The flex commerce era 💪

What new ways of showing off mean for the consumer market

Flex commerce \ˈfleks \ ˈkä-(ˌ)mərs is demonstration of one’s taste, wokeness and cultural savvy through their spending.

Flex commerce is like having a giant dog in NYC. It’s a flex that one has an apartment big enough for a mastiff.

The purpose of flex commerce is to establish one’s status as distinct and superior to others. Unlike other forms of commerce, it’s unrelated to the cost of goods and services, but to their intangible, symbolic value. In flex commerce, price is secondary. Primary are the cultural, social and environmental capital that a good or service carries.

Flex commerce isn’t new, but has recently become more intriguing thanks to our inability to show off through the latest season clothing or travel. Few want to risk taking a selfie in the full luxury designer garb without looking like someone who didn’t get the “sweatpants attire mandatory” memo. There’s nothing to see and no party to be at (well, almost). Travel pictures are mostly reserved for the throwback genre.

Instead of fancy clothing and fancy destinations, there are Spotify #2020wrapped to show off one’s taste, along with bookcases, vinyl collections, nature walks, plant colonies, cooking adventures, workouts, home improvement projects, podcasts, newsletters, Instagram gift guides. Influencers are flexing their H&M, Zara and COS treasure-hunting skills.

The new flex commerce is simultaneously a power move and a process of self-actualization. It shows off our taste and it further develops it. A plant colony needs to be nurtured and loved as much as it needs to be Instagrammed. The new flex commerce is for those who seek (and can afford) to invest their time in accumulating knowledge, refining their skills and eye, curating their lifestyle, doing the research and developing consumption rituals and taste regimes.

The primary activity of flex commerce is not buying, but collecting.

Brands that transform their current commerce approach into flex commerce are better positioned to win in the modern economy. Investment in flex commerce requires internal business reorganization, from suppliers and distributors a company works with (they’d have to be sustainable, socially…