The Future of Commerce Innovation Lab: Transforming Local Micro-Brands

This story was originally published by DIGIDAY and can be found here. 

As a result of the pandemic, the world of e-commerce suffered a whiplash; now that this segment has reached recovery, Icon Commerce is one of the few taking advantage of the tremendous opportunity at hand. 

The newly rebranded Icon Commerce has created a business incubator, The Future of Commerce Innovation Lab, to help three local companies grow their e-commerce and retail media capabilities. Through Icon's partnerships with Amazon and Shopify, they are bringing potential to these businesses that they would not have access to on their own.

“As fast as commerce and marketing and technology is moving, agencies who don’t move fast and stay with it and continue to look at what’s next to try to stay ahead of that curve will die, said Shawn Murdock, founder and CEO of Icon Commerce. “We made a very intentional and big investment to move in this direction.”

This direction is enhanced by Icon's access to Amazon and Shopify tools, says Brandy Alexander-Wimberly, senior director of strategy at Icon,  "As part of our membership in the Amazon Ads Creative Services Marketplace, we’re given access to emerging data that we are utilizing to develop a new tool that will be available in the Amazon Selling Partner Appstore...We’ve used this tool, which is currently in development, to help these micro-brands with their Amazon store launch creative and advertising targeting.”

From the perspective of these 'micro-brands', the business incubator has already made a world of difference in only its second phase, “Without a streamlined onboarding process, we simply didn’t understand every element that needed to be completed to be successful … Previously I had inventory on Amazon for six months and hardly sold anything. Now we are in phase 2 of the incubator and we have already sold out.” said Sam Pellerito, CEO and founder of CinSoy Foods, one of the three companies involved with The Future of Commerce Innovation Lab. 

As the largest independent marketing agency in the midwest, Icon Commerce uses “You can close a sale today, but what if it’s not good for the brand long term?” added Jason Bender, chief experience officer at Icon Commerce. “You need to be thinking about closing the deal and building the brand all at the same time.” In other words, full funnel wins the day.

To learn more about The Future of Commerce Innovation Lab, click here.