Keeping Commerce Weird Podcast: Stop Thinking Funnels. Start Thinking Context.

Commerce has never been just about transactions. It reflects how people spend their time, what they value, and how culture shifts in real time. 

That idea sits at the core of Keeping Commerce Weird, a biweekly podcast hosted by BigCommerce CEO Travis Hess that explores the quirks, creativity, and human behaviors shaping modern commerce.

In our recent episode, “From Boomers to Zoomers: Our Culture is Commerce,” Hess sits down with Philip Jackson and Alicia Esposito of Future Commerce to explore what happens when shopping no longer lives in stores or even on websites.

Keep reading for highlights and key takeaways from the discussion.

Keeping Commerce Weird podcast recap: From Zoomers to Boomers

Shopping is becoming a constant state, not a moment.

Travis Hess: Philip, talk to the audience about the concept of contextual commerce as the new shopping mode. This was central to the report we created together, called New Modes: Redefining Personalization in the Age of AI.

Philip Jackson: There’s a lot defined in this report. We’ve proven a number of hypotheses. One is that consumers are in a constant state of shopping and shopping consideration. Our entire culture is commerce. If more people than not are waking up with shopping on their mind, that says something about our culture and society.

But it’s more than that. When you look at the generations, they’re becoming more digitally native. Two out of three millennials live in a perpetual purchasing state, Gen Z is two times more likely than boomers to wake up thinking about their next purchase, and for every boomer actively shopping, two more exist in a passive mode.

We’re really exploring how identity is tied up in the modes of shopping. Today, we don’t have funnels necessarily anymore. You can go from being unaware of a product and casually entertained on an app in your leisure time — maybe Instagram, YouTube, or TikTok — to conversion in mere seconds.

So that is a brand new mode, and that is what we’re calling omnimodal. You’re in every mode of purchase all the time. That’s really what we’re exploring here in this piece of research.

Key takeaway

Shopping has shifted from a linear journey to a constant state of consideration. People move fluidly between discovery, entertainment, and purchase, often without clear intent. For brands, this means designing experiences that support how people actually shop today:

• Across moments, not funnels

• Through context, not channels

• With identity and intent shaping every interaction

Omnichannel no longer means everywhere.

Hess: Even with the explosion of channels over the last several years, and generations turning to platforms for different reasons, what does that say about where brands should actually show up and how?

Jackson: Well, hasn’t the advice been to be in every channel and show up natively? I think that’s been the omnichannel advice for the last fifteen years.

One thing I’m a little concerned about is that we’ve had this sort of Cambrian explosion of new channels. Which ones do you chase? Because I don’t think you can actually be in all channels anymore.

When we look at which channels are considered purchase consideration channels, some that show up in our research include WhatsApp and Temu. Not every brand is going to be activating on Bing, or have a Bing strategy, a WhatsApp strategy, and a Temu strategy.

To be truly omnichannel today, you would probably need a Roblox gaming strategy as well. That means you have to be not just omnichannel, but really omnigenerational. And that’s almost held out for very specific brands that have been around for a long time and serve lots of different types of customers.

Generally, channels are favored by certain types of customers. We should go to where our specific customers are. That means learning who your customer is and not making assumptions about them.

Last year, millennials and Gen Z didn’t have nearly as much daily AI use as they do now. Today, 46% of millennials and Gen Z use AI tools daily, compared to about 31% last year. But AI usage falls off 50% after age 45. So we’re really seeing this bifurcation not just in trust, but in adoption across age gaps.

As a brand, you have to understand who your customer is and where they are, and show up fully in those channels. It’s probably an unsatisfying answer, but I think it’s the true one.

Key takeaway

Omnichannel no longer means being everywhere. As channels multiply and adoption varies by generation, brands need to focus on understanding their specific customers and showing up fully where those customers already spend time.

AI is reshaping trust in the buying process.

Hess: Alicia, from your perspective, what else did the research reveal about these experiences? Is AI making commerce more personal, or just more efficient?

