Digiday+ Research: Fewer publishers seek revenue from selling products — even in this economy | International Association of Digital Marketing Professionals (IADMP)

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Selling products has never been publishers’ bread and butter, but it has at least historically been a piece of their revenue puzzle. It turns out, though, that puzzle piece has been getting significantly smaller over time.

This is according to a Digiday+ Research survey of 112 publisher professionals that found the number of publishers getting revenue from selling products has dropped off over the last two years. And, unlike with affiliate commerce, selling products doesn’t look like it will be a significant area for growth.

Overall, Digiday’s survey found that 46% of publishers get at least a very small portion of their revenue from selling products. But that number has been consistently falling over the last year. Six months ago, 54% of publishers said they got at least some of their revenue from selling products, and a year ago, 60% said this.

Of publishers who do get revenue from selling products, the largest percentage has consistently been those who say they get a very small portion of their revenue from this part of their business — about a quarter of respondents have fallen into this category over the last year. Meanwhile, as of the first quarter of this year, only 8% of publishers said they get a large or very large portion of their revenue from selling products.

And even under very uncertain economic circumstances, publishers don’t appear to have a plan to change this in the coming months. In fact, Digiday’s survey found that far fewer publishers said they plan to put any focus on this part of their business than just six months ago.

Just as with publishers who make money from selling products, the percentage of publishers who plan to put at least a very small focus on this part of their business has been falling for the last year, with a big drop-off occurring in the last six months. As of Q1 of this year, 46% of publisher pros told Digiday they will put at least some focus on selling products in the next six months. In Q3 of last year, that percentage was a full two-thirds (66%), and a year ago it was 70%.

The percentage of publishers who put a very small focus on selling products has remained consistent over the last two years at about 20%, but the percentage of those who put a small focus on selling products fell from 19% in Q3 2022 to just 7% in Q1 2023.

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Digiday’s survey found that the majority of large publishers (or those who made more than $50 million in revenue last year) do make at least a very small portion …read more

Source:: Digiday