Virtually any publisher can benefit from shoppable content because it’s a way to keep consumers on their sites instead of forcing them to go elsewhere to buy, according to Jill Finger Gibson, principal analyst with Digital Clarity Group.

As further evidence that shoppable content is increasingly on the minds of content providers today, consider that many publishers-including BuzzFeed, Business Insider, and Gawker-are employing ecommerce editors and specialists to produce content that can be more easily monetized. It’s been reported that Gawker actually derives one-third of its revenue from commerce-driven and native ad sales.

Gibson cautions, however, that the modern era of shoppable content for most publishers is still in its early days. “It is still more of an aspiration than a reality,” she says. “Publishers still tend to think of the content first, investing in beautiful, rich media sites and apps and only then think of the shopping component. But it is all a single experience from the point of view of the consumer, and publishers need to look at it that way.”

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