail analyst and author of 'Black Market Billions' joins us to talk Nike's Amazon Exit, Coty's $600MM Kylie acquisition, and the effect of counterfeits on the marketplace during Holiday 2020.

Trade Coffee Coupon Code

Save 30% off your order of Trade Coffee with coupon code FUTURE

Listen now!

Show Notes

Main Takeaways:

• Mike Lackman, CEO of Trade Coffee joins Brian and Phillip on today's episode and he brings with him a coupon code.

• Trade Coffee is bridging the gap between a marketplace and a retailer, and are making quite the disruption in the process.

• Educating customers not only makes them happier with their shopping experiences, but also moves the success up the production funnel. 

• Hitha Herzog, retail analyst and author of Black Market Billions, joins us to take us through the acquisition of Kylie Cosmetics and other happenings in the world of retail. 

Coffee and Vocabulary: Empowering Coffee Consumers:

• Phillip was at a hipster songwriting circle in Nashville and four of the ten circle participants said that Trade Coffee was inspiring them recently. 

• Mike says that Trade Coffee does two things very well: it connects consumers to the country's very best roasters and craft coffee and it also helps roasters across the country reach consumers in a way that has never been done before. 

• In their research, Trade Coffee found that consumers are completely lacking in the vocabulary that enables them to decide the way they want their coffee to taste.

• If people are more aware of their choices, they are going to be in demand of certain things that craft roasters will then be able to supply.

Unexpected Outcomes: Breaking the Mold:

• All the CPG professionals that assessed Trade Coffee early on said that it was going to be a tasting journey in which consumers would find their perfect coffee and then have that coffee be delivered repeated. 

• In actuality, more than 95% of Trade Coffee's consumers have expressed an appetite for continual discover of new coffees rather than the ability to repeat a single SKU. 

• This consistent desire for discovery is the key to Trade Coffee's business.

• Spotify and music streaming services have trained us to go find new things all the time, and that training is extending into consumer goods. 

The Coffee Calling: How It Started:

• A failed Latin teacher by training, Mike was excited by the small team at Trade Coffee when he first found the brand. 

• Trade needed someone who not only understood the digital marketing business but also someone who understood the hard operations side of the business. 

• Mike was also a very frequent drinker of coffee who knew nothing about it and the curistic process of getting to know the Trade Coffee team really highlighted the problem that needed to be solved. 

• Brian met Mike at Grocery Shop where they discussed marketplaces and the role of a niche marketplace in today's economy.

A Niche Mark