A few days ago, my American Eagle jeans started ripping. Always in the same area due to patterns of movement I often make. This presents an opportunity for me to purchase a new set of pants from another store, or for American Eagle to send me a coupon to close a sale on me before I branch out of my comfort zone. Why was this moment not capitalized on? This is the future of shopping.

I’ve bought a handful of luxury items in my lifetime. One of them is my Gucci wallet - a purchase I made accompanied by a sales representative. This salesperson got my Whatsapp and has since been sending me updates, chatting with me about how the purchase went, and sending me new items that might interest me. It’s only a matter of time until this experience is democratized across all touchpoints, across all price points.

Something I frequently wonder is whether the future of shopping will be person A tied to their personal companion, or person A tied to a personal companion for each store. It’s very likely the future will be a combination of the two - a person navigating the web with their own companion, but upon entering a store, they will be greeted by the store’s companion. The companion bargaining will commence, and reach an equilibrium that is satisfactory to both parties, presenting you with the optimal option to purchase.

Imagine a product offerd at a $10k contract value sold by an AE. The on-target earnings of the salesperson might be $120k. To break even, this team would need to book 12 contracts per year or one per month. But most sales leaders operate their GTM teams with a 4-5x ratio between sales costs & quota. In this case, this team would need to book $480k or 48 contracts per year - 1 per week. For most products, this is extremely difficult, bordering on impossible. AI-based sales development changes the economics of this calculation. If AI can reduce the overall cost of sales, the minimum viable ACV drops. - Tomasz Tunguz

On a long enough timeline, this cost will drop to zero. Every store will have a sales person.