Save the dream: May the 4th quotes for navigating our present galaxy
A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, a group of rebel warriors upon Rogue One sacrificed all for the greater good. We need more of them today, in real-life.
Founded in 2013, The Future of Commerce has grown from an idea about how people would make business decisions to an industry leader when it comes to content that drives conversions, thought leadership, and humanizing this thing called work.
The year it debuted, there were about 100,000 views. In 2021, it surpassed one million views – a testament to the strategic core that includes evergreen, informational, always-on content. Pretty impressive for a site that’s never had any paid spend behind it:
The above pie chart details our audience acquisition from 2015-2023:
- 63% of our visitors come from organic search
- 32% of our views come from return visitors
- About 3.5% of folks come from other sites linking to us
- Roughly 2% come from organic social
For anyone still believing we should leave our personal lives “at the door” when we enter work, about half of our devotees hit “subscribe” on the content that keeps it real, so to say.
Some of my favorite examples of this kind of content include:
- Zoned out: What workers really do in meetings by the f-ing amazing Marcia Savage, which delves into not only the stats around the multi-tasking going on, but also the psychological factors playing into it.
- Quiet quitting, acting your wage, and the TikTok of it all by someone who is insanely talented and always reminds me of sunshine, Emily Morrow.
- Break the cycle of professional burnout: Meet the Chief Wellbeing Officer by Joey Price, which discusses the brilliant idea by Jen Fisher to initiate the role of an executive meant to really help employees around mental health.
- Google “pay me like a white man” and click on the first actual content you see, not the merch. That post by the miracle who is Tracey Wallace resonates for a reason, skipping the sugarcoating of celebrating a day about equality and focusing instead on the brutal realities of inequity – and what we can do about it.
- Difficult women: Exhausted by bias, a revolution rises by the phenom Cali Green shattered the ceiling when it comes to raw, real, content about the bias that women – especially women of color – face in the working world.
An evolution of awesomeness: A picture’s worth a thousand words style
When the site was founded, a basic theme was deployed with it. Over the years, we’ve created our own style – literally – thanks to our developer, Aaron Graham, who takes the ideas pitched at him and knocks them out of the park every single time.
An homage to the roots from which the site was grown, the custom theme is named after hybris, which was acquired by SAP in late 2013.
How much does the UX and look of a site matter? Quite a bit, actually, as you can see for yourself via the following images.
The Future of Commerce, February 14, 2013:
Time to level-up: The Future of Commerce in 2015:
I’m bored; let’s change things around a bit: The Future of Commerce, 2016:
Fun fact: removing the dates from the articles and dedicating time to continually re-optimize content grew engagement by 25% in 2019:
The Dark Side ain’t so bad: The Future of Commerce, 2023:
Opening at the close: Final thoughts on the heart and soul that is The Future of Commerce
The site right was founded for business reasons, but it’s always been a labor of love.
Our goal has always been to be inclusive, authentic, and – of course – drive business results.
We’ve done all that.
We’ve had partners publish on the site, be contacted by big brands, and sell millions of dollars worth of software.
We’ve had strangers email us to thank us for being a place that they can see themselves.
We’ve had freelancers parlay their work with us into their Next Big Act.
Even sales loves us, and we’re in marketing!
These results aren’t miracles or luck – they are the results of very hard work over a decade, a group of believers, the foresightedness of SAP + SAP Customer Experience, and a spirit of constant evolution to push the envelope forward.
Finally, it wouldn’t be in the spirit of the site to close this out without a quote from Star Wars, so I’m picking my favorite one.
“If we can make it to the ground, we’ll take the next chance. And the next. On and on until we win… or the chances are spent.” – Jyn Erso, Rogue One
