Tis the season for sales

The key hits: 

• Retailers are trying to make October the primary shopping period for this holiday season to beat the impact of inflation on shoppers’ wallets.
• Publishers like Gallery Media Group are adjusting the timelines of their affiliate commerce content to accommodate these new shopping events.
• Meanwhile Future is reformatting its product recommendation content after finding its audience is in search of a good deal.

October appears to be the unofficial kickoff to the holiday shopping season this year thanks to several retailers, including Amazon, Walmart and Target, launching multi-day sales events, all of which are taking place during the next two weeks:

• Target Deal Days is running Oct. 6 through Oct. 8
• Wayfair’s 5 Days of Deals is taking place Oct. 7 through Oct. 11
• Walmart’s Deals for Days is running from Oct. 10 through Oct. 13
• Amazon Prime Day (the second one this year) is happening Oct. 11 through Oct. 12
• Best Buy is starting its “Black Friday” discounts on Oct. 19

But for publishers who bank on the affiliate commerce revenue driven by Black Friday and Cyber Monday (what are typically the marquee shopping days for consumers), this means the timeline for holiday-related commerce content has needed to move up as well – or else they run the risk of losing out on thousands of dollars worth of commissions.

Take the first Amazon Prime Day of the year, which took place just three months ago in July. Future sold 347,000 products during the two-day period through its commerce coverage, totaling $26.4 million in total U.S. sales. ​​Hearst’s total Amazon Prime Day sales were up 87% year over year. Meanwhile, Leaf Group’s home and lifestyle publication Hunker experienced an increase of 130% year over year in revenue earned from Prime Day, while its wellness and lifestyle site Well+Good saw its Prime Day revenue increase by 120%.

“These are really important days for our business,” said Ryan Harwood, CEO of Gallery Media Group, which publishes PureWow and One37pm. “These are moments to make spurts of revenue that aren’t necessarily planned for that could definitely change the landscape of Q4 revenue.”

And publishers’ commerce businesses could use any sort of unexpected revenue this year given the slowdown of online shopping and rising inflation, which is making consumers think twice about their spending habits.

As such, Future ran an audience survey of 2,676 people in June this year to figure out exactly how early its readers will begin holiday shopping this year to both inform content strategy as well as advertising strategy in the fourth quarter. The research found that inflation has caused consumers to look for more deals than in …read more

Source:: Digiday

Author: Aaron