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In season two of BoF’s hit podcast series Retail Reborn, presented by Brookfield Properties, we investigate the consumer of tomorrow, and how their behaviour, preferences and interests are influencing the retail industry today.

This episode tackles how consumers will shop, deep diving into the transaction processes themselves and how methods of payment are changing, from biometric payment to the Replenishment Economy, as well as innovative paths-to-purchase and how brands and retailers are engaging with them, including the gamification of sales and products.

In 2020, Epic Games reported over $1 billion in microtransaction sales from the mobile version of the Fortnite game alone, across in-game upgrades, costumes and player capabilities. Seeing the potential in this space, brands across the value spectrum have embraced the world of gaming, from Nikeland on Roblox to Balenciaga’s Afterworld: The Age of Tomorrow to showcase the brand’s Autumn Winter 2021 collection.

“Both gaming and livestreaming are part of a broader move toward [...] ambient retail — a state where retail is everywhere, woven into every social or entertainment experience. [It is] an evolution that may spell the end of the centralised and search-driven web shopping convention we’ve lived with for the past 30 years,” says podcast host and founder of Retail Prophet, Doug Stephens.

The conversation also considers the evolution of currency, from crypto and blockchain to Bitcoin and Ethereum, detailing their distinct qualities, entrance into the mainstream payment space and popularity among next-gen consumers. Indeed, more than half of Millennial millionaires have at least 50 percent of their wealth in crypto, while nearly 60 percent of Gen-Z believe wealth is achievable through investments in cryptocurrency, according to Business Insider.

To deep dive into how the next-gen consumer will buy products and experiences in the future, BoF gathers three global authorities to share insights with host Doug Stephens.

Winston Ma is an investor, attorney and adjunct professor in the global digital economy. Ma was managing director and head of North America for the China Investment Corporation, and held positions as the deputy head of equity capital markets at Barclays Capital, and vice president at J.P. Morgan. He is author of China’s Mobile Economy, The Hunt for Unicorns: How Sovereign Funds are Reshaping Investment in the Digital Economy and The Digital War — How China’s Tech Power Shapes the Future of AI, Blockchain and Cyberspace.

”Data is valuable. [...] And at the same time, [consumers] also recognise data is dangerous. [...] So I think there’s a global push not only from the government side, but also from the users side, to limit the usage of biometric payment out of legitimate privacy concerns.”

Marjorie Hernandez de Vogelsteller is a design and innovation expert, and co-founder of LUKSO — a blockchain infrastructure that provides a series of standards and solutions for physical and digital consumer goods.

”Pretty much everything that you can do in Bitcoin is just transact with bitcoins. [...] You can potentially put a message in the transaction, but that’s pretty much it. [...] We go from just being able to transact like we do in Bitcoin to being able to to create business logic and to build different kinds of applications and implementations that are more complex than just transactions within the Ethereum ecosystem.”

Gina Bibby is a partner at Withersworldwide, leading the law firm’s global fashion tech practice. Bibby advises fashion tech clients on corporate formation, venture capital, corporate transactions, real estate, privacy, e-commerce and intellectual property. In recognition of her innovative fashion tech practice, The American Lawyer named Bibby a “2021 Trailblazer.”

“You have a segment of the population that has been historically discriminated against by financial institutions. So, then what you have with the Blockchain is you remove all of those barriers to entry because I can be an individual with no credit history and no credit card, and I can still transact with brands and retailers online.”

Follow the series to ensure you never miss an episode and discover actionable insights into the opportunities and challenges the consumer of tomorrow will bring and how retail’s transformation will impact your business.

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