AllYou, the Time Inc. magazine sold at Walmart, is making its tablet edition interactive by enabling readers to easily shop items featured on its editorial, as well as advertising pages.

The monthly magazine focuses on money-saving and time-saving tips and is available at Sam?s Club and via subscription in addition to Walmart. Tablet users can easily see which products are shoppable as well as a list of retailers and sites where the products can be purchased.

?More than most readers, AllYou's subscriber audience thinks of themselves as smart bargain shoppers,? said Scott Cooper, CEO at ShopAdvisor, Maynard, MA. ?And, shopping from the tablet in particular has taken off.

?A recent survey revealed that 79 percent of tablet users age 18-34 make a purchase from the tablet at least once a month, and that the average purchase amount of $123 is actually 20 percent greater than the average purchase from a desktop computer,? he said.

?So, tablet shopping is for real, and AllYou tablet readers are in the sweet spot.?

AllYou worked with ShopAdvisor to make its editorial and advertising content interactive in its tablet edition.

Mobile shopping
Tablet users touch the ?Shop Now? button featured on a page to see which products are shoppable as well as a list of retailers and sites where the product can be purchased, the current price, a chart of the product?s price history and the option to buy.

Purchases can be completed directly from the magazine, without disrupting the natural shopping behavior of mobile shoppers.

If a user is interested in a product but is not ready to buy it, there is an option to ?watch? an item and receive email alerts when the price drops or when there is a special promotion.

?Some women will want to purchase right now, and just one tap will bring them to an online retailer,? Mr. Cooper said.

?Others are not ready to buy right away, so they ask the ShopAdvisor service to ?watch? the product for them and send a reminder later,? he said.

?It's the tablet equivalent of ?dog-earing? the page, with the advantage that the system will definitely remember to send the reminder.?

New revenue streams
Magazine publishers are facing shrinking readership and ad revenue for their traditional print publications.

With a growing number of consumers engaging with tablets for their content consumption needs, numerous publishers have come out with tablet editions of their print publications.

Making this digital content shoppable is one of the ways that publishers are looking to bring additional value to a tablet edition so that readers are willing to pay a premium for tablet subscriptions.

The affiliate revenues earned from commerce also represents a new revenue stream for publishers.

The strategy also helps publishers support their digital advertising strategies.

?When publishers enable advertisers to include shopability to their ads, the impact of the brand ad is multiplied,? Mr. Cooper said

?Even when readers don't go all the way through to a purchase, the deep engagement has a positive impact on brand awareness and purchase consideration,? He said.

?In this light, commerce ? especially for brand advertising ? includes the overall customer journey through the sales process and not just transactions. And the majority of magazine advertising is brand advertising, so this expanded understanding of commerce is a good fit for both.?

Final Take
Chantal Tode is associate editor on Mobile Commerce Daily, New York