Dive Brief:
- Fashion publisher PopSugar is adding a commerce element to its new PopSugar Shop article format as reported by Digiday.
- Articles in the new format include a pop up circle in the lower left corner of the webpage that takes readers to products related to those featured in the article such as products from the same brand or a search for new items.
- PopSugar’s 100 content creators are able to create commerce posts and the publisher has four staffers dedicated to creating posts in the new format that PopSugar founder and CEO Brian Sugar called a “complete reimagination of content and commerce.”
Dive Insight:
The content format is the latest example of a publisher looking for ways to add an e-commerce element to online content as they struggle to find ways to monetize digital content. On the surface, the strategy makes sense as online browsers look to seamlessly move from reading content about an item of interest to buying it.
The challenge for PopSugar will be in maintaining a balance between valuable content and coming across as a souped up e-commerce site, which could limit the audience. However, since the publisher has embraced a combination of commerce and editorial content with shoppable posts dating back to 2006, it readers are likely to embrace the new format.
For marketers, the format seems like a no-brainer as it takes advantage of the trend toward native, less intrusive experiences. In a way the format seems like something of a hybrid of a sponsored post and more traditional ad unit since the commerce element is separate from the actual article, but is also directly related to the content.
After a first week of testing the new format drove 87% more clicks to retailers websites than other commerce-focused articles, and right now the PopSugar Shop articles make up around 5% of the publisher’s daily content. Along with the new articles, 20,000 archived commerce posts were converted to the new format.
