This week, we’ll see how digital media pros are taking a cue from their colleagues over in digital commerce to expand audience reach and revenue. Recent examples include Brit + Co’s recent pop-up shop and People’s new reader rewards program. Plus, the holidays are here, and we don’t mean Halloween: 60 percent of mobile shoppers have already started their holiday shopping.

Brit + Co Popped-Up in Soho for One Week This Fall

For one week this October, DIY publisher Brit + Co opened a brick-and-mortar location to draw in consumers and familiarize them with the brand. Through hands-on creative activities, fitness classes, family-friendly brunches and evening speakers, the space sought to “inspire, connect, and educate all who enter it,” as described in Downtown Magazine. This breadth of activity is meant to reflect the media company’s brand message of empowering “women to be their best selves.”

Communications consultant Andrea Wasserman, who experienced the pop-up firsthand, described the “immersive” event as the “intersection of consumerism and community near its best…made possible by media and product discovery coming together as a common experience.” Brit + Co’s success shows that the benefits of pop-ups and brick-and-mortar locations to expand a brand’s reach are not limited to ecommerce.

People Offers Reader Rewards Program

Loyalty programs that come at a price, similar to Amazon Prime, are seeping into the publishing world. People recently announced People Perks, a reader rewards program that looks a lot like a retail loyalty program. For $60 a year, readers get a subscription to People Magazine as well as discounts at Best Buy and TGI Fridays, and opportunities to win tickets to Time Inc. events, reports DigiDay.

Like retail loyalty schemes, Time plans to use subscriber information from Perks to build audience segments and deepen consumer targeting, with the goal of attracting new retailer partners and advertisers.

With the launch of People Perks, readers can expect to see more Time offerings tied to specific brands. “The People Perks business is a platform, in essence…It wouldn’t be hard for us to create [loyalty programs] for different brands,” said Anup Swamy, the senior vice president of consumer product development at Time Inc., speaking to the Wall Street Journal.

What Mobile Shopping Looks Like During the Holidays

Mobile shoppers may be only 17 percent of all consumers, but they account for 21 percent of ecommerce sales, according to a Facebook study examined by RetailDive. This holiday season in particular, it’s worth courting those mobile shoppers. Some 60 percent of them start their holiday gift shopping between October and mid-November, says the study. That compares to only 36 percent of in-store shoppers who get going that early.

Facebook IQ, the group within Facebook that did the study, also says that mobile users typically do their shopping on weekends and holidays. When they do go in-store, mobile users take their phones with them and use their devices to help inform their purchasing decisions. According to a report from Deloitte Consulting, 56 cents of every dollar spent in stores is “influenced” by digital interactions, such as research and price comparisons. As many as 92 percent of shoppers plan to conduct their research online while holiday shopping, reports RetailDive.

Bottom line: Mobile shopping is truly mobile, and can encompass the entire customer journey, from research all the way to conversion.  

(Image Source: Brit + Co)