Alicia Esposito: Most folks are using AI platforms like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Claude for basic research on a brand or a product. About 38% use it for brand research, and 36% for product or category research. From there, people compare similar products from different brands or look for basic inspiration, both at about 29%.

That’s top-of-funnel and even middle-of-funnel behavior, where you know you need something but want to figure out which option is right, whether that’s based on ingredients, customer feedback, or price. Deal hunting plays a role here as well.

What stood out most was the relationship people are building with these platforms. About a quarter of Gen Z and millennial consumers say they trust AI more for curated product recommendations than real people, including influencers. In fact, 13% of all respondents said they trust AI more than influencers overall.

When people go to social media, they know they’re being sold to. But when they go to a platform like ChatGPT, they’re asking contextual questions and sharing what they want, what they need, and who they’re buying for. That creates a level of trust and intimacy. In a way, it’s almost becoming a new vehicle for word of mouth.

And when it comes to younger consumers, this data suggests that if Gen Z is going to the mall, it’s more about culture and community than shopping itself. It’s driven by the emotional and psychological value of being there with their peers.

Key takeaway

AI is not just streamlining commerce decisions. It is reshaping how trust forms. As consumers turn to AI for research, comparison, and recommendations, they are looking for guidance that feels contextual and unbiased. For many, AI now functions less like a tool and more like a trusted advisor in the buying process.

New channels are emerging, but people still drive decisions.

Hess: From your perspective, what are the three biggest takeaways from the report?

Jackson: Number one, there’s a certain type of consumer I’d call an early adopter who is finding their purchase consideration in answer engines. That’s a very clear emergence from last year to this year, and it’s an appreciable uptick. That should be part of a certain type of brand strategy, but you have to determine if that’s right for you.

When you look at where people spend their time as part of purchase consideration, ChatGPT is nearly on par with TikTok usage. In fact, 31% of our audience said they use ChatGPT as part of purchase research, and 37% said TikTok. If you consider TikTok a valid part of your business strategy and utilize influencers, ChatGPT is now nearly equal in some consumers’ minds as part of purchase consideration. I never would have thought that would emerge from 2024 to 2025 in such a big leap forward.

Outpacing that, Instagram and WhatsApp are both at 47%. That tells us messaging and word of mouth are still a huge part of purchase consideration, and human relationships are still wildly important.

That’s the third takeaway for me. While 13% of our study says they trust AI more than people, creators still play a huge role in brand strategy. People are looking for inspiration in entertainment channels. In fact, 68% of folks are going to YouTube for part of their purchase research. When you look at this study, it really validates that humans are still very much in the mix. There are emergent channels and early adopter behaviors, and we need to consider what answer engines are going to mean for brands.

Esposito: One data point I would call out is TikTok Shop. We found that 21% of all respondents said they’ve used it, but when you look specifically at Gen Z, that number jumps to 44%. There are trend patterns across the board, but when you dig deeper into who you’re trying to reach, you get much more clarity.

We’ve talked a lot about external channels, but it’s also important to understand the role your branded ecommerce site plays in all of this. We’re having conversations about what the ecommerce website experience should look like, knowing that so many consumers are going to ChatGPT for inspiration and product comparison. For me, that comes down to experience and storytelling.

In fact, 58% of consumers say it bothers them when a brand they love has a poor website experience. The fundamentals of what makes your brand experience great online still matter, and they need to remain intact.

Key takeaway

New channels and technologies are reshaping how people discover and evaluate products, but human influence and brand experience still matter. As early adopters explore answer engines and social commerce, brands need to balance experimentation with focus:

• Pay attention to emerging behaviors without chasing every channel.

• Ground strategy in a clear understanding of your audience.

• Invest in strong brand experiences wherever customers engage.

The final word

Commerce is no longer confined to a store, a site, or a single moment of intent. It lives in culture, conversations, and context. 

As this episode of Keeping Commerce Weird shows, brands that succeed next will be the ones that understand how people actually discover, decide, and connect today — across generations, channels, and technologies.

If you want to hear the full conversation and dig deeper into these ideas, watch “From Boomers to Zoomers: Our Culture is Commerce” on YouTube or listen on Spotify.